The Challenge Is to Create Opportunity : Mayor’s race: A leader is needed to surmount divisions of ethnicity and geography, to foster peace and prosperity.

As people, and especially politicians, flounder from one end of the city to the other attempting to take the pulse of the region and to craft a response to each and every narrow interest that they can identify, I think back to what first attracted me, then a 17-year-old immigrant from Greece, to the City of Angels, and then, realize why, some 30 years later, I believe I should be mayor.

It’s all about opportunity, and a dream of a better life. It’s about knowing that hard work and determination will be rewarded; about providing for your family and seeing your children safe and well-educated.

At this juncture, this city needs leadership that can see beyond superficial divisions of race, religion, color, ethnicity and geography and into the hearts of the people that make up this grand and diverse metropolis. We need a mayor who knows firsthand that the first and best calling of local government is to create opportunity, and that out of that opportunity will be born the seeds of peace and safety in our streets, creativity in our schools and prosperity for our city.

We are confronted on a daily basis with the byproducts of all that’s wrong with our city and our neighborhoods. Joblessness, which has long been a problem in some communities, has soared citywide; violence on our streets and in our schools is a frightening reality, and racial and ethnic intolerance is at an all-time high. But the solutions to these problems lie not with promoting fear or greater intolerance, not with some kind of modified martial-law plan, and most certainly not with misguided attempts to simply blame immigrants. The solution is to remember what unites us as people, as human beings, plain and simple, to remember our common hopes and aspirations, for ourselves and our children.

Over the course of my public career, I have been especially sensitive to the challenge of providing people with the tools and the opportunity for success. In 1983, I was instrumental in establishing the Transit Bond Guarantee program, to give minorities and firms owned by women the financial backing to bid for Metro Rail contracts.

In 1991, I proposed a plan of using the County Transportation Commission to implement a local industrial policy. Under this plan, we have successfully aided the ailing aerospace / defense industry, in addition to small companies, such as electronics, tool and die, sheet metal, cable manufacturers and others, which depend on the large defense companies for their existence.

I spearheaded the development of a 91-page directory of all locally available products and services that a rail-car or bus builder might need, cross-referenced by product and by firm, and the directory was provided to the prime contractors who will be manufacturing trains and buses.

And just last year, working with a task force of community and government resources, educational institutions, labor, training organizations and private-sector employees at all levels, I developed a job development and training policy.

The policy, adopted by the County Transportation Commission, is designed to increase employment and training opportunities for unemployed and displaced workers and young people who may not wish or cannot afford to go to college.

Before I entered the race for mayor, I worked with some of the best minds in Los Angeles to develop a detailed plan to create jobs, provide real public safety and improve the quality of life at every level in our city.

Today, I look forward with great anticipation to the opportunity to give something back to the city and the people who have given so much to me; to work with all Angelenos to ensure that Los Angeles remains a mecca to the world and a shining example of the wonders that can be accomplished when we all work together.