City Of Euphemisms

Woo seems an Asian version of Bill Clinton: lots of ideas and no edges. He is a prince of the New city, the son of a prominent Chinese banking family, but he has worked hard to build trust among Old L.A. constituencies, especially blacks and Jews. Much of this "support" is mere name recognition, earned when Woo came out early against former police chief Daryl Gates, The mayoral race has barely begun-the field will be winnowed to two ("Woo and who," says a local analyst) in April--and any of his opponents could catch fire, but Woo has been very successful raising money and has fixed on what may become the dominant political style of the '90s: wonkery leavened by empathy. He is an urban planner by trade and can sling policy--electric cars, public-private whatchamacallits-with the best of them. Woo is also optimistic-a clever stance in a city of pessimists-about L.A.'s entrepreneurial future as the capital of a vibrant Latin and Pacific trading bloc.

The empathy is more soporific than luminous. Woo is a unifier. He doesn't offend anyone. "I wouldn't be uncomfortable voting for him," offered one store owner, a typically Wooish endorsement. Indeed, a vote for Woo seems a safe investment in the symbolic reunification of the city. But empathy by any other name is pandering, and Woo has a reputation of telling audiences what they want to hear. This may not be a disadvantage in the City of Euphemisms, but it probably won't lead to anything resembling real civic comity, either. When I asked him what he called the recent unpleasantness, Woo was remarkably candid: "The uprising, in African-American neighborhoods-and the riot in other parts of the city." Truly, a mayor for the '90s.

© 1993