L.A.’s Revival Is Vital to Clinton’s Success

WASHINGTON —  Los Angeles--and its economic revival--may well be as vital to the success of the Clinton Administration as any city in the country.

President Clinton has made the turnaround of California’s reeling economy a priority. Nowhere are the hurdles higher than in Los Angeles-- which is as voter rich as it is job poor.

Racked by retrenched defense spending, one in five jobs lost nationwide in the last year was in Los Angeles County, where unemployment remains well above the national average.

Clinton benefited in the 1992 election because George Bush failed to connect with the economically strapped and riot-torn region. Clinton now bears the burden of convincing Angelenos that they have a special place in the Administration’s focus while fostering the conversion to a viable post-Cold War economy.

And, aides say, he must find ways to steer help to Los Angeles without antagonizing other state delegations in Congress that are competing for increasingly scarce federal resources.

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At this point, some of the city’s advocates are impatient. The Administration has yet to articulate an overall strategy for Southern California--never mind delivering on its promises to be a catalyst for emerging industries to replace defense jobs and for the bottom-up recovery of depressed inner-city communities.

Thus far, the Administration has done more to help Northern California, with such high-profile projects as a $237-million research project at Stanford University. Still, some advocates for Los Angeles see encouraging signs.

Senior Clinton officials are far more accessible than their immediate predecessors. Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Cabinet members have been to the city and will be back.

Clinton appointed Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown as economic czar for the state. Tom Epstein, a California Democratic insider, is White House political deputy with responsibility for the Golden State. About 200 Californians hold Administration posts.

Clinton aides cite some concrete assistance. The Administration signed a $1.23-billion agreement to fully fund the third segment of the Metro Rail subway system--which should mean quicker delivery of the money that will carry the Red Line to North Hollywood, the Eastside and the Mid-City area.

Funds have been provided for low-income housing, research into new energy technologies and retraining displaced aerospace workers. The Administration has proposed redirecting federal aid from prosperous school districts to poorer ones--which could mean an additional $20 million for Los Angeles schools. And it has sought more money to help acclimate new legal immigrants than Bush or Ronald Reagan did.

Administration officials say that some broader policies will particularly affect Los Angeles. The easing of export controls is considered a boon to California. And, of course, Clinton’s economic, health care, trade and immigration programs will have considerable impact.

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In the meantime, some Clinton aides are defensive about the perceived lack of progress--and expectations they see as unrealistic.

“The federal government is not going to turn around this region’s economy in nine months,” Epstein said. “We have done far more in our brief tenure than the previous Administration did in four years. But these are deep structural problems in the California economy.”

Epstein and others cite the prospect of significant assistance in three key programs.

A much-touted, $19.5-billion defense conversion program will begin today to dispense grants to develop dual-use technologies, transfer existing technology to commercial use and create manufacturing education programs. A total of $471 million will be disbursed during the first year among 2,844 proposals--including 346 from Los Angeles and four surrounding counties.

Southern Californians hope to launch industries in advanced transportation, environmental, alternative energy, biomedical and information technologies.

The Administration’s crime bill aims to put an additional 50,000 police officers on the street nationwide in the next five years. Crime-ridden Los Angeles, the nation’s most under-policed city, hopes to receive a major boost. But an effort by the city to gain a disproportionate number of cops under an earlier measure was rebuffed by the Administration.

The Administration plans to award targeted tax breaks and social spending to six hard-pressed urban areas nationwide. Communities in South-Central, Watts, East Los Angeles and elsewhere might receive a total of $100 million as the city’s “empowerment zone.”

Larry Parks, Brown’s point man for the California effort, says that a revitalized Los Angeles could be a model for the role of the federal government. “Angelenos should expect their government to perform for them,” Parks said. “We expect to be measured by that.”