California Commentary

California has always been a place that rewarded people who were willing to take risks. From the Forty-Niners to the oil wildcatters and Dust Bowl migrants, to Silicon Valley garage geniuses and "boat people," our history is the story of people who risked everything for a better future. Risks, innovation, change are a part of who we are as Californians. As California changes, we must shape the future to keep our state competitive.

In elections, as in courtship, it's passion that counts. In Tuesday's election, it was the San Fernando Valley that had the passion, providing 42% of the citywide vote and, finally, the victory. Unlike its dependably solid turnout in L.A. mayoral elections past, the Westside couldn't have cared less; its 18% of the turnout equaled the rates in the South and Central areas.

According to The Times exit poll, those who voted for Richard Riordan want him to turn Los Angeles around. But the voters in Tuesday's city election made it much harder for him to do so when they also turned down Proposition 3, which would have exempted managers from Civil Service protection. If any one class took a drubbing, it was the politician.

Mr. Mayor: We all feel battered, as though we have been dragged against our will into a vicious character-assassination contest. But now you have won. And you owe it to us to become the strong, risk-taking regional leader we need. Here are a few thoughts that might be helpful as you undertake your new challenge. 1) The goal is not diversity. The goal is effectiveness.

Now more than ever, the state of California needs honesty, discipline and accountability to get its fiscal house back in order. But judging by the Wilson Administration's revised budget plan, the governor's idea of housecleaning is to continue to cram some problems into the closet and sweep others under the rug.

Over the past several weeks, there has been a startling public exchange of harsh comments between the two leading African-American politicians in Los Angeles--Mayor Tom Bradley and Rep. Maxine Waters. Waters criticized Bradley's mayoralty and regretted that the black community had not held him more strictly accountable. Bradley and a group of other black politicians responded angrily, accusing Waters of being one who would rather talk than deliver. What does this remarkable public argument mean?

The departure of Peter Ueberroth from the chairmanship of Rebuild L.A. leaves an enormous void within the economic leadership in Southern California. Whatever his shortcomings, and they are legion, Ueberroth to many represented the only effective national business spokesman for a region desperately in need of strong advocacy. Certainly it seems inconceivable that any of Ueberroth's four co-chairs could even begin to fill his shoes in the foreseeable future.

I didn't know anything about Bruce Lee, never saw one of his movies, but when the lights came up, my brother Will and I looked at each other and said, almost simultaneously, "Finally." We both knew what we meant. Finally, a mainstream movie about a contemporary American, backed by mainstream money, supported by a mainstream advertising campaign, marketed to mainstream audiences nationwide. In other words, finally a mainstream movie about us for everybody. Don't get me wrong.

The split-the-difference verdict in the Rodney King civil-rights case purchased only a reprieve for a system whose social structure still smolders. Since May, 1992, a multiracial group of 50 scholars and activists at the Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles has painstakingly studied the history, social dynamics and economic structures of Los Angeles and the nation to form a strategic vision for a more focused and long-term "urban rebellion."

If the steel-mesh curtain that federal authorities have raised between San Diego and Tijuana were to spread like a Berlin Wall all along the border, sealing off the state entirely from new immigration, California's already stumbling economy would be brought to its knees. Our state's economic health is, and for the foreseeable future will remain, heavily dependent on immigrant labor.