Racial Relations Los Angeles

While civil rights leaders report that race relations in Los Angeles have remained stagnant in recent years, they point to several community-based programs and dialogues as positive signs. Joe Hicks, executive director of the city's Human Relations Commission, and Angela E. Oh, a representative of a national commission on race, told a city panel Wednesday that small improvements in local communities are a good beginning toward better understanding among the races and a more unified society.

Los Angeles has a message for President Clinton about race: It's more complicated than black and white. In an effort to broaden the president's initiative on race from a discussion of black-white relations to a debate about a multiracial society, Los Angeles community leaders have produced a video examining the county's shifting racial makeup. Consider it a primer on diversity, L.A.-style.

Students need to be more aware of sexual harassment and must respect cultural differences, according to a group of 55 students who attended a meeting Tuesday at Carson High School on strengthening the community and reducing violence. Last week students attended a one-day retreat sponsored by Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren's Youth Council on Violence Prevention to discuss strategies to improve communities through nonviolent efforts.

An LAPD sergeant said Monday that he has sued Mayor Richard Riordan alleging that the mayor slandered him last year by calling him a "racist." "This man has destroyed my career," Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Ronnie Cato said of the mayor. "How can I effectively do my job now?" Riordan allegedly called Cato a "racist" when responding in July to a letter the sergeant wrote to city officials concerning then-Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker.

Now and then, when a dark mood strikes, Kevin Toshima returns to the Westwood Village street where his older sister was killed and tries to envision the last moments of one of Los Angeles' most famous innocent bystanders. He thinks about how Karen never saw the young South L.A. gunman who fired twice into a crowd of Saturday night strollers 10 years ago today while trying to shoot a rival gangster.

We know Los Angeles is a place where image is all that matters, so long as you've got enough smoke and mirrors to hide the truth. But sometimes even the thickest smoke and the brightest mirrors can't keep the truth from peeping out. That's what happened recently at the Hollywood Roosevelt when I saw an announcement for a Checchi for Governor press conference. I thought I could see Al Checchi in person, rather than through his favorite medium, a television commercial.

Nearly every Friday for three decades, John D. Alexander and George T. Kopoulos have gotten together for their noon Rotary Club meeting at the Odyssey Restaurant in Granada Hills. Over lunch, the longtime friends help plan community service projects, catch up on each other's families and swap eggplant recipes.

Nearly every Friday for three decades, John D. Alexander and George T. Kopoulos have gotten together for their noon Rotary Club meeting at the Odyssey Restaurant. Over lunch, the longtime friends help plan community service projects, catch up on each other's families and swap eggplant recipes. Alexander, an African American from Pacoima, and Kopoulos, a Greek American from North Hills, have seemingly set aside racial, cultural and ethnic barriers and formed an enduring relationship.

From Frenchie's Patio Soul Food on Western Avenue to the Getty Museum in Brentwood to St. Brigid's Catholic Church, Angelenos will come together in scores of places this week to talk. And organizers hope it will be the kind of candid talk usually reserved for close friends with shared biases--risky talk about issues that people too often prefer to avoid. These conversations have their genesis in reactions to the O.J.