It’s a Perfect City--Almost

For more than 20 years, Howard Chambers has been city administrator in Lakewood, where he witnessed the flowering of the American dream--home ownership in a safe, clean, well-ordered community.

Lakewood has been the near-perfect city: a stable population, relatively little crime, plenty of adequate housing, nice parks, a good library and, in the middle . . . Lakewood Center Mall, the great money machine that made it all work.

Shoppers always flocked to the mall. Money poured in and sales taxes went to the city with a regularity that suggested the dream would never end.

During the past two decades, Chambers and his staff have been pretty much free of fiscal crises. Even the drastic cut in property tax revenues caused by the passage of Proposition 13 in the late 1970s did not faze Lakewood.

Their good fortune was not just a matter of luck. The idea of developing housing in the sugar beet fields southeast of Los Angeles surfaced in the early 1950s. Builders were lured by the demand created by World War II veterans who could buy homes for nothing down and $50 a month under the GI Bill.

The home building frenzy in Lakewood was described by Time magazine in 1951 as “the biggest U.S. housing project.” In assembly-line fashion, 17,000 houses went up in two years.

Centerpiece of the new “dream city” was a regional shopping mall built on land provided by the developers.

The vast tracts of housing and the mall soon became a tempting prize, and Long Beach launched a move to annex them. A struggle ensued and residents won the right to remain an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County.

It was not long, however, until a move for cityhood took root. Those who opposed the idea pointed out that there was little revenue and no assets. Police and fire protection, parks, libraries, a city hall--the cost was staggering.

In order to make the idea of cityhood more appealing, John Todd, who later became Lakewood’s first city attorney, created what became known as the Lakewood Plan. He suggested that the city pay the county for police, fire and other services that the county already provided. Lakewood became the first city to hire the county to supply these vital services.

The ingredients were in place: a mall that over the years would become a vital source of revenue for the city and the Lakewood Plan that would enable residents to enjoy inexpensive services. Todd sold the idea to a majority of voters and in 1954 they said “yes” to cityhood.

By the time that Howard Chambers became city administrator about 20 years ago at age 27, the city was harvesting the fruits of the early planning.

Chambers had an ideal job in the ideal city. No juggling to balance the budget, not in Lakewood.

Then, this year, a cloud settled over the city’s 73,000 residents.

It is a measure of the severity of the recession that despite the best planning and management it could muster, Lakewood has developed a soft spot. Sales taxes, which provide 25% of the city’s revenue, have begun to slide.

Chambers said the city expected to receive $8.3 million in the 1991-92 fiscal year. However, reports of a decline in consumer spending indicate that it will collect only $7.4 million in sales taxes.

And what is even more disturbing, according to Chambers, is that the Lakewood Center Mall, which produces more than half the total sales tax revenue, is experiencing a drop in sales. Gross sales, which grew from $90 million in 1975 to $350 million last year, are expected to drop 2% this year.

“This has never happened before,” Chambers said. To balance the $30-million budget for 1991-92, he took advantage of onetime revenue sources such as a special park dedication fee paid by a home developer, a land swap and an allocation of county highway funds.

Such stopgap measures may not be available next year. To make matters worse, a plan that was expected to increase sales in the mall has been put on hold. Because of the recession, money is not available for a $50-million expansion that would add 25% more retail space. Lenders have backed away from the project, waiting for clear signs that the economy has turned up before they offer loans to mall owner Macerich Real Estate Co. of Santa Monica.

Meanwhile, Chambers is fearful. Is it over? Is the city of his youth, the city that he remembers as one of those indestructible, unchanging places, coming unraveled? Is Lakewood being thrust into the company of some of its less fortunate Southeast area neighbors?

Probably not. The budget crisis appears to be just a fiscal flesh wound. The Lakewood mall remains robust. Economic observers think it is likely that the recession is ending, the mall will be expanded, retail sales will resume their climb, and Lakewood will go on calling itself “Tomorrow’s City Today.”

James M. Leavy is assistant editor of the Southeast/Long Beach sections. His column appears occasionally.