After 20 Years, a New Mayor for Los Angeles : The city is receptive to the new ideas and the enthusiasm : The Mayor And The Challenge

Richard Riordan, the civic-minded multimillionaire businessman, is to be publicly sworn in today around noon as mayor of Los Angeles. That ceremony will usher in a new era--and usher out another that is two decades in length and breadth: the mayoralty of Tom Bradley.

Bradley is leaving at a time when Los Angeles is under stress. The scars of last year’s riots remain, and the economic recession hangs on. Even if the overall situation is not irremediably bleak--and it certainly isn’t--there is no gainsaying that Bradley’s successor has been left with a very full plate indeed.

Even so, it would be only fair to the historical record to consider for a moment the magnitude of Bradley’s achievements.

In office longer than any other Los Angeles mayor--there are many Angelenos who remember no other chief executive--Bradley deserves great credit for bringing to the office, previously occupied by Sam Yorty, considerable dignity and authority. For at least the first two of his five terms and perhaps through the triumph of the 1984 Olympic Games here, the Bradley mayoralty was certainly one of America’s most distinguished.

ENTER RIORDAN: As of noon today, however, all this is history and Los Angeles has a new mayor. The question is, what does Riordan bring to the office--and what will the office do to the new man?

On the latter score it will be only a matter of weeks, if not days, before Richard Riordan realizes the limitations of the office. For in Los Angeles the mayor is not king, or queen--but instead only one key player among at least several who constitute the political inner circle. More than any other major municipality, Los Angeles requires its mayor to be a persuasive force, a team player, a conciliator. It is a role that requires the glue of persuasion and limits the option of the rod. And it is one that requires the occupant to possess the patience of a saint.

ENTER REALITY: It should not be too long before Los Angeles realizes exactly what it has on its hands. Riordan was a very successful financial operator and he ran a highly effective campaign against Michael Woo, financing it out of his own deep pockets. If only the city could be run as efficiently as a small company; if only the city’s financial problems could be solved with a few million here and there. In the coming months Riordan is going to be tested as never before.

But if any of the early, pre-inauguration signs are indicative, he has a fighting chance to make his mark. Already he has come across as a shirt-sleeves mayor--short on ceremony and hot air, long on pragmatism and real-world purposefulness.

In particular we like the symbolism of his emphasis on inclusiveness, and his stress on innovation is a huge positive. We doubt that all of his ideas can or will work; privatization, for example, may prove a less potent weapon than he thinks.

But Riordan is coming to the new job with an enthusiasm for looking at old problems in a new light, and at new problems with an open mind. Most of all, he is coming at all ofthis with a burst of energy that reflects a sincerity and ambition to succeed.

The mood now in Los Angeles is receptive. The attitude is, let’s give Dick Riordan a chance. After all, a successful mayoralty would be good for all Los Angeles.