Riordan’s ‘Valley Tour’

Mayor Richard Riordan’s schedule for Wednesday could have been called “The 1996 Valley tour.”

For the first time in recent memory, the mayor packed six San Fernando Valley events into an eight-hour period, including a breakfast with Realtors, a chat with a bagel store owner and meetings with senior citizens, students, police and a Neighborhood Watch group.

But don’t suggest that all this flesh pressing is an early start to Riordan’s campaign for reelection next year in an area that was key to putting him in office three years ago. And don’t hint that the events are intended to quell secession talk among disgruntled Valley residents.

Riordan and his staff members insist he is simply trying to consolidate his events to one area to cut down on his driving time--a strategy former Mayor Tom Bradley called an “area day.”

During his daylong visit, Riordan praised the Valley as the heart of the city’s middle class and talked up the number of police that would be hired under his proposed budget while taking shots at the City Council, accusing it of waffling on his plans to hire more officers.

“The San Fernando Valley is a very key part of the puzzle for the future of Los Angeles,” he told a breakfast gathering of the San Fernando Valley Assn. of Realtors in Studio City.

Although he shrugged off suggestions that his public schedule was influenced by secession talk, Riordan was clear that he opposed any breakaway effort.

“I think the secession would be terrible for the Valley and the city of Los Angeles, and I think what we have to do in City Hall is to give more and more services to the Valley,” he told the group. “But I think the Valley has to look both at the pluses and the minuses. You would lose revenue from various parts of the city, [like] the DWP, the ports, the airport.”

Whatever the reasons for his multi-event Valley tour, his visit is seen as politically astute.

“He is paying attention to an important constituency for him,” said Sherry Jeffe Bebitch, a senior associate at the Center for Politics and Economic Studies at Claremont Graduate School. “Clearly, it sounds like an election campaign schedule and it’s not too early to start.”

And despite what Riordan says, Valley activists believe the talk of secession and a bill by Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) to make secession easier has forced the mayor to pay more attention to residents north of Mulholland Drive.

“I think the mayor spending this much time in the Valley is good,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. “It shows he is paying attention to us.”

According to his public schedule, Riordan has visited the Valley twice in February, four times in March, six times in April and twice thus far in the first week of May.

“It’s not a question of campaigning but of being the mayor,” Riordan press deputy Noelia Rodriguez said. “What you are seeing is a package of activities.”

Still, Riordan’s events and speeches at times took on the air of a campaign tour.

He often talked about the number of new police hired since he took office and he praised his administration’s efforts to streamline the permit process to make it easier to open businesses in the city.

As an example of someone who has benefited from his efforts, Riordan visited Noah Alper in Sherman Oaks. Alper has opened five Noah’s Bagels shops in Los Angeles over the past year.

After giving the mayor a tour of his shop and giving him a free sample, Alper praised Riordan’s business team for helping him work quickly through the permit process.

“It’s been fabulous,” Alper said.

But one of Alper’s customers, Bruce Joseph, whose breakfast was interrupted by Riordan and the phalanx of aides, reporters and photographers that followed him, was not too impressed.

“I like him but the only time you see him is when he is running,” he said.

While addressing a class at Cal State Northridge on the history of Los Angeles, Riordan said the city is undergoing a “renaissance” that began shortly after the Northridge earthquake.

The city’s economy has created thousands of jobs in recent years while violent crime rates have at the same time dropped dramatically, he told the class of about 60 students.

Repeating one of his longtime theories, Riordan said the county’s education system often fails to teach because individual schools and administrators do not have the power to be creative and are not held responsible when they fail.

“The problem with education is governance,” he told the class.

At one point, one of the students tried to corner Riordan to take a position on the California Civil Rights Initiative, the controversial ballot measure to end affirmative action in schools and government.

Riordan said he would not take a public position on either the CCRI or Proposition 187, the measure to preclude illegal immigrants from getting public services, because both measures are so divisive.

“No matter what position I take, I will upset some group,” he said.

At a meeting with police and a police advisory group in Mission Hills to brainstorm on crime-fighting efforts, Riordan talked up the so-called “broken window” theory, which suggests that a broken window left unrepaired will attract other blight.

He told the residents and business owners to be more active in fighting blight and minor crime in their neighborhoods to keep communities from deteriorating completely and attracting more serious crime, such as robberies and shootings.

“What we have to do is start with a grass-roots effort,” he said. “In other words, you’re the ones that make it happen.”

But he said his efforts to fight crime have been hampered by the City Council, which he accused of questioning his police hiring plan and his plan to crack down on teenagers who violate late-night curfews.

“Tell your council members that you are in favor of more police and curfew enforcement,” he told the group.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Riordan’s Valley Tour

8:15-9 a.m.

Breakfast with the San Fernando Valley Assn. of Realtors in Studio City.

9:10-9:25 a.m.

Meet in Sherman Oaks with Noah Alper, who opened five Noah’s Bagels shops in Los Angeles.

10-11 a.m.

Meet with senior citizens at the Motion Picture and Television Country House in Woodland Hills.

12-12:50 p.m.

Speak to students at Cal State Northridge on the future of Los Angeles.

2-3 p.m.

Visit Los Angeles police and members of Foothill Division Community Police Advisory Council in Mission Hills.

3:30-4:30 p.m.

Visit students at Langdon Avenue School in North Hills.