... More Flies With Honey

Mayor Richard Riordan’s repeated charge that breaking up Los Angeles would be “downright immoral” got an expert hearing last week, although not a confirmation. A panel appointed by the Council of Religious Leaders, a collective of the city’s mainline Christian and Jewish clergy, is investigating the ethical implications of San Fernando Valley, harbor area and Hollywood secession at the request of Cardinal Roger Mahony, a council member. Secession leaders, already none too happy at being called immoral by the mayor, point to the cardinal’s friendship with the Catholic Riordan and see a plot to quash their efforts.

Claiming that secession would be an abandonment of the poor by the affluent, as Riordan does, plays into stereotypes of the Valley. Anyone who has spent time in the Valley or perused the census 2000 figures knows it is not the homogenous, white-flight enclave it once was. The Valley’s Latino population, for example, grew four times as fast as in the rest of Los Angeles in the past decade and now nearly equals the white population.

The Valley remains a stronghold of the city’s middle class, particularly along its hilly southern edge, but in the flatlands and especially in the northeast more than 30% of residents live in poverty. Half lack health insurance, one of the highest concentrations in the nation. Many families live in garages or share cramped apartments.

As the city’s top elected official, Riordan has been right to speak out against breaking up Los Angeles. There are legitimate questions to ask about secession’s effect on services to the poor, which the Council of Religious Leaders panel will try to measure by looking at federal and other funding. But scolding--even scolding that isn’t based on outdated stereotypes and doesn’t make sweeping generalizations about morality--tends to stiffen resistance more than persuade.

What Los Angeles needs is a mayor who can make a convincing argument for keeping the city together, an argument that has not been articulated clearly enough in the campaign leading up to the June 5 runoff election. Candidates James K. Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa are vying to be the next mayor of Los Angeles. Unless they want to be mayor of a far different city, they need to show how persuasive they can be.