7/28/00 10:10 a.m.
Al Gore's L.A. Blues
It's looking like a mess.

By Arnold Steinberg, a writer in Los Angeles

n the eve of the Republican convention in Philadelphia, there is apprehension in Los Angeles about the coming Democratic convention.

Republican mayor Richard Riordan had embraced the convention as part of the city's renaissance, after Rodney King, the earthquake, recession. He had confidently guaranteed the convention's solvency. Indeed, the Dems pitched that the convention, like the 1984 Olympics, would not require direct cash subsidies. Even so, the city (and now county) will spend $15 million or perhaps much more to pay for earmarked police and other public services. (Also, traffic-weary employers downtown are asking their employees to leave town during the convention, a loss in productivity no one wants to discuss.)

Leftist Riordan-bashing Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg had agreed to bail out the Dems with $4 million of city cash — if Riordan would donate $1 million of his personal money. To get Goldberg's vote, the city council also agreed to locate demonstrators away from Pershing Square, which borders luxury office buildings, the jewelry district, and the Biltmore Hotel.

Then, after Goldberg voted for the bailout, the council heeded LAPD Chief Bernard Parks's advice to nix Pershing Square. But the damage was done. The Secret Service already had pulled Al Gore out of the Biltmore. Moreover, Pershing Square remains a volatile "unofficial" protest site. The irony is that Goldberg then reversed herself, trying too late to stop the final city bailout to the Dems.

Riordan wrote an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times warning that "the police will get tough" with violent demonstrators. But people vividly remember what happened when the Lakers won this summer. Seemingly indifferent police followed orders to watch as thugs savaged local businesses near the same Staples Center that now will host the Democrats. The LAPD has pulled cops off the streets to drill for convention readiness, perhaps aggravating gang crime, and raising concerns that convention-related policing will leave the rest of the city vulnerable.

The problem is beyond the LAPD, demoralized from the Rampart scandals involving police corruption of evidence. Indeed, dissatisfied police officers may join striking teachers as part of the demonstrators. The teachers, in turn, want to embarrass the former Colorado governor, then Dem convention chief, and suddenly LA schools chief Roy Romer. One of Romer's first acts has been to hire two recent LA school superintendents as $300-an-hour consultants to the school district. For good measure, the district just announced a $250,000 office of ethics to deal with school district's conflicts of interest and corruption.

Well, just in case there's not enough excitement, Los Angeles will host not only the Democrats and the Shadow Convention, but also the Reform Party. Don't forget the Youth Convention and the Homeless Convention, plus the Mothers' Convention (welfare), the People's Convention (progressive issues), and, for good measure, the North American Anarchist Conference. All at the same time.

Meanwhile, the IQ-challenged Loretta Sanchez, who had defeated Bob Dornan in nearby Orange County, is throwing a convention bash at the Holmby Hills Playboy Mansion to benefit Latino candidates. (Vice President Al Gore refused to attend. Perhaps he has located a nearby Buddhist temple.) The NOW folks are enraged. Democrat Platform Committee member (and prominent feminist lawyer) Gloria Allred said of the Sanchez/Hefner event: "Many people feel that for a woman to appear naked does not improve the condition and the status of women." Never say never.

And all this is supposed to give Al Gore a bounce in the polls?