PERSPECTIVE ON LOS ANGELES : Rescue Plan for a City at Risk : Despair, division will grow until the ‘haves’ take into partnership the ‘have-nots’--including workers with no future.

In the future, the aftermath of the Rodney King incident may be seen as a time when Los Angeles opened up not only to the world, but to itself. The incident divided the city, or more accurately, brought into the open the huge divisions already existing. The divisions are not merely racial; they also run between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”

The have-nots are not only the penniless and destitute; this category also embraces the broad class of “working poor” of all races, people who permanently teeter on the brink of true, hopeless poverty, without having the education and economic opportunities necessary to pull themselves higher. For them, Police Chief Daryl Gates has become a symbol of despair, just as he is a symbol of protection for the haves.

Although some populists blamed racism for the King incident, cooler heads saw the immediate problem as that of an efficient, paramilitary police department suffering from a breakdown in discipline at the street level. The level of racism among the police is no more or less than among the general population. However, for a police officer to “take it to work” is not tolerable.

Realistically, most members of any ethnic group have a certain prejudice in favor of “their own,” which is acceptable as long as they are fair to others. However, as neighborhoods change, and as the number of jobs per unit of population dwindles in Los Angeles, we see a new increase in racial friction. One example is the ongoing fight between African-Americans and Latinos for jobs at Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center. On schoolyards and street corners, Latina girls complain about harassment from African-American girls, and vice-versa. Racism in Los Angeles is a much more complicated issue than the simplistic perception of white San Fernando Valley residents turning up their noses at minorities and supporting Chief Gates.

The solution to the problems in our city is nothing so simple, or so difficult, as purging the Police Department of racism. Even after a round of reforms, the principal mission of a kinder, gentler LAPD will remain the protection of law-abiding citizens from crime, not the provision of better medical care, nutrition and education for the have-nots. That is a job for the whole society.

The despair of the have-nots is based on reality. A high school dropout often has little to look forward to other than the short-term “benefits” of drug abuse and other crimes. With so little opportunity, his or her despair is overwhelming. The chance of upward mobility has lessened as the two halves of our economy have pulled away from each other. In the 1970s and ‘80s, the number of male workers with full-time jobs, earning $20,000 to $40,000 per year, fell drastically in Los Angeles County, while the under-$20,000 and over-$40,000 brackets grew. High-paying blue-collar jobs (in aerospace and automobile factories, for example) are vanishing, and new manufacturers are not moving in.

Environmental regulations, high taxes, anti-business bureaucrats and housing costs scare or drive manufacturers away. Low-paying hourly rate service jobs are left in the wake.

As we approach and pass the year 2000, blue-collar jobs will feature less assembly-line labor. Rather, factory workers will be responsible for programming and operating highly computerized machinery. On the other hand, many of the so-called high-tech jobs of the future are often not really high-tech. Tasks such as data input, although certainly involving computers, can be done just as efficiently in low-wage areas. Bank of America is just one of several major California employers that have been transferring their data-processing operations to rural areas or out of state--further evidence that we must concentrate our efforts on improving the general climate for business, as well as in education.

What positive factors can Los Angeles point to? We have the world’s wealthiest, brightest and most entrepreneurial urban population. Small businesses, particularly those doing business in the Pacific Rim, will proliferate here. More and more wealthy foreigners will move here. The city will become a greater and greater financial center for the United States and Asian countries, surpassing New York. This is still the best country in the world to live in. Los Angeles’ climate and living conditions surpass those of any other major American city. Real-estate values will remain high. There will be ample money-making opportunities for the well-educated.

However, what we are doing is creating more opportunities for the “haves.” There are few meaningful roles for today’s have-nots in the future of Los Angeles. In the minds of many, a have-not is a failure unless he or she can enter the world of the haves--doctors, lawyers and the like. But such success stories are rare and likely to remain so.

The solution for the problems of the have-nots is to give them a role in the broader solution. One crucial change involves spreading the wealth of our society. This should not be done by excessive taxation of the affluent, a quick fix that would eventually destroy L.A.’s economy. It should be done in the context of the free market by valuing the jobs available to the have-nots more highly, and by educating and training them to get and keep jobs. It should not shock us, for example, if a garbage collector makes $36,000 a year; this is a necessary service and a difficult job. We should view teachers, police officers, firefighters, paraprofessionals and service workers of all kinds with greater respect, compensating them in keeping with their vital roles in society. The same is true for many other jobs with even lower prestige and lower pay. If we want to improve the lot of the have-nots, and make honest work more appealing, we must stop paying wages that leave a diligent worker below the poverty line at the end of the month.

