Platform : Mayor Riordan: ‘Give the Man a Chance’

Richard Riordan has been mayor of Los Angeles since July. How is he doing so far? Some local views:

RYAN SONG

Executive director, Korean-American Grocers Assn., Hancock Park

My praise of Riordan is he’s willing to meet with Korean community leaders to address our issues. My complaint is he’s not really following up on his promises to help the victims of the 1992 riot.

I call it riot. From 1990 through the riot, about 580 Korean-owned stores were robbed, looted or burned. Two hundred stores were completely burned down. The Korean community is still suffering a lot. Koreans have financial problems, psychological problems and are afraid of the murders of store owners that have been happening.

When state legislation was proposed recently to allow victims of the riot to skip the long hearing process before they could rebuild, Riordan and the city opposed it pretty vehemently. And the legislation has been sidetracked. The City of Compton, in contrast, changed an ordinance so riot-damaged businesses would not have to go through that process and possibly face new restrictions. But Los Angeles kept these hearings, and much of what went on in them was unfair. For example, there was a lot of reliance on police reports about the number of crimes reported in the neighborhood around a store. If a store has a public phone in front, people go there to call police and then the police report that the crimes were at the store.

I and other Korean community leaders have met with Riordan or his staff several times to discuss relief for the riot victims. He expressed sympathy but talked about political reality, and the bottom line seems to be that we must deal with the City Council, which as a whole has been unresponsive to the victims’ situation.

CELESTE GREIG

Vice president, California Republican Assembly; president, Northridge Women Republican Federated Club; co-founder, Shaping Elections Life Issue Support Team, Chatsworth

I was having big hopes for Riordan, but so far I’ve been disappointed. He ran under the banner of Republican and conservative but he’s appointed some people who are very liberal and Democrat. I thought he’d be more in tune with the people who supported him, especially San Fernando Valley people.

I’m disappointed he didn’t take a strong stand to denounce the verdict in the Denny beating case, because I felt it was a travesty. Four years ago my friend and I were kidnaped, robbed and almost raped by a man with a steak knife after we had lunch near USC. Los Angeles has become infamous all around the world because of the riot and its crime and drugs. I worked as a volunteer in Riordan’s campaign. I was born in Spain, and America is the most beautiful country in the world. We need to stop calling each other African-Americans and Mexican-Americans and Korean-Americans and so forth. We are Americans, period.

I’m still giving Riordan the benefit of the doubt, still optimistic he’ll bring change.

ART PULIDO

President, Community Leaders Educating Vast Ethnic Representation, and vice president, Cypress Park Chamber of Commerce

I’m kind of disappointed in (Riordan).He talked about vision, but I don’t see vision. I don’t see anyone from his staff coming out to East and Northeast L.A. I’m talking about Ramona Gardens, Cypress Park, Highland Park, El Sereno, Boyle Heights, Elysian Valley, Lincoln Heights, Glassell Park, Eagle Rock. I supported Riordan. But if he keeps staying inside City Hall he’ll be a do-nothing mayor like the last one, Tom Bradley.

Riordan needs to get someone out here who knows the community. Someone who knows where the pain and suffering is. He hasn’t even set up a meeting of his own supporters here. On the gang stuff, he’s doing zero. He doesn’t even know what gangs here look like. I work a lot on gang issues, and I can tell you: The police know they can’t handle the streets any more. You could put a hundred-million cops on the street here and they wouldn’t be able to prevent crime. Instead, we need a community organization and a job developer in every neighborhood that has drugs and gangs to help people stay in school, give them some place to go, help them learn to fill out job applications and find where jobs are, so they don’t get discouraged and go back and get into trouble.

RICK BARRERA

Police detective and president of La Ley, the Latin American Law Enforcement Assn., Hacienda Heights.

The reason our organization endorsed Riordan and campaigned for him is we saw him directly involved in the Latino community. He has gone out of his way to be sure Latinos are listened to.

The police needed help. They were under a lot of strain for many months with very little support from the public. Riordan knew police had sustained a lot of bashing. He seemed to be trying to change that direction. It seemed to us he has the energetic drive to pull this off, even though city resources are very low. Now that he’s in, there is a goal in place for police, and he has the necessary ingredients to achieve it. There’s an increase in police morale that gives us the enthusiasm to hold on until the goal is achieved.

As for bringing ethnic unity and reconciliation, it’s a balancing act here in L.A. People are always quick to ask: “How come this, how come that?” But I think he’s doing a very good job of making sure people as a whole are being taken care of.

HOWARD ULLER

Executive director, Toberman Settlement House, San Pedro

It’s too early to tell how Riordan is doing. I want to see what brilliant, creative things he can do. We work with many programs, including those for homelessness, gangs, child abuse, ESL (English as Second Language) classes, senior-citizen programs, neighborhood organizing and providing emergency services such as food for the hungry. Homelessness and hunger are manifestations of poverty, and the key to dealing with poverty is this: Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Right now I don’t see anything from Riordan with a direct impact on generating more jobs in the Harbor area.

Part of Riordan’s promise is to make government more responsive and to make the city safer. You can’t make L.A. safer until you have more jobs. If you have desperate unemployed people you will have crime, even if you have many more police.

JACK KYSER

Chief economist, Economic Development Corp., Los Angeles

Give the man a break! Americans expect instant gratification, and sometimes things can’t happen overnight.

Mayor Riordan’s taking office is like someone becoming captain of the Queen Mary when it’s been going the wrong way a long time, bumping into rocks. The ship has got to be turned around and while that’s happening all the passengers need to sit down and stop rocking the boat.

Some people are disappointed because Riordan hasn’t brought instantaneous expansion of the police force. Or quick privatization of LAX. But to privatize he has to deal with the airline industry and with federal regulations.

People were also expecting a more dynamic economic policy. Under Bradley’s administration economic policy was scattered among three places--the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, the City Community Development Department and the Community Redevelopment Agency. Riordan not only has to figure out policy but also deal with staffing problems, since some staffers are protected by civil service.

Our city, state, nation and world are now in a period of major economic and social change, with Los Angeles on the cutting edge of trying to solve such problems as what to do with displaced defense workers and how to create quality jobs in the inner city and give back lost hope. Riordan is being very cautious, and that’s probably an asset in this situation. And he must deal with many different groups because he’ll need consensus to move ahead. I give him excellent marks for working to build consensus among business groups and with the many ethnic communities of Los Angeles. He’s been very visible, getting out and around, getting to know people and letting them get to know him.