Yearning for Safe Streets and Secure...

The current rage of “real-life dramas” like “911,” “Most Wanted” and “COPS” indicates America’s infatuation with the drama of life-and-death emergencies and attraction to an adrenaline-pumping close brush with violence.

The people in South-Central Los Angeles don’t have to watch these “real-life re-creations” to get their adrenaline pumping: We live in the midst of violence and crime. Fear is a constant companion. Violent death is a frequent visitor.

I guarantee you that a TV series about “real life” in South-Central Los Angeles, where the “good guys” are losing the war, would not be a hit. After all, who wants to watch senior citizens afraid to venture out of their homes; teen-agers with little positive structure and lots of idle, unsupervised time; drug pushers selling their products, and drug addicts wandering, wasted, along sidewalks.

Neighborhoods boasting trash-filled alleys, dirty streets so riddled with potholes that drivers slow to protect their cars, and graffiti on almost every available surface are not entertaining enough for prime time.

The scene I have just set, while accurate, is also incomplete.

Here’s the other part of the picture: Most of our nearly quarter-million residents are African-American or Latino, but there are also Caucasians, Asians and American Indians. The typical resident works for a living (is not on welfare) and lives above the poverty line in a single-family residence.

On the whole, although perhaps more of a cultural and ethnic mix, this is a community much like any. And the people here are very much like most people in what we want out of life: safe streets, a modicum of comfort, the best possible future for our kids.

But here’s where the divergence comes into play: In my community, wanting those goals is almost like hoping against hope. How would you feel if you lived here for the past 17 years, watching crime and violence climb while:

--Your requests for basic city services (regular street sweeping, alley cleaning, street repair, abandoned auto pickup and tree trimming) seemed to fall, continually, into some bureaucratic abyss.

--Your councilman, even while chairing the pertinent Grants, Housing and Community Development Committee, allowed the loss of $20 million to $30 million in job-training funds.

--Your mayor gradually and inexorably demonstrated priorities that included economic growth, corporate relationships, transportation and tourism but excluded addressing the grisly needs of your part of the city.

My agenda is simple. My priorities are clear. I’m a South-Central Los Angeles “homeboy” who believes thoroughly in the political process, and I will use that process for real change.

I’ve worked in the city’s bureaucracy (in the Planning, Personnel and Public Works departments, in the City Council, state government and at the Southern California Assn. of Governments. I know the noisy wheel gets the grease, and I can be very loud.

I will be boisterous in my insistence that we get at least our fair share of city services.

I believe in block clubs and I will work closely with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles) to establish a city-financed block-club structure (a concept that Waters brought to the City Council last year, and to which council members turned a deaf ear).

I will not sit back and tolerate racism among those who are “public servants.” And in the face of a public crisis, I will not hide in indecision, norwill I choose that time to go abroad to assure potential tourists that things in Los Angeles are just fine.

And I will never send millions of job-training dollars back to the state simply because I wasn’t creative enough, or willing to work hard enough, to develop appropriate programs.

The work that needs to be done in South-Central Los Angeles requires political and community leadership willing to roll up their sleeves. It cannot be done at the “corporate level.”

Real change will begin only when we take the responsibility into our own hands and vote, on June 4, to reject the continuation of the old, dubious leadership and adopt new partnerships of true grass-roots political leadership.

Los Angeles City Council District 8 At A Glance Population: 231,999 Racial / ethnic mix White (non-Latino): 4,54% Latino: 41.12% Asian: 5.12% Other: 0.61% Black: 48.61% Annual Income Median household: $15, 794 Household distribution Less than $15,000: 49.4% $15,000-$24,999: 21.8% $25,000-$34,999: 13.2% $35,000-$49,999: 9.8% $50,000-$74,999: 4.8% $75,000-$99,999: 0.5% $100,000+: 0.5%