Countywide : Riordan Urges O.C. to Help Save Region

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan ventured across county lines Friday to urge Orange County residents to cooperate in solving problems common to both areas.

Riordan told a luncheon crowd of about 400 Orange County business people at Le Meridien Hotel in Newport Beach that “we have to think as one region in Southern California. We are linked in every which way.”

In a 10-minute speech, the Republican mayor touched on a number of Los Angeles issues that affect the Orange County business climate. No. 1 on the mayor’s list of problems was crime.

“We have to make California safe,” Riordan said. “Businesses do not want to move into unsafe areas. . . . Young families leave and tourists avoid unsafe areas.”

The key to Riordan’s plan is to get more police officers on the streets of Los Angeles, he said, adding that many officers spend an inordinate amount of time at desks doing paperwork.

That can be best achieved by changing the Los Angeles Police Department in such a way that police officers can be more visible in the community.

Riordan’s lunch-hour address stuck mostly to mayoral anecdotes and his philosophy on education, family values, crime and economics, but was short on details.

Riordan did say that Southern California needs to combine its business resources to “sell L.A.” to the rest of the world by emphasizing the region’s universities, banks, computer technology and entrepreneurial spirit.

“Let’s be part of a better Southern California,” he said.

Dennis O’Conner, a vice president at an engineering consulting firm which has an office in Irvine and Los Angeles, said he is grateful that the Los Angeles mayor would make a trip to Orange County.

“His message is that he is very much pro-business,” O’Conner said. “It shows that he understands the linkage between Orange County and L.A.”