Without Citizen Participation, There’s No Success : The district is diverse and suffers from all the major problems. But citizen panels help me keep an eye on things.

The 6th City Council District is a near-perfect microcosm of Los Angeles. From upscale seaside enclaves to inner-city neighborhoods to suburban bedroom communities, it is all right here. And while that makes it the most interesting district in the city, it also afflicts it with all of the city’s problems.

Overdevelopment, crime and economic development are all major problems here. I was fully aware of this diversity when I campaigned for the council seat in 1987, and I promised to use this office to help solve these problems.

Here are some examples of how I have approached these citywide problems on a local level.

Almost everyone agrees that overdevelopment must be controlled, but controlling it requires constant vigilance by citizens and government leaders. To help me keep an eye on things, I have appointed four citizen planning panels that review every significant project in the district. Developers now understand that in the 6th District, they must deal with the community.

When I took office in 1987, that wasn’t the case. The Summa Corp.’s Playa Vista bulldozer was ready to rip up the Ballona Wetlands. My first job was to step in front of it and bring that to a halt. Through a successful legislative maneuver, I required Summa to provide information on the exact location of each building in Playa Vista. Summa was either unprepared or unwilling to do that, so the bulldozer came to a screeching halt.

Like the rest of Los Angeles, crime is a problem throughout the 6th District. Fighting crime takes a concerted effort between residents and the police.

For instance, the residents of Playa del Rey have been under siege by gangs and criminals who hang out in the parks and parking lots there. Crime was increasing, gang-related shootings were occurring with greater frequency, and last year there was a series of brutal rapes on the beach.

Last November, I organized an anti-crime strategy meeting with residents, police and city and county agencies. We created an innovative program using parking restrictions, Neighborhood Watch techniques and special police patrols. If there’s no place to park, our theory goes, there’s no place to party. The residents of Playa del Rey, the police and I are hopeful that this will be the most orderly summer in years.

If overdevelopment is a problem on the Westside, the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw community has the opposite problem. There, I have worked with community leaders to create economic opportunities and jobs. The potential redevelopment of Santa Barbara Plaza is a prime example.

Several years ago, a number of businesses were dislocated during the Community Redevelopment Agency’s rebuilding of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, across the street from Santa Barbara Plaza. Business and community leaders from the area want to make sure that what happened at the shopping center doesn’t happen at Santa Barbara Plaza. Together, we have developed a set of principles that give priority to minority-business development, minority-investment opportunity and minority employment. Using these principles, the CRA is finishing a feasibility study that will guide us through the redevelopment process.

If there is a central ingredient to all of this, it is citizen participation. Without citizen participation, there is no success; with citizen participation, we make better decisions.

In four years, I’ve brought thousands of people into the governmental process and created a powerful constituency for change in a system that has not had a lot of successes lately.

Over the next four years, I will continue to expand citizen participation, because government of the people, by the people and for the people must first be government with the people.

LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 6

AT A GLANCE Population 1990: 210,466 Racial / ethnic mix White (non-Latino): 44% Latino: 21% Asian: 7% Black: 32% Annual income Median household: $27,638 Household distribution Less than $15,000: 27.8% $15,000 - $24,999: 21.0% $25,000 - $34,999: 16.7% $35,000 - $49,999: 15.6% $50,000 - $74,999: 12.3% $75,000 - $99,999: 3.2% $100,000 +: 3.5% SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau, City of Los Angeles Community Development Department and Times statistical analysis by Maureen Lyons