New Era Asks More of Hahn

Mayor James K. Hahn may be too familiar a figure to have gotten much of a honeymoon bounce in his first 100 days in office. People knew what they thought of this former city attorney, controller and scion of a political family when they voted for him. Those who expected a steady, methodical, nuts-and-bolts administrator are not disappointed. Those who were hoping for more are.

Yes, he has acted on several of the promises made in his inaugural address that radiant July morning. He has expanded after-school programs. He signed tax reforms to encourage small businesses. He replaced the head of the stalled neighborhoods department with a leader of the neighborhood council movement, which he sees as key to keeping the city whole in the face of secession efforts. Last week he offered ideas that could break the impasse over modernizing the outdated, dangerously crowded Los Angeles International Airport.

But there have been missteps as well. Some were rookie mistakes. At his first Metropolitan Transportation Authority meeting, Hahn tried to placate an Orthodox Jewish group that opposed a San Fernando Valley busway. He supported an alternate route, only to find it too had opposition--which the Orthodox community had joined. Hahn lost the vote without winning points from either group. But worse than his political clumsiness was his eagerness to cater to narrow interests rather than championing the greater public good, in this case much-needed cross-Valley transportation.

Hahn has appointed only about a third of his commissioners, and they are for the most part insiders and veterans of previous administrations, risk-averse picks that promise few surprises--or rewards. He turned down an invitation to President Bush’s first state dinner, honoring Mexican President Vicente Fox. Days pass with no public appearances.

By choosing the status quo--a familiar family name, a long public resume--voters seemed to suggest that Hahn was solid enough to do the job and not mess things up. It made for an uninspiring mandate.

But the world has changed in the last 30 of these first 100 days, and in these altered times people yearn for leadership. This is the part of the job Hahn doesn’t seem to get. In his first months he has not yet made the leap from able administrator to inspiring leader.

Hahn’s election was not the watershed that Tom Bradley’s or even Richard Riordan’s was. Still, the message he is trying to deliver--that government works--is in its own way a radical one. And it is the right one for this time. But he must reach higher, think bigger and work harder to get it across. Los Angeles requires leadership more than ever. Merely presiding over government won’t do.