Mounting a Quiet Revolution on a Mission to Save the State

The laid-back California of legendary yore may soon become passe. And remember: This is a happy-go-lucky state where politics once seemed a sort of entertainment--a tap-shoe senator here, a moonbeam governor there, even a Gipper governor. But suddenly Californians seem all business. Last year voters passed an overarching term limitation measure--Proposition 140, which the state Supreme Court upheld as constitutional last week--that has rocked Sacramento. Perhaps more such basic changes in governance are in our future.

One reason is growing frustration with the inability of state and local government to get a handle on the many problems facing California. In response, various interests, in the past so greatly at odds--businesses, environmentalists, unions, community activists and others--are searching out one another to commiserate and to brainstorm. Some are putting aside narrow self-interests for broader ones in search of public policies to address persistent statewide problems--whether housing, transportation, education or the environment. They want to stop the alarming decline in the quality of life and reverse the rise in ethnic and racial tensions. They are creating sometimes extraordinary alliances to explore new ideas and approaches.

A move is on to build consensus on policies to manage California’s growth. Ideas from the bottom up are percolating. “For democracy to work, you’ve got to deal in digestible bites,” explains Jane G. Pisano, a USC dean and former president of Los Angeles 2000 Partnership, established in 1985 to develop a growth plan for the city. “People become passive spectators as opposed to participants. . . . Civic institutions (must) enable individuals who are interested in common policy issues to connect.”

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT: Problems facing California do not respect political boundaries or socioeconomic lines. Urban and suburban dwellers, rich or poor, all face housing, water, air and transportation woes. Polluting particles drift across city and county borders. Gridlock on a freeway backs up traffic from one community into another. Living in an affordable home sometimes requires people to commute hours to work.

The process of people moving from a passive to an active position in determining public policy can take the form of private/public partnerships such as the Bay Vision Action Coalition in San Francisco and neighborhood groups like the United Neighborhoods Organization.

REGIONAL APPROACHES: California’s problems are increasingly regional in nature; their complex interdependencies defy conventional solutions, even jurisdictions, of local government. Regional problems require regional solutions. But other issues--such as education and crime--are best addressed locally.

Californians, like most Americans, may hate politics but they aren’t giving up. The Bay Vision Action Coalition and L.A. 2000 Partnership have each recommended that some mechanism of regional governance be established by the state to sensibly coordinate land, water, air and transportation policies so that they don’t change at each city and county boundary. The recommendations are on the right track but the concept of regional government is controversial.

Even so, regional-government bills have been introduced in the Legislature and local governments are studying the issue. The Orange County division of the League of California Cities has adopted principles for reform of regional planning and governance. San Diego County voters in 1988 passed Proposition C, which called for the creation of a regional planning and growth management review board.

GRASS-ROOTS EFFORTS: The thrust toward regional policies and planning should not obscure efforts to attack the more local problems of education and housing. Some of the neighbor-based groups--the United Neighborhoods Organization, Southern California Organizing Committee, East Valleys Organization and Valley Organizing in Community Efforts (VOICE)--kicked off a “Kids First” campaign last fall to work with business leaders to improve Los Angeles schools. They are helping to organize parents also.

Palisades Complex is a similar community effort among parents, teachers and administrators in the Pacific Palisades area. The 3-year-old volunteer group won approval to reconfigure junior high school grade levels to better meet today’s needs of student development.

In housing, nonprofit groups are taking a leadership role in the inner cities. Nehemiah West Housing Corp., a nonprofit church-based group, is planning to build 400 affordable homes in South-Central Los Angeles at a site once proposed for a controversial trash incinerator project--which was killed by environmentalists and black and Latino community activists working together.

The big challenge in shaping the future of California lies in how often everyday people will choose to work together to achieve common goals--instead of working against each other in stressing their differences. Regional government for items such as air quality reminds this racially and economically diverse state that we all, literally, breathe the same air and all have the same stake in it. New community alliances of disparate groups are forming and should be encouraged. Californians support changing the way problems are handled. That could help the state’s leaders to define an agenda for action.