Cut Crime Rate and the Jobs Will Come : Mayor’s race: The winner must make breaking the cycle the No. 1 priority.

I often ask Los Angeles audiences if they have ever considered leaving the city or if they know someone who has. Consistently, three out of four say yes. People have been leaving in droves, underscoring the very real sense among residents that the city does not work for them. They are saying government has failed them.

We fear for our lives, our property and our jobs. We are in this mess because the City Council and the rest of the “downtown crowd” have been acting like warlords of 15 separate fiefdoms, pandering to narrow special interests, ignoring the larger interests of the city.

The mayor must be the principal representative of all the people of Los Angeles. We are not 15 fiefdoms; we are one city.

Los Angeles needs a mayor who understands that a rising crime rate and a declining job base are inextricably linked, and who will break that vicious cycle.

Jobs in defense and aerospace are disappearing. Businesses have fled because of excessively high tax burdens and workers’ compensation costs. Consequently, more individuals than ever before, representing both the new and old residents, are competing for a limited number of jobs.

Not surprisingly, some young people peddle illicit narcotics rather than try to find minimum-wage positions. While the chronically unemployed do not inevitably become criminals, a strong relationship exists between the large number of unemployed and the epidemic of crime.

In fact, the persistence of crime in Los Angeles creates a Catch-22: The lack of jobs increases the likelihood of crime; yet so long as Los Angeles remains a dangerous place, businesses are less willing to locate or expand their operations here, operations that could provide new jobs. Compounded with the other problems facing the city--deteriorating schools, traffic congestion, air pollution--employers will continue to shun Los Angeles if we do not stop the rise in mayhem.

As mayor, I would make public safety my top priority, just as I have in the state Assembly. I would sell the Ontario Airport back to Ontario; the interest on the sale alone will put 40% more police on the streets during peak crime periods--without raising taxes. Judge my promise by my record. In the Assembly, I successfully fought to keep violent felons in prison and wrote the law allowing law enforcement to seize the assets of drug dealers, assets that in turn funded cops and prosecutors, as well as school-based programs that keep kids out of gangs, off drugs and in school.

In addition to my efforts to reduce crime, I sought to attract businesses to Los Angeles. I wrote Proposition 111, the transportation blueprint for the 21st Century, which created 62,000 jobs statewise--in the middle of a recession. I led the fight to offer tax credits for capital improvements and investment in infrastructure in return for new job creation. I support giving preferences to companies bidding for city contracts that spend money in Los Angeles to hire people, buy goods and services and pay taxes.

The vision of a city that functions again is one that we should all embrace, and it is within our grasp. The next mayor must reduce crime in order to attract jobs and create jobs in order to reduce crime. Otherwise, the vicious cycle will turn into a downward spiral. In their hearts, our residents want to stay in Los Angeles, but not if the city remains perpetually poised above an abyss of chaos.