EDITORIAL : DOWNTOWN RUBBISH; RELOCATING A 911 DISPATCH CENTER IS POLITICAL NONSENSE THAT'S WASTEFUL AND DANGEROUS.

ALTHOUGH the city of Los Angeles is in a precarious financial situation and might have to cut the number of new police officers hired this year, the City Council still finds money to burn.

The council knuckled under to pressure politics and voted Tuesday to hire architects to design a 911 emergency dispatch center next to Parker Center in downtown Los Angeles.

This doesn't solve an emergency, it creates one.

Such a move will add up to $5 million to the cost of the budgeted project, including an extra $650,000 a year for parking and security because a parking garage will have to be demolished to make way for the dispatch center.

The relocation also could force the siphoning of $1 million from a police facilities bond that would otherwise be used to improve aging and cramped police stations, including the Los Angeles Police Department's West Valley Division.

Four years ago, the council agreed to spend $13 million in police bond funds to buy property in Westchester because none other than Mayor Richard Riordan himself and the LAPD successfully argued that it would be the best place to locate the dispatch center.

Why the turnaround?

Politics, pure and simple.

Riordan is pulling out the stops to relocate the center because it falls in line with City Hall's new, grandiose downtown centralization schemes.

In his four plus years as mayor, Riordan has done a lot to empower the San Fernando Valley and other neighborhoods in the city and has achieved a good measure of success in fulfilling his promise to put more police on the streets.

When he ran for re-election, Riordan consistently stressed his commitment to hire more officers. At no time did he allude to the possibility of sacrificing police officers for buildings downtown.

What they should be encouraging is a massive effort to bring government and its employees out to the communities and provide services closer to the people.

Earlier this year, acting Police Chief Bayan Lewis pushed for moving the 911 center downtown next to the Fire Department dispatch center, arguing it would make it easier to centrally manage a disaster if communication links are knocked out.

In an age where technology has become highly sophisticated, that argument makes no sense and is unsupportable.

In times of emergency, when roads and communication are knocked out, having dispatch centers located throughout Los Angeles would mean faster response times if one is disabled but another is untouched.

Feeding the downtown commercial and real estate markets at the expense of public safety is bad public policy.

It is time for the mayor and the City Council to put their cards on the table. Are they committed to the health of the neighborhoods of this city or only to the wealth of the downtown establishment?