A CITY IN DISARRAY; ONLY A REDESIGNED COMPACT WITH ITS CITIZENS CAN GIVE LOS ANGELES THE HOPE OF VIABILITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY.

Byline: David W. Fleming

THE philosopher Aristotle captured the essence of cityhood in just eight words.

``A city is a partnership for living well.''

To us in The Coalition, the primary task of charter reform is to redefine L.A.'s partnership.

This coalition came about not by anyone's planning or design. It sprung up out of our concerns on two basic fronts.

First, the ever-deepening estrangement between our city government and our citizens.

Second, the apparent meanderings of present charter reform efforts, which tend to cling to much of the status quo, ignoring the legitimate right of citizens to gain more direct control over the quality of their lives within the communities that make up our city.

In short, we are concerned that many engaged in the charter reform process are missing the essence of reform - namely, the redesigning and the enlarging of this city's partnership, a compact between us, our government and each other.

It is a redesigned and enlarged compact - a new partnership for the 21st century - that can save Los Angeles from eventually breaking up. It can make us into a great city, a city in which we can all live better than we do today.

Just look at this ad hoc group, this coalition. What a divergence of philosophies and backgrounds. Some of us are Republicans. Some are Democrats. Some are independents.

We come from all parts of this city, from the Valley, the Westside, the Harbor, the Palisades, South Central and elsewhere.

We are leaders of groups that oftentimes sit on opposite sides of the table. We are homeowners, businessmen and women, union members, renters, retired people. We have one thing in common. We care about our fellow citizens and about this city.

We are a cross-section of Los Angeles, bound together by a desire to form a more perfect city, a stronger city, a more closely knit city. A city that is inclusive. That is responsive to its citizens' wants and needs.

In espousing our belief that the necessity for greater local empowerment in Los Angeles has become inevitable, we want our fellow citizens and the power elite of this city to understand that we are not anarchists or revolutionaries.

We fervently believe in the doctrine of representative democracy. We cherish it. We want to preserve it. And that is why we say that when a city has grown to the sheer size and breadth as Los Angeles has over the past 70 years, representative democracy must be allowed to grow with it.

When the City Charter was adopted in 1925, we were a town similar to today's Bakersfield or Stockton. L.A. had just one downtown - one commercial center - surrounded by a handful of neighbors. L.A.'s urban expanse in those days was measured in blocks, not in the tens of miles it is measured in today.

Over the years, L.A.'s population grew fivefold - from a few hundred thousand then to nearly 4 million today. We have become America's second-largest city in population and America's largest in sheer size. Our urban expanse has grown nearly 12 times since 1925.

Today, one could fit all of Manhattan, San Francisco, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Boston into Los Angeles simultaneously - and still have room left over.

Our structure of representative government has never kept pace with this growth. Instead, it remained frozen in time - and therefore more and more detached from the very people it is supposed to represent.

The small, elite, centralized group of insiders that make up this city's power-wielding partnership has kept tight control over this city for the past 70 years.

As a result, city government has become ever more distant, ever more aloof. It has lost touch with the outlying reaches of this sprawling metropolis. It has lost touch with the common folk, the rank and file of its people.

Its gaze is inward, not outward, when it comes to dealing with problems. It is unaccessible, often unapproachable and impassive - content, nay insistent, in remaining far away from where most citizens live, play and work.

And what is the result of this discontent?

Voter apathy. Indifference. Distrust. A marked unwillingness by voters to approve bond measures to pay for urgent city needs.

We see disillusionment and scorn with our schools, our local transportation infrastructure and, for many, a marked disinterest in involvement in any form of civic or community life or volunteerism. Their reason is simple. They feel so totally disempowered that they therefore can't possibly make a difference, so why bother.

But most of the well-placed insiders are blind to these facts. As long as they keep a tight reign over their turf and hold on to their power and control, they see nothing very wrong with the status quo. Aside from a little charter tinkering here or there, they don't care to modify the current partnership.

We need to change this. We need to formulate some general principles to bring the people of this city into a true 21st century city partnership so that eventually we can all, as citizens of this city, be able to, as in Aristotle's words, ``live well.''

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PHOTO no caption (Downtown Los Angeles)