PLATFORM : Remaking the City, Neighbor to Neighbor

Last spring’s upheaval dramatically altered our moral landscape, and we have all been forced to think again about what it means to live in Los Angeles. My job for the next seven months is to work to ensure that only the positive changes created by the unrest will endure for our children and grandchildren. That’s what our Neighbor-to-Neighbor program is all about.

Through the ashes and rubble we saw neighbors coming to the aid of their neighbors. That activism is still alive.

Our Neighbor-to-Neighbor plan harnesses that activism to achieve three goals:

* Forge new alliances among people who have never worked together to bring Los Angeles back together.

* Recognize and empower community leaders, especially the new ones who have emerged from our neighborhoods but who have no connection to existing economic and political structures.

* Help prepare for the outcome of two controversial trials that are likely to be held in 1993.

The concept behind the program is simple: Neighbors talking to neighbors, parents to children, siblings to siblings, pastor to church member, elected official to constituent. Between now and February, when the federal civil-rights trial in the Rodney King beating is to begin, teams will be organized through community-based organizations, churches, block clubs, anti-gang organizations, and housing projects. Teams will be deployed in their own neighborhoods, high schools and alternative schools, housing developments and grocery stores and shopping malls.

Neighbor-to-Neighbor organizations will also distribute vital information on summer jobs programs, construction apprenticeships, job training efforts begun by RLA and private businesses, job opportunities generated by grass-roots organizations, and new recreation programs.

The Neighbor-to-Neighbor message will be clear: Let’s talk through the anger, the hostility and the tension.

Neighbor-to-Neighbor teams will be deployed the first day of the trials. But helping to keep the peace won’t be the only goal. Our bigger goal is to empower our communities, heal our wounds and bring Los Angeles together again.