THE STATE : THE CITY : A Budget That Opens the Door to a Healthy Ethnic Politics

When Mayor Richard Riordan recently introduced his second budget, he hailed his usual priorities--crime and a better business climate--and endorsed a new one--improving the lives of families and neighborhoods. His budget, overall, reflects the ideas of his many task forces--an inevitable breath of fresh air after a long incumbency--and the experience his Administration gained last year.

Riordan’s preoccupation with crime and violence, for example, now seems tempered by a growing recognition within his Administration that putting more police on the street is a budgetary abyss that could bankrupt the city. There is no point at which we would be apt to say, “OK, now I feel safe.” We do need more police on the streets, but we also need to do other things that address the quality of life in the city. Fortunately, Riordan’s budget does not ignore these other needs.

Most appealing of all is his new priority, doubtless to be his third-year theme. Nurturing healthy neighborhoods adroitly balances the crime theme. It goes to the heart of city services--clean, well-paved streets, trimmed trees and rehabilitated buildings. A safe-looking environment is a deterrent to crime.

If much of the Administration’s plans for creating healthier neighborhoods could just as easily be lumped under safety and improving the business climate, the single new departure has to do with the recommendations of the Mayor’s Committee on Children, Youth and Families. A new commission would be formed to facilitate delivery of programs and services to the city’s youth and their families. This recommendation implicitly acknowledges that programs do work--a somewhat more controversial issue in Congress these days--and it recognizes the value of networks in its call to “stretch and improve services for neighborhood youth through collaboration and cooperation among existing providers and residents.”

If this innovation proves successful, perhaps the Administration will be more willing to dip its toes deeper into the waters of community relations and consider building networks among neighborhoods in the city. Unfortunately, this objective has never been a high priority for this Administration, which took a year to fill the position of director in its Office of Human Relations Commission.

City politics is the politics of race and ethnicity. Accordingly, we tend to measure standing by whether one group is up or down--by the number of officeholders and appointments each group can field. The founding fathers made no provision for such a politics in the Constitution--imagining only a white, male, European citizenry--but ethnic-based politics may be a better choice than class conflict, because it provides for the possibility of moving up--the American dream.

Building on ethnic politics by developing ways to demonstrate we can live together might attract business to Los Angeles. Exacerbating it by building on fear, or fostering exclusion, could be perilous. Ignoring ethnic politics will neither make it go away nor alter the image of Los Angeles as a place where strife is commonplace.

The Riordan Administration plans to change the city’s image with a marketing campaign, for which it has allocated several million dollars. Perhaps it can. But ads will not change the reality of many communities feeling isolated from one another, alienated from the larger community, fearful of the consequences of Proposition 187 and the attack on affirmative action.

There are, to be sure, attempts within communities to build coalitions and establish networks, such as the African American/Jewish Leadership Connection or the Multi-Cultural Collaborative. They are hard to sustain, but they last longer and can address more problems if they are supported by local government. If the Riordan Administration can find its way with youth, perhaps there is hope it will try to tackle the bigger political problems next year. Leadership does make a difference in a city’s capacity to grow and sustain itself.

The mayor’s budget is the strongest tool he has under the City Charter--even with the passage of Proposition 2, which enables him to hire and fire general managers. It is where he must lay out his vision for the city: where he wants it to go, and how he plans to get there. This year’s budget shows more sophistication and understanding of the way city government works. It preserves his goals. He needs to keep expanding them.