Over the past four decades, Los Angeles has grown from a sprawling suburb into a major center of political, economic and cultural activity under the leadership of just four mayors. Of them, two are widely regarded as successes.
If Antonio Villaraigosa, who publicly takes the oath of office Friday as the city's 41st mayor, is to join that list, he faces three tasks above all, according to veterans of the city's political life: embracing the national stature of the office, solidifying the city's political coalitions around him and maintaining control over the Los Angeles Police Department.
"Big-city mayors need to embody their city," said Bob Hertzberg, a former Assembly speaker who was a political rival of Villaraigosa but now acts as an advisor. "You have to manage the details and use the bully pulpit. You have to personify the city."
Mayor James K. Hahn, whom Villaraigosa defeated last month, was widely criticized for failing in that task. Some of Hahn's advisors urged him to raise his profile and claim a national stage, noting that Los Angeles voters have warmed to mayors they perceived as capturing the city's charm and energy.
But Hahn rejected that advice, relying instead on the example set by his father, Kenneth Hahn, whose long tenure as a county supervisor was marked by attention to the tiniest details of constituent service.
On a political level, Hahn also proved unable to sustain the coalition that elected him.
As for the LAPD, all mayors soon learn that the department can make life easy -- or very, very hard.
Even Tom Bradley, the five-term mayor widely regarded as the city's most effective modern leader, discovered the hard way what happens when the LAPD gets away from a mayor.
In the aftermath of the 1991 beating of Rodney G. King and the trial of the LAPD officers responsible, Bradley and then-Chief Daryl F. Gates stopped speaking.
The following year, when the acquittals of those officers precipitated riots, Los Angeles' mayor and chief were busy fighting over reform of the Police Department and avoiding each other. The resulting catastrophe brought both their careers to unhappy conclusions.
In an interview last week, Villaraigosa was cautious about predicting success early but said he was listening to experienced city leaders and attempting to learn the lessons of those who have gone before him.
"A job like this," Villaraigosa said, "gives you the opportunity to have a transformative administration."