On the other hand, doctors, lawyers and stockbrokers--to name only a few categories--should take less wealth out of society. This trend is already visible, as more and more young people compete for these jobs, driving down average salaries. The phenomenon of someone just out of school making $100,000 a year will soon be considered an ‘80s aberration. Recently I heard a young person say that he did not choose medical school because “there are too many doctors.” This is a strange, and in some way tragic, comment, when we observe the abysmal medical care given the poor--as anyone can see in a five-minute visit to a county hospital.

Our city can boast some of the most talented and powerful people in the world, representing all segments of our community. Our politicians must call on them to help in solving the city’s problems. Many of these people are eager to help. They just don’t know how. Government is a mystery to them. Bureaucrats, fearing political embarrassment, stonewall the few who dare tread on their turf. We must change the atmosphere so that politicians, bureaucrats and business people will feel comfortable calling on each other’s help. The LEARN group (for educational reform) and the Christopher Commission (for Police Department reform) are excellent starts.

Where should we begin?

Obstructions to business: We must tear down the barriers to business. For example, we must change the laws and regulations for building new plants. This includes speeding up the time it takes to get permits, making safety codes more realistic and putting environmental, handicapped access and other regulations in the perspective of the greatest good for the greatest number. Government must become the friend of business (and thus, of job creation).

Housing: We are falling as many as 15,000 housing units per year behind the needs of our population. Have-nots are doubling and tripling occupancy in substandard units. About 30% of the cost of a unit is for permits and other government requirements. Small builders have been put out of the market. City Council members who want to get reelected use their power to veto most new housing in their districts, to gain the support of the “NIMBYs.” Government-subsidized housing typically costs two to three times as much to build as private housing, and even more if exaggerated regulations involving plumbing, electricity, parking spaces, handicapped access, etc. are all taken into account. Numerous agencies must be dealt with. Simply planting a tree along a Los Angeles sidewalk requires the approval of seven or eight different agencies. Housing matters should be centralized in one agency.

The politicians must call on the private sector to assist them in managing political fallout likely to result from an honest effort at solving these problems.

Education: More than 40% of students who start kindergarten in Los Angeles do not graduate from high school. Of those who graduate, less than half can read or write above the eighth-grade level. Bureaucracy on top of bureaucracy has destroyed the ability of most teachers to do their job to the best of their abilities. Our educational system discourages Latino and other children from becoming fluent in English (the “cash language”) at an early age.

Sacramento, which prescribes the curriculum for public schools, has virtually eliminated vocational education by mandating academic courses that are useless to many students. The operators of the computerized machinery of tomorrow’s factories need practical, hands-on training today. In fact, this training is vital for all students, even those who are college-bound. New generations of technologically advanced devices will permeate our work and personal lives at all levels, beginning in the near future. To avoid being left behind by progress, every student will need the literacy and computer familiarity to understand and use newly developed, increasing sophisticated products.

In the face of unparalleled population growth, Los Angeles is building only one or two of the 15 new schools a year that it needs to keep up with the increase. It takes years to get approval from Sacramento for a new school; at last count, 56 separate approvals are needed. Regulations dealing with size of campuses, recreational facilities, etc., make it virtually impossible to find new school sites. Fortunately, groups such as LEARN and Kids First have brought together inner-city leaders, politicians, union and business leaders to attempt to launch an evolution in the city’s educational system. This is a good role model for the other problem areas.

The time bomb is ticking and disaster is in sight. Even for the haves, the quality of life is in jeopardy as real incomes fall, taxes rise and crime and other problems become more threatening. Politicians, business people, educators and community and union leaders must stop looking at each other as enemies. They must recognize where the other is coming from--that they each have the best interests of all residents at heart but are hindered by obsolete systems of government. Drastic, revolutionary changes are needed. We must give every citizen of Los Angeles the tools to cope in our society, through education, motivation and medical care, beginning in early childhood.

G. K. Chesterton, author and thinker, stated that all theology has two simple principles: that we matter, and that everyone else matters. In Los Angeles, the poor, the homeless, the criminals, the addicts, even the business people matter. Our task is to reshape our concepts and revolutionize our civic life and societal policies, to make a city where these principles are as true in practice as they are in theory.