The Power of Politics : Activist Says It All Comes Down to Community Organizing, the Ballot Box : LEVI KINGSTON

My involvement with child care began through a concern with housing issues. Our contention was that housing wasn’t just four walls and a roof. Affordable housing has to be looked at in terms of the services it provides for families.

Right now, the Hoover Intergenerational Care Inc. / Child & Development Center and the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Islamic Foundation are involved in a joint housing venture called the Hoover / Exposition Community Development Corp.

We’re talking about housing with a smaller version of a child-care facility, 10 units set aside for foster care and 40 other units for families. We have a site in mind in this area, but we need some political support.

We have to focus on fund raising and politicking. And also hooking up with broader advocacy groups for children, people who are dealing with the impact of drugs on kids, with child-support issues, and with legislation on the state and national levels.

With respect to the local rebuild efforts, I’m like a lot of people: You’ve got to show me some action. The Rebuild L.A. people have got to be serious about it because folks in the community are used to people making promises they don’t have any commitment to keep. If that turns out to be the case, you’re going to perpetuate a relationship with the community that is tenuous in the first place.

The Hoover-Exposition neighborhood is extremely diverse: institutionally, organizationally, businesses, population. It’s resource rich but communication poor. The potential of this neighborhood is deep.

If the institutions--the major players such as USC, the museums, the medical complexes, the First A.M.E. and Ward A.M.E., the sports complexes, Golden State Mutual Life, the Automobile Club, University Village--have a commitment to the people of the community, a lot of interesting models could come out of this area for the rest of the city.

One of the dangers is that some people tend to forget that things are related. You hear all the time: “The way to deal with the community is through education . . . is through economics . . . is through this or that.” My biggest source of frustration is when I’m not communicating with someone because their whole thing is (just one aspect of community problems). We live in an age when all these things are related.

In terms of community organizing, I’m not a purist. I will meet with the politicians--if I can get money out of them and not sell my soul to the company store in doing it.

But some people don’t want to talk with the politicians. They never had to deal. Now you have 13 (potential) mayoral candidates you can go to. Once someone becomes (mayor) the question is: Do you have access to them or not? That may mean a new addition or a storage shed for our child-care center.

I ask folks: Do you vote?

If you don’t vote, I don’t want to hear your bellyaching. But in some cases, you have to have advocates because ordinary people feel they have no power. That relates to education, to economics . . . and therefore, politics.