Los Angeles’ Quiet Angel

This month marks an important civic anniversary for Los Angeles residents. But there haven’t been any fireworks to commemorate the occasion, and no banners have been hung from city street lights. Instead, the 75th birthday of the Haynes Foundation has been marked more by routine than celebration in the organization’s downtown offices and in this city, so long the beneficiary of its good works.

The John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation is one of this region’s gems, an institution that came of age with the city. It prefers to do its work quietly, focusing its efforts on what was once quaintly called “civic improvement” or “the betterment of our fellow citizens.”

The Hayneses, who hailed from Pennsylvania, arrived in Los Angeles in 1883 to find this once-pueblo experiencing its first major real estate explosion. A physician and a shrewd investor, John Haynes quickly amassed a fortune, and he and Dora developed an enduring interest in local Progressive politics. John played a major role in state and local campaigns for public ownership of utilities. Remembered as the ‘father of direct legislation,” he was also pivotal in California’s adoption of the initiative, the referendum and the recall.

The Hayneses created the foundation in 1926 to continue their interest in Los Angeles government and civic causes. Their initial instructions directed trustees to promote public ownership of utilities, better working and living conditions and better city government--priorities as relevant today as they were 75 years ago.

Like many foundations, the Haynes organization funds research projects and lectures. But to an extraordinary degree, these sober, academic activities have borne fruit far outside academe, prompting real improvements for ordinary residents.

A recent analysis of why street crimes occur at certain bus stops more than others led transit agencies here to relocate some stops and redesign others, causing crime to drop.

Another project, by highlighting the ef-forts of immigrant religious institutions to teach civic involvement, is helping local political leaders generate more such participation. Still other work has promoted innovative strategies to improve air quality and public transit.

The list is long. The legacy of the foundation that John and Dora Haynes began literally fills a book now--the foundation’s history, published in 1999. But we think this 75th anniversary calls for a little public recognition as well: Happy birthday to a local treasure.