Bradley Won’t Run for 6th Term : Retirement: After nearly two decades in office, L.A. mayor says it is time for a change and will step down next June. He united the city’s diverse elements, but ethnic tensions finally weakened his coalition.

Tom Bradley, the Texas sharecroppers’ son who became the first black mayor of Los Angeles and held the job longer than anyone else, declared Thursday that after 19 years in office he will not seek reelection.

Speaking in a downtown hotel, the 74-year-old Bradley surprised few in the invited audience of several hundred longtime friends and supporters by saying it was time for a change.

“Change allowed me to knock down the old doors of prejudice,” he said of his initial election as mayor in 1973. “Change allowed me to break new ground, forge new alliances and open new paths. I, as much as anyone, understand the need--and the time--for change.”

“I have served a record five terms as mayor,” Bradley added. “Others should now have the opportunity and responsibility to bring their vision to bear on the future of this great community.”

Bradley will step down next June after the election of a successor, exactly two decades after he was sworn in.

The mayor did not discuss his future during his speech, but afterward he told reporters he would work closely with Rebuild L.A., the project he started to breathe new life into riot-ravaged neighborhoods. He said he would disclose his career plans at a news conference Monday.

Bradley’s announcement marks the end of an extraordinary era in Los Angeles politics. Elected by a biracial coalition, he opened City Hall to minorities and women, creating a government that for the first time gave voice to the city’s diverse population.

In 1982, in the first of two unsuccessful runs for the Statehouse, Bradley came within a percentage point of becoming the first black governor of California.

Although the Bradley Coalition, as his political alliance came to be known, was weakened over time and by the racial tensions that exploded in rioting last spring, its record may be hard to match. The challenge for the mayor’s successors is whether anyone can again unite the city as Bradley did. He brought together not just ethnic groups, but business and labor, and rival elements of the city’s far-flung urban and suburban neighborhoods.

A man known for hiding his emotions, Bradley smiled broadly during much of his announcement Thursday, which he delivered from his official podium, which had been transported for the occasion to a ballroom at the New Otani hotel. The five-minute speech was interrupted by applause at least 15 times and at one point supporters loudly chanted, “Four more years!”

It was a speech that expressed pride in his accomplishments and gratitude to the city that he has served as a police officer and elected official for half a century.

“Los Angeles gave life to my impossible dream,” he said. “She cast aside appeals to fear and bigotry and elected me. . . . Los Angeles proved some people wrong--the people who said a black man couldn’t go to college, couldn’t rise through the ranks of the police force, couldn’t attain the highest public offices. Wrong.”

Bradley spoke proudly of his successful efforts to make government broadly representative of the city’s diverse makeup. He also spoke of the riots last spring that pitted ethnic groups against one another, and he stressed the continuing need for people to respect one another’s race, religion and culture.

“When I first entered office, I saw only a tiny part of our diverse community represented in the halls of government. I am proud to say I changed that. We took a city that belonged to one group and gave it to all the people,” he said.

Of the riots, he said: “The April unrest tore at my heart, and I will not be at peace until we have healed our wounds and rebuilt our neighborhoods. Let us all, every one of us, pledge to make Los Angeles a beacon of mutual respect, justice and tolerance from this day forward.”

Bradley’s tenure has encompassed a period of dramatic change. Los Angeles was already the nation’s third-largest city when Bradley was first elected. But it was during his tenure that the world seemed finally to take Tinseltown seriously, not only as a capital of commerce and culture but as the new American melting pot where the country’s capacity for assimilation and accommodation were facing historic challenges.

Bradley’s Los Angeles weathered earthquakes, wildfires, gang wars, drought, recession and riot. Although he was defeated twice in his bid to become governor, hometown voters returned him to the mayor’s office four times. And only once, when he was under investigation for conflicts of interest, was he in a close race. The investigations petered out, but not before Bradley admitted that he had erred in accepting a paid directorship of a bank that was doing business with the city.

In his farewell address, Bradley recounted some of the highlights of his Administration, painting a picture of a record that combines the achievements of an old-fashioned city-builder with the vision of a modern civil rights leader.

“As I look back, I take great pride because we accomplished wonders. We revitalized the downtown, built a great international airport, transformed our harbor into the nation’s leading port, energized culture and the arts, established equal opportunity programs, furthered economic development, helped clean our water and air, and built new housing and rapid transit,” the mayor said.

Today, a dozen possible mayoral candidates wait in the wings. They include people who have been loyal to the mayor and who hope to inherit important elements of his power base.

In his speech, the mayor gave no sign of an endorsement, though top aides have previously spoken most warmly of City Councilman Michael Woo. Woo is the only member of the council to stand with the mayor in his early efforts to remove former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates after the police beating of Rodney G. King in March, 1991.

Bradley was a Los Angeles police officer for many years before entering city politics in 1963 when he was elected to the City Council. His rise to power was a groundbreaking achievement in a city government that had no black elected officials.

The coalition that elected Bradley mayor had its origin in the California Democratic Club, a liberal reform movement that was strongest in Los Angeles. Made up largely of Westside Jews, the group in 1969 found a common cause with blacks who had grown disillusioned with conservative Mayor Sam Yorty in the wake of the 1965 Watts riots. Bradley lost his first bid for mayor in 1969 but prevailed four years later.

In his speech, Bradley described himself as “the first black to serve as mayor of a major American city.”

However, he took office six years after the election of black Mayor Carl B. Stokes of Cleveland, then the nation’s 10th-largest city.

At the end of his term, Bradley will join a select group of big-city mayors who have held office for two decades or longer. Others include the late Richard J. Daley of Chicago, who served from 1955 to 1976, and Henry Maier of Milwaukee, who held his job from 1960 to 1988.

