Riordan: A Different Breed of White Male?

People have wondered if Richard Riordan is a throwback to Los Angeles’ bad old days when a small group of rich downtown white guys ran L.A.

Their era extended from early in the century until the ‘70s, when death began to thin the ranks of those swashbuckling Southland entrepreneurs. The rest lost their power--and inordinate influence in City Hall--to a declining economy, mergers and company bankruptcies.

During the recent campaign, some of Riordan’s critics said that it was a disgrace that Los Angeles--a modern, multiethnic, multicultural city--might be governed by a 63-year-old white male millionaire. A giant step backward, they said.

But Riordan may be a different breed.

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I thought of such a possibility the night before the election when I attended a South-Central L.A. meeting of the Southern California Organizing Committee.

The meeting place, St. Agnes Catholic Church, was more than half filled with the working-class Latinos and African-American members of the committee, a grass-roots group working to improve life in poorer neighborhoods. The session was to have been a final campaign face-off between Riordan and his opponent, Michael Woo, occurring just an hour after their last television debate. But Woo canceled and Riordan had the platform to himself.

His speech was the same one he’d been delivering all year--more cops, better schools, a government that cares, etc. What was unusual was the reception by the audience, which gave Riordan standing ovations during and after his speech. Poor people cheering the rich guy? That wasn’t in the critics’ script.

The script, however, was incomplete. The first time I heard Riordan speak was at an SCOC meeting in a small church just south of downtown about two years ago. The organization was in the midst of a campaign against the Los Angeles Unified School District, charging that it provided bad educations to youngsters in poor neighborhoods.

Riordan, dropping by on his way to a fancy dinner, showed up in a tux. Most of the audience was still in work clothes. I thought his appearance would be a disaster. But Riordan tore into the school district with vigor and animation. The audience listened with respect and cheered him enthusiastically when he was done.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Unlike the old L.A. elite, which seldom ventured south of the 50-yard-line seats at USC games in the Coliseum, Riordan is no stranger to poor neighborhoods.

One reason Riordan, a Catholic, was drawn to these areas was his close association with the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese and Cardinal Roger M. Mahony.

The archdiocese has helped organize grass-roots groups that engage in confrontational battles against government and businesses they feel have abused the poor. Protestant denominations and some Jewish synagogues also are part of the effort, which has spread through Latino and African-American neighborhoods.

The first to be organized was the United Neighborhoods Organization, a mainly Latino group in East L.A. It was followed by the Southern California Organizing Committee, which operates in South Central; East Valley Organization in the San Gabriel Valley and VOICE (Valley Organized in Community Efforts) in the San Fernando Valley. All follow the confrontational methods developed by a famous Chicago community organizer, the late Saul Alinsky, who was reviled as a rabble-rouser by much of the city’s industrial and political establishment.

Riordan’s association with these grass-roots organizations, with their strong roots in Latino neighborhoods, may help explain his surprisingly strong vote from Latinos. According to a Times poll of voters leaving their polling places, Republican Riordan received 43% of the Latino vote, his strongest showing in minority communities, which are predominantly Democratic. He also won among voters in all income groups who earn more than $20,000 yearly.

He was beaten by Woo in the African-American community 86% to 14% and among Asian-Americans 69% to 31%. Although he won among Anglos 67% to 33%, the numbers show Riordan’s election was not a whites-only victory.

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The night before the election, on the altar of St. Agnes Church, Riordan signed SCOC’s South-Central Pledge: “I promise never to use this community. I promise to deliver real change, not lip service . . . I pledge to work with people, not patronize them . . . I pledge to work to bring people together regardless of race, creed, color, country of origin or socioeconomic status, so that, in the words of the Gospel according to John, ‘We may be one.’ �

This week, Riordan returns from his vacation and begins setting up his administration. Soon we’ll see whether he translates his pledge into action or takes L.A. back to the past.