THE NEXT LOS ANGELES: REINVENTING OUR FUTURE : Earthquake as Wake-Up Call: The Opportunity : The region is jolted into new recognition of possibilities

Los Angeles in the 21st Century. What might that vision be? An ultra-modern City of Angels cleared of smog and heavy traffic thanks to sleek rail lines that people actually use? A high-tech city that is a world telecommuting mecca where sophisticated computers, phones, faxes and other interactive media instantly connect people within and outside the region, across continents and oceans? A Los Angeles that once again is home to a respected public education system?

All beyond the realm of possibility? No. Southern California long has been known as a place where people can remake themselves, their lives and even the environment. But when the Northridge earthquake shook Los Angeles Jan. 17, it made us all too aware of the region’s vulnerability. The quake disrupted our normal patterns of living, working and commuting.

But out of the adversity come opportunities--new ways to reconnect a sprawling, fragmented region. We all pulled together to get through the earthquake’s aftermath, and that process has caused us to critically examine the status quo--what works, what does not. More important, we have had to experiment, to change to accommodate new demands. New ideas, many of which were included in The Times’ special section last Sunday, “The Next Los Angeles: Reinventing Our Future,” should be entertained and adopted as we rebuild.

As the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. The earthquake knocked down parts of the Santa Monica, Golden State and other freeways, forcing us into commuting alternatives. Commuters swarmed onto Metrolink trains in the days after the quake . . . but in recent weeks ridership has dropped off as Angelenos once again returned to their cars. That’s unfortunate. We need to rethink ways to eliminate traffic gridlock and encourage greater use of mass transit and car pools. We should consider incentives to both employers and employees to foster car-pooling and a return to Metrolink. One truly innovative idea is to create a market in commuter miles--similar to the market in smog credits--in which companies would be allotted miles based on a formula that takes into account the number of people they employ; companies then could trade these commuter miles in an orderly market. We also need to expand the rail network to include an east-west corridor along Exposition Boulevard and from Downtown to Santa Monica.

Telecommuting should be more widely used as an alternative to centralized operations. More than 1 million employees in Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties already use computers, faxes, modems and phones to work from home on a regular basis. Such setups reduce office and parking expenses for companies and lessen stress on employees and save them time, making them more productive.

With some schools out of commission, we need to consider alternative sites, possibly even converting vacant commercial office space into teaching facilities. Might this be the time to experiment with districtwide open enrollment? Providing transportation for students would be key to making this idea work. Granting autonomy to individual schools and their communities, or at least greater flexibility, also would expedite school reform efforts.

While the San Fernando Valley suffered the worst of the damage, other parts of the city cannot be ignored in rethinking Los Angeles. Downtown Los Angeles, for all its gleaming high-rises, is virtually a ghost town after dark because it lacks affordable housing and a sense of community and most Downtown workers live far from their jobs. In Santa Monica, the rebuilding of damaged hospitals provides an opportunity--to be explored on this page Monday--to build a new health care model.

Ultimately, the need is for leadership and vision to replace partisan politics and indifferent citizenship. We must take a fresh look at the idea of regional governance to address problems that transcend city and county lines. Should we give the mayor more power? Should we add members to the City Council, or elect them citywide? Should neighborhood councils be instituted? What’s needed, as Times political writer Ronald Brownstein put it last Sunday, is “smarter, more imaginative and more ambitious government.” Reinventing the region for the 21st Century will require that--and the will of its people to change.