U S Cities

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is the best place to live in America and Los Angeles one of the worst, according to a population group that spent a year comparing communities and released its findings today. Zero Population Growth compared cities in what it called the urban stress test, concluding that Cedar Rapids is the least stressful, while Gary, Ind., is the most stressful community.

San Diego Gas & Electric customers were saddled with a bigger rate increase--434.93%--than residents served by any other major American utility over the 12-year period ending in 1983, according to a study to be released today by a regulatory oversight group. The 246-page study, prepared by the Washington, D.C.

One day last month in this normally sun-starved corner of the country, when the temperature reached into the low 60s, residents donned shorts and acted as if summer had come early. That bothered Mayor Greg Nickels -- not the shorts, but the warm weather. The temperature hit the 60s again this month, and with mountain snowpacks alarmingly low and scientists already predicting drought this summer, Nickels said he feared "the profound changes" associated with global warming had reached home.

In a strong indication that ozone pollution in the United States has worsened considerably, the Environmental Protection Agency will report today that the number of cities whose air quality violates U.S. standards has increased by more than 40% in the last year alone. The document, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, reveals that 28 cities previously in compliance with the federal standards fell out of compliance in last summer's survey.

Funeral services for former Los Angeles Postmaster Leslie N. Shaw, chairman of the Private Industry Council of the City of Los Angeles, will be conducted at 9 a.m. Monday at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Los Angeles. The 62-year-old savings and loan executive was the first black to be appointed postmaster of a major U.S. city. He died Wednesday at his home after a long illness. For the last 10 years, he was a vice president of Great Western Financial Corp.

Silent as the night, the two cops were on the men before they knew what was happening. Their bicycles made no noise as they sped along the muddy path under the viaduct. They surprised three prowlers who were watching, from a distance, unsuspecting motorists putting their valuables in car trunks. The prowlers had not yet zeroed in on a good mark in the parking lot, so officers Debbie Brooks and Steve Kilberg found only a hefty screwdriver on them, the kind that could be used to pop open a trunk.

Temperatures that broke national records descended on Orange County on Sunday, with more unseasonable weather expected today. "The warmest temperature anywhere in Southern California [and the nation] was in Santa Ana," said Alan Shoemaker, a meteorologist with Madison, Wis.-based Weather Central Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. The mercury hit 93 degrees there, shattering a 1986 record of 86 degrees. Temperatures are normally in the high 60s in Orange County this time of year.

Negotiations for an agreement between Los Angeles and the federal government over reform of the LAPD cut a wide swath through local government in 2000--and may prove the most lasting monument to a turbulent political year. By the time the deal was struck, Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Chief Bernard C. Parks had argued over how long to fight it. Police Commission President Gerald Chaleff, already at odds with Parks, was further from him than ever, and also had drawn the suspicion of the mayor.

Listen to South-Central Los Angeles today and you'll hear the too familiar sounds of gunfire, sobbing and screams in the night. The city's homicide rate is rising, and most of the recent murders have occurred in South-Central, half of them gang-related. Remember the early '90s, when movies like "Boyz N the Hood" and "Menace II Society," and rap groups like NWA conjured an indelible image of the south-side community as a gang-ridden, crack-addled combat zone?

Money talks here, but oh-so softly. Hidden behind tall hedges, in seafront villas at the end of long driveways, quietly live some of the nation's wealthiest families. Some names are found on discreet markers outside the gates. Those of other current and recent residents come straight from the pages of American history: Mellon, DuPont, Ford, Whitney, Field, Bush, Duke, Doubleday. Sure, there is new money here too.