Bradley Makes 10-Stop Tour to Spotlight Programs : Politics: In his first visit to the Valley in 17 months, the mayor avoided the land-use hot spots like Fryman Canyon or Porter Ranch.

By 2:56 p.m., Mayor Tom Bradley had dispensed 25 certificates and one plaque, made an unscheduled stop for a cooling yogurt, worn a hard hat, seen Aleisha Powell, 15, perform daredevil acrobatics and been photographed by his press deputy 104 times during his tour Tuesday of the San Fernando Valley.

So it went on the mayor’s first full-day tour of the Valley since March 15, 1989, when the mayor was campaigning for a fifth term.

These tours are called “area days” by the mayor. Their goal is to give visibility to some programs the mayor feels are worthwhile and, most important, to “establish communication.”

“People like to feel that their elected officials are accessible and they want to say, ‘I saw the mayor, I got photographed with the mayor,’ ” Bradley told a reporter.

Asked why his itinerary included none of the Valley’s land-use hot spots--like Porter Ranch or Fryman Canyon, where large, controversial developments are planned, or the unpopular landfill sites at Lopez and Sunshine canyons--the mayor replied:

“We’re covering everything you can do in one day. Nothing has been left out deliberately.”

At his first stop, Bradley shook hands with workers at MEND (Meet Each Need With Dignity) as they boxed food to be dispensed to the Pacoima social service agency’s low-income clientele, four dozen of whom were patiently lined up outside by 9 a.m. for the free groceries.

To Pacoima community activists, Bradley broadly praised MEND for its programs and heard pleas for more financial aid. A field trip program for barrio youths was hurting because fewer city buses were available this fiscal year than last, the mayor was told.

Blaming the budget crunch, Bradley said he would look into alternative revenue sources for the buses. “Make a note of it,” the mayor said to his Valley liaison, Richard Alarcon, who was already jotting down a reminder to himself.

By mid-morning, the peripatetic mayor had interrupted a bingo game at the Wilkinson Senior Center in Northridge to hand out a plaque and assure the 150 users that their center would provide the same sort of services even if it is put under the jurisdiction of the city’s Department of Aging, as is being studied. The center is now run by the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks.

But news of bureaucratic jurisdictional squabbles in faraway City Hall did not appear to faze the bingo players.

At 11 a.m. Bradley was accepting an oversize mock-up of the check for $5,000 being donated by Kaiser Permanente to build a new interview room for the Abused Child Unit at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Bureau in Van Nuys.

The room where abused children are interviewed by police is closet-sized and separated from the detectives’ desks by a partition with no door. A bigger interview room is needed to provide privacy and put the children at ease at a traumatic time in their lives, said Detective Wayne Wealer, head of the unit.

By 2 p.m., Bradley had dined on breast of chicken at Pioneer House, the Valley’s only AIDS hospice; visited a city-funded mural in Sepulveda; toured the old Van Nuys Post Office, soon to become a shelter for teen-age prostitutes; and was on his way to watch the Canoga Park High School’s drill team perform before a crowd of elementary-age children benefiting from an after-school care program he had devised.

Had he seen anything new on his 10-stop, whirlwind tour? “No,” Bradley said as he ordered a chocolate yogurt at the Donut Stop in a mini-mall at the San Diego Freeway and Nordhoff Street. It was an unscheduled stop.

“There’s something universal,” he said. “Go to any community. Be it the north Valley or Pacoima. You’ll find a common thread.”

The mayor pushed a $20 bill across the counter to pay for the yogurt and soft drinks for his bodyguard, press secretary and Alarcon.

Owner Cesar Quezada wouldn’t touch the money. “It’s a pleasure for us to have you here,” Quezada said.

Just before his patrons piled into Bradley’s black Lincoln Town Car, Quezada got his reward: a photo of himself with the mayor.