New Generation Waiting to Lead L.A. Out of Ashes

Now that the riot has been quelled, Los Angeles’ political leaders should face the city en masse and--like disgraced party bosses in the old Communist bloc--confess their errors.

How satisfying it would be. Imagine Mayor Tom Bradley, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, the entire City Council and the Police Commission standing before us, on live television, saying, “Folks, we screwed up.”

Unfortunately, that will never happen. The best L.A. can do is have a city election, which is scheduled for April, 1993, with a thorough debate of who is to blame for the riot--and what can be done about it.

The city is ready for such a debate. Grass-roots political groups, religious leaders, business executives and the press want to know if the political leadership is up to guiding the city’s future.

The flurry of civic meetings, introspection and soul-searching following the riots has had an impact on the mayoral election, now almost a year away. Potential mayoral candidates are meeting with advisers, conferring with residents of the riot zones, coming up with programs.

There were already many potential candidates before the riot further weakened Los Angeles’ two best known public officials, Bradley and Gates.

The mayor has been working 20-hour days since the riot, meeting with business people, religious leaders and the public, holding press conferences. But he can’t shake the fact that he was the man in charge when L.A. burned.

Will he run for another term--his sixth? An adviser said, “If Tom Bradley doesn’t see someone to finish the job, he will run again.” If so, he’ll be a long shot.

Gates’ political future collapsed when his planning and command structure didn’t meet the test during the riot. Before that, some Gates fans were dreaming of him as mayor. Not any more.

A new generation is waiting. One of its members is Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Woo, who represents a district reaching from Hollywood across the Santa Monica Mountains to the San Fernando Valley.

Woo, a Chinese-American, hopes to build an ethnic coalition in this fractured city. That’s what Bradley did after the 1965 Watts riot, uniting blacks, Westside and San Fernando Valley Jews, and Latinos for his 1973 election.

It’s much tougher in 1992. Woo was the first council member to call for Gates’ resignation after the King beating, winning praise in the African-American community. But he’ll have to contend with anti-Asian feeling in black neighborhoods, plus tension among all ethnic groups.

Another new-generation politician is Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar). He figures he’ll portray Woo as part of the failed City Hall gang and himself as the candidate of new ideas. His handicap is that he has been part of the State Assembly since 1980, a member of a Legislature so unpopular that California voted to limit its terms.

One thing Katz has going for him is his role as a main architect of major transportation legislation, including bills important to L.A. Last week, he sought to bolster his new-ideas image with a plan for post-riot recovery. He proposed a Community Development Corp. to be run by business executives and residents. It would provide a vehicle for financing rebuilding of the riot zone.

In addition, Katz is counting on his San Fernando Valley base and the fact that he’s part of L.A.’s high-voting Jewish community.

The candidate who intends to run as the real outsider is Richard Riordan, a wealthy attorney and investor who has been a leader in business attempts to improve the quality of education in L.A. public schools.

Riordan plans to run a Ross Perot, populist, down-with-the politicians campaign. Like Perot, he’ll promise business efficiency at City Hall. The question is whether Riordan, the high-powered senior partner in one of the city’s most prestigious law firms, can take the kind of rudeness doled out by reporters and frustrated voters. He also may have a problem being a Republican in a liberal Democratic city.

Others will run. Nick Patsaouras, a businessman and a director of the rapid transit district, also is likely to run as a Perot clone. Councilman Nate Holden, who lost to Bradley in 1989, is planning his campaign. Don’t forget Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who abandoned his 1989 race for mayor. Other council members may run as well.

It’s been a long time since a municipal election has been a referendum on the city’s future. Usually, they are exercises in vagueness.

The riots should end that. In this election, the city will have to chart a new course, up from the ruins. The next year will reveal whether the politicians and the voters are up to the job.