Creating Popularity Out of Restraint

After eight years as mayor of Los Angeles, Thomas Bradley, 63, remains a diffident and elusive figure. "He doesn't tell anyone his private thoughts, not even me," his wife Ethel once said. Nor is he given to fiery outbursts, one-liners or gabbing with reporters. Says he: "I prefer to work quietly behind the scenes rather than get into a big public debate that accomplishes nothing." Politically he describes himself as "fiscally conservative and liberal on other issues. You cannot pin me down."

That proved a problem for Republican Sam Yorty, who was swamped by Bradley in last April's mayoral race. "He doesn't offend people because he doesn't take a stand on anything," gripes Yorty, who defeated Bradley in 1969 but lost to him four years later. By and large, the mayor's understated ways have earned him almost worshipful respect. "Tom Bradley's cool under fire," says Governor Jerry Brown. Says John Mack, head of the Los Angeles Urban League: "He is one of our heroes."

The son of a Texas sharecropper, Bradley moved West with his parents at age seven in a used Model T. His father struggled to support the family as a waiter and railroad porter and eventually separated from his wife. During the Depression the Bradleys had to accept public assistance, in those days the equivalent of welfare. A gifted runner, the 6-ft. 4-in. Bradley won an athletic scholarship to U.C.L.A. but quit school to join the city police department. After 21 years on the force, he used the law degree he had earned at night to start a practice. In 1969, following six years of service as a city councilman, he made his first bid for mayor.

Bradley considers crime "the No. 1 problem" he has faced as mayor: "It's unexplainable and it's frightening." In 1980 Los Angeles had a record 1,023 murders, in contrast with 490 when he took office. Bradley has doubled the police budget during his two terms, an increase largely consumed by inflation. To his chagrin, a plan to raise additional revenues through a special tax was defeated in a referendum last week.

Problem No. 2 is the budget--particularly the exorbitant costs of municipal police and fire department pensions. In fiscal 1982 pensions will cost the city $238 million, or 760 for every dollar of salary. In the past, handouts from the state legislature allowed the city to meet these expenses. Thanks in part to cutbacks mandated by Proposition 13, which slashed state tax revenues, Los Angeles is facing an $80 million deficit; Bradley has already laid off 400 city workers and cut library hours and recreation services. Warns the mayor: "Unless we have a charter amendment [to slash the pension funds], the only departments we'll be able to finance are police and fire."

Critics accuse Bradley of not doing enough to promote mass transit in the city of freeways.

Some blacks believe he should have pushed harder for school desegregation and civil rights.

But most Angelenos feel that their mayor is not to blame for the city's problems. In fact, his political support is so sound that many consider him a cinch for the Democratic nomination for Governor in 1982, when Jerry Brown is expected to run for the Senate. Polls have shown Bradley to be the strongest Democratic candidate and a tough opponent for any Republican now visible. Bradley has yet to announce his candidacy, but according to Mickey Kantor, Brown's former campaign manager, the mild-mannered mayor "has all the numbers he would need to be one step away from becoming the first black Governor of the Golden State."

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