Hahn Again Makes Crime the Focus

Returning to the cradle of his political career, Mayor James K. Hahn went to the Crenshaw district on Monday to reemphasize his crime-fighting record and fight for his job in his last major public address before the May 17 mayoral election.

“Four years ago, I said, ‘Let’s get to work,’ ” Hahn said, using his annual State of the City address to lay out the city’s progress since he issued that challenge in 2001. “Our work has paid off. We’re revolutionizing this city.”

Following a high school gospel chorus, elementary school hip-hop dancers and a former councilman, all from the area, the mayor highlighted the city’s steep drop in crime the last two years.

And basking in the applause of a largely partisan crowd that occasionally chanted “four more years,” he touted the strides he has made lowering business taxes, stimulating housing construction and empowering neighborhoods.

Hahn’s fourth State of the City speech was as much pageant-filled rally as policy road map, underscoring the work he has to do in the next four weeks to avoid becoming the first incumbent mayor to lose in 32 years.

But although a majority of Angelenos have consistently told the Times Poll that they want a new direction, Hahn proposed few new initiatives Monday.

And though city residents consistently identify crime as an important issue, education and traffic are also top concerns -- two issues Hahn said little about in his 16-minute address.

The mayor’s single-minded focus on crime could hurt him, said Steve Erie, a UC San Diego political scientist who has written extensively about Los Angeles. “Right now, he’s a one-note man,” he said.

City Council President Alex Padilla, who has not endorsed a candidate in the mayor’s race, said he was disappointed that Hahn did not offer more ideas to improve schools.

“Education is a big issue in the mayor’s race. I was hoping to hear a little bit more on that,” said Padilla, who last week joined Jose Huizar, president of the Los Angeles school board, in proposing a joint city-school district commission aimed at boosting student performance.

Hahn’s only mention of education Monday was to pledge to add after-school programs to eight more elementary schools next year, still short of his 2001 campaign promise to fund a program in every elementary school in the city.

The mayor also did not mention traffic or public transit, though he promised to increase funding next year for street resurfacing, with a particular focus on South Los Angeles.

As he has throughout his term and reelection campaign, Hahn focused foremost Monday on public safety, reviewing the city’s falling crime rate and the accomplishments of Police Chief William J. Bratton, whom Hahn hired 2 1/2 years ago.

“I pledged to you that I would make Los Angeles a safer city, and that is exactly what we’ve done,” Hahn said after reminding his audience of dramatic changes in Hollywood, MacArthur Park and other neighborhoods.

Recent crime statistics show that violent crime fell 27% in the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year, a decline that outpaced those in New York, Chicago and several other major cities.

Hahn promised Monday to keep up the momentum with a citywide gang injunction he had recently proposed, more gang prosecutors in the city attorney’s office and a new anti-gang program.

And the mayor pledged to expand the Police Department to 9,500 sworn officers by next year -- an increase of about 325 officers over the current force and the largest increase since he was elected.

“Making our cities safer has been the key to attracting jobs, attracting businesses and attracting tourists,” Hahn said, adding that he also plans to further reduce business taxes and add more money to a fund to support affordable housing.

The mayor said the city has added 40,000 jobs in his first term, though his office could not provide statistics Monday to back up that claim.

Hahn’s supporters praised the mayor for his speech and his record. “He actually showed some pretty irrefutable things,” said Councilman Eric Garcetti. “The city is safer. It’s fiscally strong. And it’s beginning to turn a corner economically.”

Hahn’s mayoral opponent, Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who polls show holds a double-digit lead over the mayor, dismissed Hahn’s address Monday, calling the speech “more broken promises.” Villaraigosa did not attend the speech at the Nate Holden Center for the Performing Arts.

The Villaraigosa campaign said most of the police officers Hahn proposes to add will be funded by initiatives developed by other city leaders, including Councilman Greig Smith, whose plan to borrow money to hire more than 260 new officers Hahn originally criticized.

But the mayor’s larger problem may be an inability to show Angelenos that he is doing more than fighting crime. A Times poll conducted earlier this month showed that 55% of likely voters believe the city is headed in the wrong direction.

And while 27% of poll respondents said the next mayor should make crime his top priority, 31% identified education and 24% traffic.

Crime remains the top concern of African American voters, whom Hahn has been courting assiduously since he irked many of them over his opposition to the reappointment three years ago of Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, now a city councilman backing Villaraigosa.

On Monday, Hahn turned to former Councilman Nate Holden to introduce him. Holden, an African American, worked on Hahn’s first race for city controller in 1981. He also once worked for Hahn’s father, the late county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who was beloved by many of his African American constituents.

But even as city residents and other civic leaders have increasingly called on City Hall to intervene in helping the Los Angeles Unified School District reach tens of thousands of students who drop out each year, Hahn until recently has largely stuck to his promise to expand LA’s BEST.

Hahn has added the popular after-school program to 52 elementary schools since taking office, increasing the number of schools with programs to 130.

Earlier this year, however, when mayoral candidate Bob Hertzberg proposed breaking up the school district to lower the dropout rate, Hahn said the mayor’s office could not play a bigger role in helping the schools. He said in an interview with the LA Weekly that he had focused on after-school programs in part because there were “a lot of things on my plate when I came in as mayor.”

That answer may not satisfy many voters, said Raphael Sonenshein, a Cal State Fullerton political scientist who has studied Los Angeles politics for more than two decades. “I think what gets people’s attention is not after-school programs, but turning around the school district,” he said.

Hahn did not discuss the school district at his address Monday. Nor did he outline any new traffic initiatives aside from pledging to resurface and rebuild more streets and alleys next year.

In a city where some residents want more freeways while others want more buses or trains, being a leader on transportation issues is not easy, said William Fulton, president of Solimar Research Group and a senior scholar at the School of Planning, Policy and Development at USC.

“You have to try to convince all these constituencies,” he said, “that you are doing all you possibly can to solve all these problems.”

In this election, the mayor has been ridiculed by his mayoral opponents for doing too little when he boasted that he was installing 25 left-turn lanes a year.