After Harsh Political Season, a Time for Healing and Unity : Riordan, armed with a decisive victory, must reach out to a diverse L.A.

Mike Woo said it right Tuesday night. His gracious concession speech called for the bitterness of the campaign to be left behind and for the city to unite for its own good. For Los Angeles had spoken: It will have a new leader, Richard Riordan, who deserves not only everyone’s congratulations but everyone’s support and help.

Winning by eight percentage points in the popular vote, Mayor-elect Riordan clearly has support for his program, which emphasizes job creation, crime reduction and renewal of Los Angeles. Indeed, for all the campaign’s divisiveness, there was remarkable consensus. There is too much crime, there aren’t enough jobs--and government needs to wake up from its big sleep and help when it can and get out of the way when it can’t.

In his speech Tuesday night and in his comments Wednesday, Riordan emphasized the theme of inclusiveness in a divided city. He will need to be a healer, which will involve reaching out to communities that did not support him, and to work to boost public confidence, which will mean making dramatic demonstrations of mayoral involvement that were all too infrequent at the end of the Tom Bradley era.

THE NEW CITY COUNCIL: Riordan will also need to engage in fence-mending with the new City Council. At every opportunity, a majority of voters opted for change--they threw out two incumbents and embraced four new faces. Voters in the eastern San Fernando Valley made history when they elected Richard Alarcon in the 7th District--marking the first time a Mexican-American has been elected to the council from somewhere other than the Eastside or downtown, areas where the city’s Latino population has historically been concentrated. Of course, as a native of the Valley the 39-year-old Alarcon can remind his council colleagues that Latinos have always been there as well as in other outlying parts of the city. And given that most voters in his district are non-Latinos, we expect Alarcon to stake out a position of independence from the oft-factionalized Latino politics of the Eastside. That could go a long way toward reminding everyone how diverse the large Latino population really is.

Another council newcomer, Jackie Goldberg--the first openly gay member elected to the council--is expected to become a strong advocate for diversity in the 13th District, which stretches from Hollywood to Glassell Park. Joan Milke Flores, a veteran of more than three decades in city government, lost in the 15th District to outsider Rudy Svorinich. When he takes office, Svorinich must deliver equally to the poor neighborhoods in Watts and to his middle-class base in San Pedro, without ignoring other neighborhoods in this exceedingly diverse district. Joy Picus, another fixture on the council, lost her District 3 seat to a former employee, the able Laura Chick, who knows her way around City Hall.

THE NEW MAYOR: For Riordan, nailing down a good working relationship with the City Council will be crucial. He was endorsed by five of the 15 members but will need three more allies to achieve a simple governing majority; on some issues he’ll need the support of two-thirds. The new mayor will have the best wishes of the people to draw on and should use this enormous reservoir of goodwill to make the point that people want change, not business as usual.

Riordan’s governing style will be central to his effectiveness because the long recession has left government coffers dry. There will be money to maintain some measure of essential services (no doubt reduced), but little beyond that. To renew Los Angeles--to lift the cloud of despair and get the city moving again--will require extraordinary support from all quarters. It will also require citizen participation and private-sector involvement on a scale heretofore unseen. And it will require a mayor who brings people together, communicates a common vision and mobilizes energy and commitment. If Richard Riordan in the opening weeks of his Administration, which begins July 1, can begin to do that, he will be off to a great start. We wish him every possible success.