Signal From an L.A. Poll: Mayor, Help Unite Angelenos : The public is demanding strong leadership from Riordan

Last summer a Times poll showed that Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s honeymoon with the city’s voters was over. From dramatically high approval ratings of more than 70% in the San Fernando Valley and nearly 60% citywide in the wake of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Riordan’s numbers had plummeted, especially in the Valley. Now, a new Times poll shows that the Riordan free fall is over, at least for the present. The mayor’s approval rating in the Valley, while still below 50%, has stabilized. The same is true in the city as a whole.

Most important for the mayor, the poll shows strong support for his contention that residents should not have to pay higher taxes to finance a bigger Police Department. The poll results also indicate that Angelenos are in sync with the mayor in supporting a breakup of the Los Angeles Unified School District and in opposing the proposed secession of the Valley from the city.

Still, there are broad reasons for concern in the mayor’s office, such as the finding that one out of four people polled have yet to decide how to rate Riordan at all. That’s unusual in the case of a mayor finishing the third year of a four-year term.

Is the mayor a strong and decisive leader who is helping the city’s image? The Times poll says yes, he is. But on the bread-and-butter issue of bringing jobs to the city, the poll rates Riordan as “not so good,” and his efforts at improving race relations in the city are also seen as “not so good.”

The poll shows the mayor, a probable candidate for reelection next year, would thrash potential and unlikely opponents alike, but that may have less to do with Riordan than with the immense dissatisfaction showed for other local elected officials, such as members of the City Council. In other words, with a mayoral election around the corner, this is no time for Riordan to relax. Especially troubling, for example, is the image of a mayor who has failed to gain broad support in an increasingly multiethnic city. Only 30% of African Americans polled supported the mayor, while 66% of Latinos went into either the disapproval or “don’t know” category.

So Riordan has thus far failed to show that he can be a consensus builder, a unifying force, a leader for the city as a whole. Correcting that should be high on his agenda in the coming year.

One action he should consider: involving himself more in efforts to bring the city together. Riordan has done well in promoting major civic events, like the L.A. Marathon; however, some of the more direct, hands-on efforts to confront and diffuse racial and ethnic tensions, such as the previously held Days of Dialogue, also should be embraced by the mayor.

On other fronts, the Times poll made the first solid measure of whether there is a storm of support for Valley secession or whether it’s just a lot of hot air. An underwhelming 46% of the Valley’s registered voters would cast ballots to secede. Even more important, more than half of those voters would change their minds if it meant that they would have to pay higher taxes and fees to break away and establish a separate city.

“I think the main reason people want to sever their ties to Los Angeles is that they want to get away from problems they see, like crime and violence. But we have the same problems here in the Valley,” a Northridge law student told a Times pollster. “So we might as well work through them with the help of the city and all its resources.”

That’s sound thinking, and it points back to the unifying role that Mayor Riordan must play in the city.