OPENING THE DOOR TO CHANGE - SECOND DISTRICT TRANSITION TEAM REPORT
Upon his election, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas created a transition team with a mission far beyond the usual task of selecting staff members and setting short-term goals. He called on leaders from education, philanthropy, community groups, labor and the private sector to build a foundation for elevating living standards and empowering communities throughout the Second District.
In areas from budget reform to transportation to housing and worker training, these experts created a set of initiatives to accelerate economic and social progress in the district. This document outlines their work, and sets an early agenda for upward mobility that we expect to become even more ambitious as we move forward.
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We, the people of the Second District, have inspired the world. We have hosted two Olympic Games. Our sweat and know-how helped build the jets that swiftly brought the world’s citizens together, and the spacecraft that opened the universe. Our sons and daughters left home to fight—and defeat—tyrants abroad. Then they returned to show the world that all races gain power when they share power—an achievement embodied in the 1973 election of Tom Bradley as Mayor. That shining example of unity, rooted in our district, was an early prelude to Barack Obama’s inauguration as President of the United States 35 years later.
Our community nurtured leaders for all: Jesse Brewer; Dr. Ruth Temple; Ahn Chang Ho; Bert Corona; Alice Greenfield McGrath; Kenneth Hahn. We are their legacy.
But today we also confront a new crisis. Too many of our once-bustling industrial plants are now vacant. Too many of our schools are over-crowded and under-staffed. Too many of our infirm suffer without health insurance and without the care once provided by Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital. Too many of our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers, are no longer in our community but living on the streets of Skid Row, or behind bars in remote penitentiaries.
Our dreams are again deferred. But they are not defeated. This time, we will revive them here, again, because we know how. We know we can. We have done so before. It’s time again to ignite an explosion of possibility. We’ve already begun.
In less than a year, we have shown we can bring back our hospital. Next we will start to bring back our jobs. We will build a rail network to move us to those jobs from our homes safely and cleanly. We will vigorously uphold codes and standards in our neighborhoods because we deserve no less.
We will divert our young men from gangs to become citizens fighting for the public good. We will slow the exodus of our young men to prison; we will mobilize those returning from incarceration to resume their duties as family and community pillars.
We will bring our family home from Skid Row.
We can accomplish this mission because we are 2.1+ million strong. The government we own together is a mighty force we can direct. We shall use that force to propel us forward. Our power comes from our ability to join forces as worker and employer, landlord and tenant, block club and school, church, temple and mosque, community organizer and elected official.
Our collective strength will empower us to support each other within our vast district; our numbers, if we are united, also give us clout to broker change across the county and state, and to be heard clearly in Washington. We have a plan.
Our ambition may be vast and our challenges daunting, but our plan is definite. It divides an awesome undertaking into immediate tasks. These smaller steps are catalysts to set off a chain reaction of work by all in our community to move us toward our broader goals. They are akin to game plans that we must execute like players focusing one game at a time on a longer quest for a championship season.
Our first-year victories have set us on that course. We have already set in place the foundations for re-opening Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital and building the Crenshaw light rail transit line, and in the coming months, will continue to show more gains to make change better, smarter and faster. To do so, we will continue to aim high, while also aiming precisely at targets we can achieve.
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