Hayden Launches Campaign Bus Tour

Mayoral challenger Tom Hayden on Saturday unveiled a “Unity Bus” in which he will tour the city for the next three weeks, highlighting his plans to be a “neighborhood mayor,” while incumbent Mayor Richard Riordan made a brief appearance at an alley cleanup in South Los Angeles.

Hayden, a Democratic state senator representing the Westside, started his day at the site of last month’s North Hollywood shootout with a news conference calling for stricter gun control laws. He then zipped across town for appearances in Highland Park and Boyle Heights, only to return to the San Fernando Valley to shake hands at the Fashion Square mall. He was joined by Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, the ninth of Robert F. Kennedy’s 11 children, whose likeness to his father made him an instant cause celebre in the Eastside neighborhoods.

“If we can address the problems that challenge the city today, we can solve all the problems of the country,” said Kennedy, who posed for pictures and signed autographs all day. “Los Angeles is uniquely situated to be a beacon, to be a city on a hill.”

Kennedy, a 32-year-old former Philadelphia prosecutor who is compiling a book of his father’s favorite quotations, joined Luis Tulley of Handgun Control Inc. in supporting Hayden’s gun control proposals. Hayden is seeking to increase the penalties for possession of a loaded weapon; ban the purchase of magazine clips that hold hundreds of rounds of ammunition; restrict gun purchases to one per person, per month; and require registration of “arsenals” of weapons and ammunition.

“Dick Riordan has not clarified any of his positions on gun control,” Tulley said. “Where does Dick Riordan stand on these issues? It’s time for him to speak up. Does he support the gun lobby or does he support the people of our city?”

Riordan could not be reached after Hayden’s news conference to respond to specific questions, but his campaign spokesman, Todd Harris, said, “The mayor supports all legal and reasonable efforts to reduce gun violence . . . by getting guns off the streets.”

Harris said Riordan had not seen any of Hayden’s specific proposals, but “would consider” supporting them. He also criticized Hayden for voting against the state’s three-strikes law and missing votes on some crime-related bills several years ago.

“I’m not sure the people of Los Angeles are interested in taking their law enforcement cues from a member of the Chicago Seven who wears his criminal record on his sleeve,” Harris said.

In contrast to Hayden’s bus blitz, Riordan planned an almost invisible weekend, spending just 45 minutes at the cleanup near Fremont High School on Saturday morning. He is scheduled to campaign on Ventura Boulevard this afternoon.

Riordan joined Assemblyman Roderick Wright (D-Los Angeles) to highlight the state official’s “One Block at a Time” cleanup program.

But what was planned as one of the nonconfrontational events that Riordan prefers--shoveling debris with everyday citizens--actually simmered with political tension.

Planned by Wright, who was elected just four months ago, the cleanup infuriated City Councilwoman Rita Walters, a frequent Riordan critic who also represents the neighborhood.

Walters and her aides said Saturday that the Riordan-appointed Board of Public Works has for years been slow to accommodate requests for cleanups of alleys and vacant lots. She charged that the board had planned to delay cleanup of a lot at 76th and San Pedro streets so that a trash-strewn backdrop would be available for a photo opportunity for the assemblyman and the mayor Saturday.

“We were astounded and angered,” said Walters, who last week lodged her protests in an unusual personal appearance before the Board of Public Works, prompting a city crew to quickly clear the lot.

Riordan and Wright’s aides vehemently denied that they had held up a routine cleanup to provide a backdrop for their own event in the same neighborhood. They criticized Walters for forcing a city cleanup of a location that was already targeted.

The mayor didn’t mention the controversy directly but, leaning on his shovel during a break, observed: “We did one of these a few months ago and Rita [Walters] only lifted one shovelful.”

When told of the comment, Walters responded angrily, saying she has dirtied her hands at many a neighborhood cleanup.

Riordan fared better with the Alfaro family, the husband, wife and three children whose backyard and alley were prime beneficiaries of the bulldozers and a crew of 20 men who removed old sofas, televisions and tires. The Alfaros said they are not registered to vote but their children smiled and laughed as Riordan exchanged high-fives and coached the youngest as he skated around the newly cleaned yard.

“It’s very nice,” said Francisco, 10. “We had no idea they were coming.”

Riordan conceded that the event was mostly symbolic. “But this is one of the most important things we can do for our city,” he added. “If you walk out your front door and don’t feel proud of your neighborhood, then everything else can go to pot.”

In less than an hour, Riordan was gone.

Hayden kept his hands clean throughout the day, and managed even to avoid staining his shirt while munching on Filipino delicacies at his campaign office and lunching on pork loin flautas at the Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights.

Riding in a mini-school bus with banners proclaiming it a “mobile office,” Hayden said he envisions a similar administration on wheels if he is elected April 8.

“I want to demonstrate that a mayor can be visible, can be in communities,” he said as passersby on the freeway honked their support. “You don’t have to be downtown, holed up, in offices with all of your staff. You can lead from the street.”

Hayden said the bus is a multitiered symbol; it reminds him of his long fight against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority subway, as well as the civil rights movement that was launched in Montgomery, Ala., when Rosa Parks refused to get up from her seat at the front of a bus. “Rosa Parks said, ‘It’s my bus, too.’ For her, it was a symbol of the society,” he explained. “It’s our neighborhood, too. It’s our City Hall, too.”

Harris, the Riordan aide, brushed off the bus as a political gimmick. “You have a choice of style versus substance,” he said. “Most people would rather have crime down by 25% . . . than they would someone who is simply driving around in a bus, frankly, probably polluting the environment.”

Hayden noted that if people are riding with him on the bus, they will not be driving their own cars.