It’s Time for Lindsay to Step Down : It’s Painful to Say It, but It Must Now Be Said

It’s painful to watch a once-vigorous person become debilitated. Some had that feeling recently while watching the videotaped Iran-Contra trial testimony of former President Ronald Reagan. Anyone who saw that video of Reagan testifying about all he couldn’t remember had to be relieved he was no longer the Chief Executive. Many Angelenos have that same uneasy feeling now in watching 89-year-old City Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, increasingly weak and befuddled as the result of a 1988 stroke. It’s time to stop turning away and shaking our heads at the councilman’s many lapses and admit that it’s time for Lindsay to step down.

Gilbert Lindsay, the first black person to serve on the City Council, has represented what he affectionately calls the “Great 9th District,” which includes the Central City, since 1963. Under his leadership, an atrophying downtown was invigorated; businesses once eager to abandon the Civic Center instead remained and thrived; new business and economic strength followed.

But south of the gleaming downtown high-rises, the “Great 9th” is anything but. It is the poorest section of the city, largely populated by Latino immigrants and elderly blacks. It has become a place people move away from. Younger blacks go back to that part of the 9th District only to visit Grandma. The first chance they get, young Latino immigrants move west, move east, move out.

Tremendous social and economic changes far beyond Lindsay’s control have transformed the district in the last 20 years. That is all the more reason the district needs energetic, engaged leadership. Council staff can provide many day-to-day constituent services. But only a council member can vote and influence how the city’s leadership will deal with problems of development, growth and crime. The 9th District--heavily developed and growing downtown, all but abandoned by business and under siege by crime in the south--is without an advocate. Some days, Lindsay is fine. Other days, he’s in a state of obvious confusion.

Although many have been hesitant to speak about Lindsay’s predicament publicly, some local African American leaders have courageously stepped forward to start talking about it. They hope to persuade the councilman that he does himself and his constituents a disservice by staying on in a job that requires more than he is now capable of giving. There should be no shame in admitting that. It is up to his family, friends and colleagues to point out to Lindsay that he may still have a civic role to play but not in the council.

For 27 years, the “Emperor” of the 9th District--a moniker first bestowed on him by Chinatown supporters--has thrived in the limelight of public office. Thus, there is a show business adage we sincerely hope he heeds: Leave them while they’re still clapping.