Riordan Upbeat in Assessing State of the City

Sounding themes reminiscent of his first campaign and foreshadowing the next, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan on Tuesday delivered an upbeat, wide-ranging State of the City speech that painted Los Angeles as a metropolis that has turned the bend on the road to recovery.

The address, which elicited widely varying responses, also hinted the mayor has some strong--and controversial--medicine in the proposed city budget he will release Friday.

Riordan claimed progress on a number of fronts--including more jobs, more police and less crime. And he outlined new plans to further goals he has pushed since making his first run for the mayor’s office in 1993--better public safety, improved neighborhoods and a friendlier, more efficient City Hall. He also talked at some length about public education, a field that lies outside his purview as mayor but long has held his interest as an influential entrepreneur and philanthropist.

“Los Angeles has turned the corner. A spirit of renewal is in the air . . . it’s sweeping our city,” Riordan said. “But tough choices lie ahead if we are to reach our shared vision for our city.”

He praised city employees but put them on notice that he will push for eliminating “services that the city has no business being involved in” and will seek to “scale back the size of government to reflect current economic realities,” phrases that implied that jobs will be lost.

Riordan and his staff would not elaborate. “Stay tuned for Friday,” one senior aide told reporters during a post-speech news conference.

But in his speech, the mayor detailed several new initiatives:

* Several steps to spur community revitalization, including expansion of the Los Angeles Neighborhoods Initiative and planning a Neighborhoods Convention to allow residents to share ideas and resources. On Tuesday, he also assigned Deputy Mayor Sharon Morris to oversee neighborhood development efforts.

* A promise to increase tourism by creating a “Hollywood renaissance” that would bring the deteriorated, crime-plagued sections of the area back to their former glory.

* Appointment of four civic leaders to oversee a communitywide review of city operations, including a series of workshops at local high schools so residents can give their views of city services. The panel, made up of former city commissioners, consists of retired Superior Court Judge Dana Henry; Connie Rice of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Rabbi Gary Greenebaum of the American Jewish Committee, and Steve Yslas of Northrop Corp.

* More city involvement in public education issues and expansion of a city-sponsored after-school program.

* Pledges to continue Police Department expansion, to add to the Fire Department’s budget and to add library and other city services without raising taxes.

The speech was delivered in a garden-party setting on City Hall’s south lawn with a color guard and a large banner boasting “Together We’re the Best.” But although the mayor received a standing ovation at the end, his speech evoked little emotional response and only a couple of outbursts of tepid applause from the audience of invited guests--elected officials, business leaders, Riordan supporters and a host of active citizens (Riordan called them “angels”) that he singled out for praise in his speech.

Nonetheless, once the Hollywood High School band had finished playing “Hooray for Hollywood” and the audience had drifted away from the tables laden with coffee and pastries, reaction poured in, strong and unequivocal.

“Excellent,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, whom Riordan credited for spurring an interest in community involvement. “It showed he has an honest understanding of where the city is and what it’s problems are. He identified most of the major issues.”

Wachs, one of several candidates bested by Riordan for the city’s top office three years ago, also liked the mayor’s low-key, matter-of-fact tone. The mayor has worked hard, with mixed results, to overcome his generally wooden delivery.

“This was not a straight campaign speech . . . it may not have elicited a lot of response, but I think he wisely traded an electrifying speech with lots of fancy phrases for a frank discussion of the issues,” Wachs said.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, one of the council’s most vocal critics of the mayor, didn’t see it that way at all.

“Many of us are still looking for some articulation of a vision for the city,” Ridley-Thomas said, dismissing the address as “a string of particulars” and saying Riordan “is quite inclined to cheerlead, but the question is, is he able to lead?”

Councilman Mike Feuer said he was disappointed in the mayor’s “glaring omission” of any reference to race relations, a troubling and complicated issue in the nation’s most diverse city.

State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), who has all but declared his intention to challenge Riordan’s reelection bid next year, also got his licks in. He called the speech a “classic case of boosterism” and complained that Riordan even took credit for the region’s good weather while omitting any mention of issues Hayden would be sure to exploit, including the trouble-plagued subway system and “issues of corruption and conflicts of interest.”

Another possible challenger, Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City), could not be reached for comment.

A coalition of public employee unions also responded to the part about tough budget choices and the reference to eliminating some city functions.

“In order for the city to maintain public confidence that it is solving problems in an effective manner, it must continue to invest in its public resources at a level which arrests deterioration and improves the quality of life,” the Coalition of City Unions said in a written statement.

While the mayor spoke, a knot of Hollywood Hills dwellers stood nearby to protest the extension of the Metro Rail subway beneath their homes. They held their hand-lettered signs aloft during the entire 40-minute speech: “Hear us, Mayor Riordan, Stop Stonewalling,” “Stop the MTA Gravy Train,” “Save Runyon Canyon.”

But the mayor’s strongest political ally, Councilman Richard Alatorre, skipped Riordan’s speech altogether. Although Alatorre said he had read it, he declined to comment until some of the cryptic allusions to the budget proposals are sketched out. As chairman of the council’s Budget and Finance Committee, Alatorre will be a key player in shaping the fate of the mayor’s fiscal proposals.

“I want to see the budget, and then I’ll tell you,” he said.

* BILL BOYARSKY: San Fernando Valley secession movement can’t be ignored. B1

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Mayor’s Main Points

Here are some highlights of Mayor Richard Riordan’s third annual State of the City speech:

ACHIEVEMENTS CITED

* Partial overhaul of city’s expensive and cumbersome development permit system, still to be completed.

* Addition of time-saving computers and other technology to the Police Department and many city offices.

* A role in creating 61,000 new jobs countywide.

* Start of a Community Development Bank to spur businesses in the poorest parts of town.

* Formation of the Los Angeles Neighborhoods Initiative and other groups aimed at community self-improvement.

* Persuading, with tax breaks and other incentives, entertainment company DreamWorks SKG to locate in the city; taking steps to extend the same incentives to others willing to come to town.

* Expansion of the police force; a drop in crime.

* Budgets that have added services without tax increases.

GOALS AND INITIATIVES

* Overhaul of city business tax structure.

* Steps to spur community revitalization, including expansion of the Los Angeles Neighborhoods Initiative, planning for a Neighborhoods Convention to enable residents to share ideas and resources, and naming Deputy Mayor Sharon Morris to oversee neighborhood development efforts.

* Appointment of four civic leaders to oversee a community review of city operations, including a series of workshops at high schools to hear from residents about their views of city services.

* More city involvement in public education issues and expansion of a city-sponsored after-school program.

* Continued Police Department expansion, addition of library and other services without raising taxes, and elimination of several as yet unspecified city programs deemed unnecessary or inappropriate.