Kenneth Hahn

Re "People's Politician Hahn Dies," Oct. 13: In the winter of 1967, as a freshman at the then Pepperdine College's South-Central campus, a fellow classmate, Jim Hahn, took myself and several other guys to his dad's downtown office for a tour. I was a bit taken aback when we entered the Hall of Administration and proceeded to the office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. Jim introduced us to his dad and nearly 30 years later I still remember Hahn's broad smile and outstretched hand.

The growth of the city's Latino and Asian populations since Tom Bradley left office in 1993 after 20 years as the city's first black mayor has left African Americans facing an inevitable decline in political power. In the May 21 election, an African American may lose a South Los Angeles council seat for the first time in 50 years. In the mayoral contest, South Los Angeles remains a major battleground, and - if the candidates' attention to the community is a fair gauge - black voters could hold the key to selecting the city's next chief executive.

The downtown Hall of Administration, the seat of Los Angeles County government, was officially renamed on Tuesday in honor of Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who is retiring in December after 40 years on the Board of Supervisors. Hahn has represented South-Central Los Angeles and neighboring communities since 1952, earning a reputation as a liberal reformer who helped bring to his district badly needed social services, including the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

The last time there was nobody by the name of Hahn in L.A. politics, there was a man by the name of Truman in the White House. Now Janice Hahn moves her political game from the Los Angeles City Council to a place down the road from the executive mansion: Congress. Daughter of legendary county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, sister of former Mayor James Hahn, the Democrat won the special election to replace Jane Harman in the coastal/South Bay 36th Congressional District. I talked to her en route from the airport into Washington, less than 48 hours before her swearing-in.

Los Angeles would not be the same if not for Kenneth Hahn, the legendary former County Supervisor who died Sunday. I think it's also accurate to say he played a prominent role in changing baseball and, by extension, America. When the powers that were in Los Angeles decided to seek a major league team, Hahn, a 36-year-old, first-term supervisor, was assigned the mission. No one imagined he would be so successful.

It's been said of longtime Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn that he was so folksy he could put his arm around you on the telephone. That's not far off the mark. The veteran political warrior, 71, has decided that it's time to hang up the phone, if not the hugs and handshakes. Hahn told The Times he will retire next June.

The chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Monday said that Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, hospitalized by a stroke since Jan. 11, "may not return" to his job. Chairman Mike Antonovich gave the assessment of the veteran supervisor's future when questioned at a Hall of Administration press conference. It was one of the most pessimistic appraisals of Hahn's condition heard yet and Antonovich was asked if he had any specific information to substantiate his comment.

Supervisor Kenneth Hahn called Friday for a restart of stalled negotiations between the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission and the Raiders, saying the city loves its football team and doesn't want to lose it. Hahn appeared at a press conference with a cross section of community leaders who voiced their wish that the Raiders stay in Los Angeles. "We worked very hard to get them here," Hahn said. "We would be very foolish to lose them to some city up north."

A man who has plenty of water met a man who wants it Thursday. Alaska Gov. Walter Hickel came to Los Angeles to meet with County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who has enthusiastically endorsed a plan to build a 1,700-mile pipeline to bring water from the 49th state to drought-stricken Southern California. Hickel has pushed for an Alaska-to-California water pipeline since the 1960s.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, at the request of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, on Tuesday revived consideration of a proposed country club development in Topanga Canyon, breathing new life into one of the longest zoning disputes in county history. The 12-year battle over the proposed Montevideo Country Club and an adjoining housing tract had appeared to be over just two weeks ago, when the board denied county permits needed for the project to proceed.

Caffie Greene, a longtime community activist who played a key role in the effort to bring a major hospital to South Los Angeles after the 1965 Watts riots, died Tuesday at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. She was 91 and had a number of ailments, including pneumonia and heart failure, said her daughter, Penny Greene. Greene belonged to a formidable group of mothers from Watts who became a grass-roots force for community improvement after the riots, which left 34 people dead and more than 1,000 injured.

Antonio Villaraigosa has reigned over Los Angeles for four years with the same guile and keen political instincts he used to dethrone the sitting mayor in 2005. Those skills have won him national attention and allowed him to recover from what he refers to as "the mistake that looms over all others": the self-inflicted humiliation two years ago of an affair with a television news anchor that ended his 20-year marriage and damaged his standing with many voters.

Days after Los Angeles County began its most recent round of downsizing at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, Yong Tai Kim, the 73-year-old owner of a Denny's restaurant across the street, said he could already feel the squeeze. Lunchtime crowds were smaller. Hospital workers were missing, and the families of patients were not filling his booths as they did in the past. "If it continues like this, I don't know if I can continue," Kim said. "We have 30 people, and I may have to let some go."

When James K. Hahn won his first elected office as Los Angeles city controller in June 1981, Mayor Tom Bradley hailed the victory as nothing less than the launch of a "dynasty." There was talk that the 30-year-old son of the revered county supervisor, Kenneth Hahn, would run for governor someday. "Because of his name, everybody will be watching with high expectations," said Nate Holden, a future city councilman who was a Hahn campaign advisor at the time.

Allies of James K. Hahn have launched the first ad in the race for mayor of Los Angeles, a radio commercial designed to bolster Hahn's support among African American voters. The commercial, paid for by the Service Employees International Union, began running last week on KKBT-FM, (100.3) a radio station that is popular with African American listeners. Hahn won the mayor's office in part because he had strong backing from African Americans.

If Charles Robinson is lucky this morning, he will be living in a postcard. If the weather cooperates, this week's rains will have washed every trace of smog from the air and a breeze will have chased away the storm clouds. And glistening before him in the crystal-clear sunshine will be a sharply defined downtown Los Angeles skyline, rising like a glittering gemstone set against a backdrop of snow-covered mountains in the distance.

A rainbow of "Kenny's people" showed up Thursday at a Lawndale mortuary to pay their final respects to their beloved friend, former Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. Blacks, whites, Latinos and Asians--some attired in Sunday finery and others in T-shirts, baseball caps and shorts--each spent a moment at the open casket, which was draped with the county flag that Hahn designed.

He always traveled with a shovel in his car trunk--the better for impromptu groundbreakings--and his eyes open for any pothole bold enough to disfigure the streets of his beloved 2nd District. His accomplishments range from the ballclub he helped lure from Brooklyn to the freeway call boxes he championed to the myriad civic edifices bearing his name.

Airlines that carry almost half the passenger traffic at Los Angeles International Airport criticized key components of Mayor James K. Hahn's $9.6-billion renovation plan in a strongly worded letter sent to the city agency that operates LAX. The message marks the first time that the carriers, who have been widely rumored to be unhappy with the mayor's recently released modernization proposal, have gone on the record with their concerns.

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn is trying to buy enough Pothole Killers, asphalt-toting trucks that fill street crevices twice as quickly as a two-person crew, to patch every city pothole within hours of a complaint.