What the Constituents Really Want

This week, I had a moment of great political enlightenment, thanks to the members of the Ivar Hill Community Assn.

I’d been invited to speak at a meeting of the organization, composed of residents, property owners and merchants who co-exist in a neighborhood just north of the famous but tattered intersection of Hollywood and Vine.

My mind was full of City Hall’s important issues--the Rodney G. King beating, Chief Daryl F. Gates, Mayor Tom Bradley’s past and future. I figured the audience wanted my special insights into what’s really happening downtown.

Not at all. No one mentioned the Rodney King beating. But they did talk about the cops: Why don’t the police stop drug dealers from operating openly on street corners and in front of a nearby market? Why do husky motorcycle cops nail jaywalkers instead of crack peddlers and robbers? Why do the meter attendants give parking tickets the moment the meters run out? They were just as interested in why the Scientology people take all the parking places and why the city doesn’t build parking structures.

In short, nobody asked a single question I could answer. One man was so dissatisfied with what I had to say that he walked out in the middle of my presentation. I left the meeting exasperated at what I felt were the small concerns of the Ivar Hill association--and at my inability to deal with them.

As I drove home, I realized that this must be what it’s like for a City Council member. If they aren’t fielding constituents’ questions about parking, street cleaning and the corner drug dealers, council members might as well look for a new career.

You find all those problems around Ivar Hill, the short stretch of Ivar Street that climbs up to Franklin Avenue from Yucca Street. Poor immigrants live in old apartments, and worry most about crack dealers and the high cost of living. And it’s true, you can’t find a parking place, except in a rare lot.

But there’s more to Ivar Hill. Hopes of a Hollywood revival can be found at the nearby playhouses, the Doolittle, the Pantages and the Henry Fonda, and in movie theaters and restaurants.

The Ivar Hill association was formed a few years ago, a time when the neighborhood was on a fast downhill slide. Drug dealers controlled the sidewalks. “I had threats on my life,” said Robert Abrahamian, whose family has owned Joseph’s restaurant for 15 years. “I’ve thrown them out of the restaurant.”

The residents began a neighborhood watch organization, the Ivar Hawks, who confronted the dealers, sometimes holding them until the police arrived. “The Ivar Hawks helped a lot,” said Yeshi Beyene, who runs Greens and Things, a soul food restaurant.

But the association members believe there’s more work to be done, and they want to know how to force City Hall to help them.

At the meeting, President Joe Shea and the other association members didn’t get a crack at Hollywood’s councilman, Mike Woo. But they did question an aide, Diana Brueggemann.

Brueggemann listened carefully. She proposed that the association set up its own parking and traffic committee, and come up with a proposal for Councilman Woo. She invited follow-up telephone calls on many issues, and then she rushed off to another meeting.

This is called pothole politics. Councilman Nate Holden learned pothole politics while an aide to the master of constituent services, county Supervisor Kenny Hahn.

Taught never to leave a pothole unfilled or a park lawn unmowed, Holden was enraged when, after joining the council, he found a large park in his district a shambles.

When Holden asked the Recreation and Parks department to fix it, the bureaucrats put the rookie councilman’s request at the bottom of the pile. Obviously, they’d never been exposed to the famous, out-of-control Holden temper. He drove to the park, began yelling on his car phone and demanded that the parks boss get there--immediately. Soon, new lawn was being planted, irrigation pipes laid and bathrooms refurbished.

These are the sort of issues that might swing council races on the June 4 Los Angeles city ballot.

Councilman Hal Bernson is hoping his years of providing small services to the northwest San Fernando Valley will save him from Julie Korenstein’s challenge. Ruth Galanter’s ability to beat Mary Gray will depend on how she’s taken care of homeowners from Crenshaw to the airport. The need for clean streets and alleys provides much of the political dialogue in the two South Los Angeles races for seats vacated by the death of Gilbert Lindsay and the retirement of Bob Farrell.

What I learned at the Ivar Hill Community Assn. meeting is a lesson that smart council members have always known: Saving the world is wonderful, but what constituents really want is a good parking place.