Riordan Under Fire Over Veto : Housing: Councilman Ridley-Thomas launches campaign to get mayor to reconsider his vote against south L.A. revitalization project or face override.

Determined to save a controversial south Los Angeles revitalization project vetoed by Mayor Richard Riordan almost two weeks ago, Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas has mounted a sophisticated campaign to get the mayor to change his mind or be overridden by the City Council.

With telephone banks, pre-printed postcards to be sent to the mayor and a community meeting Wednesday night aimed at rallying support for the housing and commercial project, Ridley-Thomas is doing all he can to pressure the mayor and to be sure his council colleagues stay with him for an override vote he is trying to have scheduled for Tuesday.

The contentious tone of the turquoise postcards, distributed during the meeting, bore witness to the strong feelings the issue has kicked up.

“As a resident of south Los Angeles, I am offended by your veto,” the postcard message begins. “How dare you send such a negative signal to business people . . . who want to invest in my community as they have always invested in yours?” it continues, referring to the wealthy mayor’s tony Brentwood neighborhood.

It ends with a dig at the mayor’s fondness for quoting a recent marketing campaign slogan, “Together We’re the Best. Los Angeles” by asking, “Does this include south Los Angeles?”

But the meeting, which began with a prayer by the capacity crowd, was soon punctuated with the shouts and angry comments of project opponents. They dominated the public comment period.

“To get somewhere, you have to start somewhere,” said high school student April Showers, one of the few supporters who got microphone time.

“Mark, why don’t you listen to us? We don’t want this,” opponent Don Wilson said to cheers.

The more than 300 people squeezed into the meeting room at the Crenshaw Christian Center near the project site received “call-to-action” instructions along with the postcards.

The councilman’s activities are only part of a lobbying campaign on both sides of the hotly debated issue, resulting in an intensity

rarely seen at City Hall. It is complicated by an increasingly bitter feud between two of the city’s most prominent African American leaders, Ridley-Thomas and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and by the chilly relations between the white mayor and Ridley-Thomas, his most vocal council critic.

Shortly after the mayor’s Nov. 16 veto, Waters and her middle-class, home-owning neighbors in nearby Vermont Knolls--who wanted an all-commercial project--held a celebratory community meeting to plan an alternative development. Riordan attended, accepting praise and thanks while television and newspaper reporters took it all in.

Behind closed doors, however, efforts to find a compromise are afoot. A meeting in Riordan’s office last week with the mayor, Ridley-Thomas and two of the mayor’s allies--council President John Ferraro and Councilman Hal Bernson--was cordial, according to several in attendance, including some top aides to the councilmen and the mayor.

Ferraro and Bernson urged the mayor to reconsider in the face of a certain, embarrassing council override. “You’re going to lose, there is no way you’ll get the votes” to stave off an override, the mayor reportedly was told before the discussion turned to working out a solution everyone could live with.

The project, on the drawing board for nearly three years, calls for 35 city-subsidized townhouses for first-time homeowners and about 25,000 square feet for shops and services at 81st Street and Vermont Avenue. Once home to Pepperdine University, the neighborhood was one of those hardest hit in the 1992 rioting.

Ridley-Thomas, whose 8th Council District includes the site, viewed the project by First Interstate Bank as a crucial first step in turning around the blighted area. After a series of compromises, including reducing the number of homes and switching them from low-rent apartments to owner-occupied condominiums, the project gathered wide, but far from universal, community support. It passed by a unanimous vote of the City Council, which has a cherished tradition of acceding to the wishes of colleagues when it comes to district matters.

Riordan objected, siding with the Vermont Knolls group in wanting an all-commercial project and saying the housing costs and the city subsidy were too high.

Riordan’s chief of staff, Robin Kramer, noting that there is no formal mechanism for the mayor to rescind a veto decision, said that, based on the “healthy and constructive” tone of last week’s meeting and a general agreement to try to work out a compromise, she hoped the council would allow time for that to happen before taking up the override vote.

Riordan is willing to consider some housing as long as there is “an uptick” on the commercial side. He also wants to reduce city costs and check into the prospects of the city recouping at least part of its investment, Kramer said.

“Not too much should be made over a difference of opinion on the issues, which is what this is about,” Kramer said.

The council has 60 days to act on the veto or let it stand.