In the audience, many of Bradley’s earliest supporters said they were glad to see him retire only because it was what Bradley wanted to do.

“If Tom Bradley feels in his heart that it is appropriate for him to move on, then I respect that,” said Maury Weiner, who was one of Bradley’s first deputies.

But state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), running to be the first black elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, talked about how hard it will be for African-Americans to adjust to Bradley’s departure.

“I found the black community has not been ready to deal with (the loss of Bradley) yet. Everybody quietly knew it, but nobody was dealing with. . . . It is just like disbelief, you don’t want to deal with it.”

Other supporters said they were looking forward to a change in adminsitrations.

“Twenty years is a long time,” lawyer Tong Soo Chung said. “The community is ready for a change.”

The mayor’s decision also was a cause of relief for those who doubted that he could win a sixth term and worried that he would go down to defeat in a brutal campaign in which opponents would attempt to make him the scapegoat for all that is wrong with the city.

A Times poll of registered voters conducted in May after the riots found that 55% were inclined to vote against Bradley.

Now that the mayor is out of the race, his record will not be an issue, said Mike Gage, a former top aide to Bradley, “and that will force the candidates to focus on the future rather than dwelling on the past.

“To that extent, at least, the mayor’s retirement will have some positive value.”

But his announcement was clearly a disappointment to some.

Lawyer Melanie Lomax, a staunch ally in the mayor’s efforts to remove former Police Chief Gates, said she urged Bradley last week to run again.

“He thought it would be a very brutal race, but he was confident he would win. He did say it was time for him to do other things. . . . I think he has decided it is up for someone else to take Los Angeles to the next level.

The Rev. Cecil Murray, pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, was almost poetic in his praise of Bradley’s legacy. “We’ll remember the skyscrapers rising out of the flat terrain, a transportation system coming to a city with a fantasy love of cars, an airport that has become an international hub and 146 different nations held together by his unassuming silhouette--a black mayor in a non-black city.”

At the end of his speech, Bradley turned somber as he thanked his friends for their support and concluded: “Tonight I know I am doing what is right for Los Angeles, and, my friends, what is right for Los Angeles is right for me.”

The mayor clasped his hands as if declaring victory and stepped out of the spotlight.

Passing the Torch

Here are excerpts from a text released before Mayor Tom Bradley’s speech:

For 50 years--as police officer, councilman and mayor--I have loved and served Los Angeles. I grew up in her schools. I raised my family in her neighborhoods and raised my voice in prayer in her churches. I fought for her, protected her, boosted her. I sought trade for her marketplaces and jobs for her people. I listened to her varied voices. I encouraged her children to reach for the stars. I sought justice and opportunity for all.

I owe all that I am to this wondrous city and to all of you. And to the best of my ability I have tried to repay that debt.

In 1973, Los Angeles gave life to my impossible dream. She cast aside appeals to fear and bigotry and elected me the first black mayor to serve as mayor of a major American city. At that moment, Los Angeles proved some people wrong: the people who said that a black man couldn’t go to college, couldn’t rise through the ranks of the police force, couldn’t attain the highest public offices. As I walked the streets of this city and this nation, I saw sparkle in the eyes of children of all races who identified my victory as their victory. I’ll never forget when it hit me: I was living proof to our sons and daughters . . . that their futures had no limits.

When I first entered office, I saw only a tiny part of our diverse community represented in the halls of government. I am proud to say I changed that.

As I look back I take great pride because, together, we accomplished wonders. We revitalized a decaying downtown, built a great international airport, transformed our harbor into the nation’s leading port, energized culture and the arts, established equal opportunity programs, furthered economic development, helped clean our water and air and built new housing and rapid transit.

I’ll never forget the naysayers crying that the Olympics would bankrupt the city. . . .

Now those naysayers warn that we cannot stop gang violence and serious crime on our streets. I believe we can. We can expand our L.A.’s BEST after-school program to every classroom, giving kids real alternatives to gangs and drugs. And in the November election we can put 1,000 new officers into community-based policing.

I’ll never forget those who cautioned me against taking the political risk of reforming the Police Department. But we knew what had to be done. . . .

Challenge and change will always face us. Change allowed me to knock down the old doors of prejudice. Change allowed me to break new ground, forge new alliances and open new paths. I, as much as anyone, understand the need--and the time--for change.

The decision I am about to share with you has been the most difficult of my life. I have made it with just one thought in mind: what is best for Los Angeles and her people.

The time for change has come. I have served a record five terms as your mayor. Others should now have the opportunity and responsibility to bring their vision to bear on the future of this great community. I am prepared to pass the torch to new leadership.

Nine months of service remain before I retire as mayor. During that time I will devote all of my energy to making Los Angeles a better, safer, fairer and more just place to live. When I finally stand down I intend to be standing tall for the great causes of my life.

The greatest cause of all is learning to live with one another. Racism is America’s greatest evil. We in Los Angeles must be the first to slay that demon.

Our children must learn that education is more than math, history and English; it is learning to respect the differences of race, religion and culture. The April unrest tore at my heart, and I will not be at peace until we have healed our wounds and rebuilt our neighborhoods. Let us all . . . pledge to make Los Angeles a beacon of mutual respect, justice and tolerance. . . .

I thank all of you for your boundless support. Your friendship has sustained me. . . .

At the end of each of my days . . . I have gone to sleep knowing that I did my best, and that I did what I believed to be right. Tonight I know I am doing what is right for Los Angeles, and, my friends, what is right for Los Angeles is right for me.