Ensure Order, Then Target Economy : Mayor’s race: Investments should be put in the minority community. No city deposits in banks that redline.

As the world watches, Los Angeles braces for two trials and the renewed violence many fear they may bring.

But we must not allow our city’s future to be held hostage to the verdicts in these trials. The problems we face--economic stagnation and neglect, crime, racial divisiveness--will still be with us the day after those trials are over.

Whatever the verdicts, violence is simply unacceptable. If there is a recurrence of violence, the city is committed to quelling it swiftly and surely. We must back Police Chief Willie Williams by giving him the resources he needs to get the job done. That’s why I strongly support adding 1,000 officers to the LAPD, a proposal that will be on the April 20 ballot. It is ridiculous that the nation’s second-largest city has a police force of only 7,800, while Chicago has 12,000 officers and New York has 26,000. Also, I have called for a citywide ban on the sale or possession of so-called Saturday-night specials, those cheap handguns whose sole purpose is to hold up or kill people.

But while ensuring law and order is critical, it is only the first step in how Los Angeles must reform. Economic injustice, inequality and a lack of opportunity are at the heart of the serious problems we face today. We simply do not have the luxury of being distracted or deterred from our efforts to close the growing gap between haves and have-nots.

As mayor, my primary goal will be rebuilding our job base and securing a better economic future. Had I been mayor last spring, I would have appointed myself head of Rebuild L.A. so people could hold me directly responsible for its success or failure. For too long, city government has handed off its responsibilities to others outside of government instead of taking the lead in identifying problems and fashioning solutions.

To retain our current jobs and attract new ones, businesses must get the loans and assistance they need to build, expand and compete. This means using $5 million in a city loan-guarantee fund to leverage $100 million in new private bank loans to small businesses that just barely miss qualifying for conventional financing. It means appointing an economic czar, accountable to me as mayor, to help streamline the city bureaucracy, simplifying the nightmarish process of getting permits, licenses and approvals. And it means holding the managers of city departments accountable for cutting red tape and being responsive to the needs of entrepreneurs and investors.

In our inner-city communities especially, restoring hope and economic self-sufficiency means empowering people to open their own businesses and employ local workers. It means increasing the size of the community development corporation and demanding that it target its investments to minority-owned businesses that employ local workers. It means withholding city bank deposits from banks that redline. And it means following through with a jobs program for our young people that offers real hope and opportunity.

In addition to the public-safety and economic ramifications, the King and Denny trials also present us with a particular challenge in the mayoral campaign. To those who would exploit the fears and apprehension wrought by last spring’s violence and its aftermath, we must say, loud and clear, we cannot move ahead by dividing the city against itself.

Yes, there should be debate over our schools. But no, we cannot allow one part of our city to be pitted against another in that process. Yes, there should be debate over immigration. But no, we cannot allow immigrants to be used as scapegoats for our city’s economic and social problems. Yes, we must effectively deal with the crime that is threatening all of our neighborhoods. But no, we must not allow the city to be subdivided into gated enclaves or turned into armed camps.