Pasadena’s Mayor Urges Aid for Youths in State of City Talk

Mayor William Thomson Jr., focusing on the city’s urban poor in the annual State of the City speech, suggested a “rethinking and a restructuring” of city programs to aid youths living in north central and northwest Pasadena.

Addressing an audience of about 200 at the Pasadena Center, Thomson asked for an expansion of the Police Department youth adviser program, improvements in the quality of after-school programs, the hiring of a chil dren’s program coordinator and creation of a trust fund to provide money to keep at-risk youths in school.

“If the United States as a whole does not solve the continuing unemployment, illiteracy, frustration and hopelessness which exists in our central cities, I see little hope for controlling, much less eliminating, the problems that plague us,” Thomson said.

Elected in 1981, Thomson was chosen by the Board of Directors to serve as mayor two years in a row. He turns over the gavel to Director Jess Hughston in May.

On Tuesday, he summarized accomplishments during his mayoral stint, such as the opening of the Doubletree Hotel and the One Colorado shopping center groundbreaking. Then he turned to changes in city programs that would aid youths.

He emphasized that the changes would have little cost to the city, which is struggling to bridge a $5-million gap between estimated revenues and proposed spending for next year.

Thomson said the job of children’s program coordinator, such as in Long Beach, could be budgeted for as little as $30,000 a year.

The coordinator would “not have to reinvent the wheel,” he said, but could model Pasadena’s programs after a youth trust program in Minneapolis with two components. The first component, a buddy system, puts volunteers to work as friends, mentors, tutors or recreational leaders. The second, a job connection program, provides internships and job referrals.

Pasadena could staff the new programs with the volunteer labor of hundreds of seniors, Thomson said, adding that the heads of the city’s Senior Commission and Commission on Children and Youth support the idea.

Meanwhile, the trust fund could begin with a city donation of $25,000 yearly to be matched by contributions from the school district and private businesses, he said.

“It’s not the total answer but it’s a beginning,” he said of the trust fund.

The emphasis on the future of the city’s children and youth comes not only from his interest in children, Thomson said, but also from a report issued last year by the Commission on Children and Youth that brought directors “face to face with certain realities.”

Citing the report, Thomson said that more than 55% of the city’s population under 17 lives in eight census tracts in the northwest and center of the city, an area with the weakest economy and lowest household and per-capita income.

Of the 9,000 children from that area attending public schools, 44% qualify for subsidized lunches and 5,500 are in families supported by county funds from Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Thomson said.

He also said that the school dropout rate in Pasadena exceeds 28% and that 11% of the children born in Huntington Memorial Hospital have mothers addicted to drugs.

“I would hope that the point is well made that we need creative action to address a problem of crisis proportions,” Thomson said.

The city’s response in the past has been primarily from law enforcement, he said, such as the city’s 20 Police Department youth advisers who counsel their peers.

The city is also taking other enforcement measures such as an existing moratorium on convenience stores that sell alcohol and the instituting of alcohol-free games at the Rose Bowl during this fall’s UCLA season.

But Thomson added that “law enforcement can’t provide jobs, education or hope where there is none.”

For this reason, he stressed that the fight against drugs is a spiritual issue that the city’s churches and synagogues will emphasize this weekend. He also said planning is under way for a weeklong program in the fall that will “publicly address the spiritual issues that contribute to the drug problems of this community and our nation.”