A Race Across the City

The two candidates for mayor of Los Angeles campaigned across the city Sunday, reiterating their views on major issues, but also addressing smaller issues, such as the health effects of a controversial landfill and the date of the Los Angeles Marathon.

In the afternoon, Mayor James K. Hahn and his challenger, City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, met separately at a South Los Angeles high school with One L.A., an organization of religious leaders, educators and union workers.

Both pledged to increase the number of police officers and to create safer and better schools.

However, they disagreed with One L.A.’s support for an “inclusionary zoning” ordinance that would require developers to set aside a percentage of new homes as affordable housing.

One proposal is currently under consideration by the City Council, but both Hahn and Villaraigosa believe it would drive developers into more business-friendly cities nearby.

“I don’t want to do anything that I think will ... discourage building more houses,” said Hahn.

Villaraigosa said that any inclusionary zoning law would need to “provide the kind of incentives so the developer can make some money.”

One L.A. and its members from the northeast San Fernando Valley are also worried about the health effects of the Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley and are insistent that its capacity not be increased. They are also concerned about proposals to put a transfer station on the site, where trash would be stored until it was shipped out of the city to dumps farther afield, possibly in the Antelope Valley or Riverside County.

For nearby residents, the dump is an emotional issue.

Father Richard Zanotti, a Sun Valley priest, invited Hahn to the neighborhood and offered these directions: “Just follow all the garbage trucks.”

Hahn said he was against expanding the landfill, and received applause when he said that a transfer station there was “probably not the best idea,” since the area has borne so much of the burden of taking L.A.’s trash over the years.

Villaraigosa also received warm applause when he promised with a simple “yes” to oppose expanding the dump.

One L.A. includes a number of high-ranking religious leaders, and they highlighted another issue, a new one to the mayoral campaign. They said their followers are often prevented from attending church on one Sunday a year by the Los Angeles Marathon, which winds through multiple neighborhoods and closes numerous streets.

Hahn said he would try to get the event moved to the Monday of Presidents Day weekend.

Villaraigosa said he had just learned that the marathon was an issue. But he said he would “work with our communities to find an answer to this problem.”

The city’s abundance of micro-issues is matched by its dizzying diversity of culture and terrain, and on Sunday the campaign spanned the tony hills of Bel-Air, the working-class flats of South Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, and the Byzantine-Latino Quarter in the heart of the city.

Villaraigosa stopped by a Wild West-themed festival at the John Thomas Dye School, a Bel-Air private school with a commanding view of the Westside.

He emerged from a black sedan in a blue shirt, black slacks and black loafers to find himself surrounded by lawyers and entertainment moguls, some of them decked out in cowboy hats and bandannas.

Waiting for him in a pair of pointy boots was Ben Murphy, a lawyer from Pacific Palisades, and his wife, Dilys.

The Murphys said they liked that Villaraigosa seemed to be embracing the idea of building a more traditional city, with denser housing and better public transportation. “All speaks to making L.A. a real city,” Ben Murphy said.

At a booth that announced raffle winners and lost children, school Principal Ray Michaud introduced the candidate as “Anthony Villaraigosa” about three times.

Jordan Bender, a money manager from Westwood, was there with his 3-year-old daughter, Sarah. Bender told the candidate: “I think you’ll be fantastic. The city’s ready for a change, and there’s a lot to fix.”

Brad Sterling, an entertainment agent, was there with his daughter Ryan, who will soon be of school age. He greeted the candidate enthusiastically, saying he likes Villaraigosa’s plan to give the mayor more say over the Los Angeles Unified School District. “I think he stands for things that are important to me, and I think we need a change,” he said.

Sterling said he’d like to send his daughter to public school. But he said he wasn’t sure she could get a quality education. “We’d love to be able to go to the neighborhood school, but we just don’t know if it’s right for us,” he said.

For members of the Greek Orthodox Church, Sunday was Easter. The early afternoon found Hahn at St. Sophia Cathedral on South Normandie Avenue, slapping backs, shaking hands and saluting revelers with the traditional greeting, “Christos Anesti,” which means “Christ is risen.”

His first greeting was directed at an old friend and longtime supporter, John Papadakis, a former USC football star and co-owner of the Papadakis Taverna in Hahn’s neighborhood in San Pedro.

When the gregarious Papadakis threw open his arms, the notably reserved mayor raised his hands, snapped both fingers, and shuffled for a moment, Zorba-like, to the doleful sounds of the Greek band.

Hahn worked the crowd, listening to concerns about illegal street vendors, the Police Department’s treatment of immigrants and a host of other issues.

The mayor’s campaigning had the whiff of old-school neighborhood politics, the kind practiced in the boroughs and wards of cities to the east. When the band finished playing, Papadakis took the stage and saluted Hahn’s work on reforming the Police Department, strengthening education and improving quality of life.

“He’s a great man. You’ve gotta stick behind this Irishman,” Papadakis said. “He’s a great public servant in the Greek tradition.”