James Hahn

In 2002, Mayor Hahn rejected Bernard Parks for a second term as Los Angeles police chief and appointed former NYPD Commissioner William Bratton to the position.[17] Together with Bratton, he reinstated the community policing program, introduced the COMPSTAT system[18] to better track crime, implemented a flexible work week schedule for officers,[19] and streamlined LAPD's hiring process,[20] all part of a broader effort to increase the recruitment and retention of officers.[21] As a result, the LAPD experienced an increase in its ranks, morale significantly rose throughout the department and all areas of crime dropped steadily.[22]

Mayor Hahn provided funding to ensure the presence of at least one ambulance in every fire station throughout the city.[23] In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States Conference of Mayors appointed Hahn to serve as chair of its aviation security task force, in which he assisted in the passage of a federal aviation security bill.[24] To better prepare the city for future emergencies, Hahn convened a Homeland Security cabinet in his office,[25] coordinated Los Angeles' "Operation Archangel" to protect its infrastructure[26] and lobbied for state and federal public safety grants.[27]

Mayor Hahn led the successful efforts to defeat secession in the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood, and San Pedro, effectively keeping the city together.[28] He followed up with a program called "Teamwork LA" to bring government closer to the people, which among other initiatives, created seven neighborhood City Halls throughout the city and launched the city's 24/7 non-emergency phone line 311.[29][30]

He also championed the city's neighborhood councils system which was approved by the City Council just before he became Mayor in May 2001; over eighty councils were certified during his time in office.[31][32] Hahn implemented priority based budgeting to include neighborhood councils in the budget process, providing each council with $50,000 for any purpose and an additional $100,000 for street and sidewalk improvements.[33]

With Councilman Eric Garcetti, Hahn created the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs to engage immigrants in civic life. The office was disbanded during the tenure of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa but revived when Garcetti became Mayor.[34]

Hahn with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein at Long Beach Port in 2010.

Mayor Hahn created a $100 million affordable housing trust fund, which was at the time the nation's largest,[35][36] and expanded the adaptive reuse ordinance to convert dilapidated buildings into mixed-use residential properties.[37] He identified the funding to keep the city's homeless shelters open year-round[38] and met with civic leaders across the county to establish a blue ribbon commission called "Bring LA Home" to end homelessness in Los Angeles County within a decade.[39] He also worked with City Councilmembers Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti to initiate and sign into law seven business tax reforms, eliminating the business tax for businesses with gross receipts of $100,000 or less, and gradually reducing the tax by 15% for all other businesses.[40]

Hahn led two trade missions as Mayor, the first to Mexico in 2001, and the second to Asia in 2002, where he visited Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan. In Mexico, Hahn met with Mexican President Vicente Fox, Mexican business and airline executives, and received an airport security briefing at Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport.[41] He announced agreements with AeroMexico Airlines to expand service out of Ontario International Airport, providing a more regional approach to air service in the Los Angeles area, and with supermarket chain Grupo Gigante to open five new stores in Los Angeles creating 1,000 new jobs.[42]

In Beijing, Hahn reached an agreement concerning the upcoming 2008 Olympics, designating Los Angeles as gateway to Beijing and enabling Los Angeles firms to be hired to oversee the renovation and construction of the Beijing airport and other infrastructure projects.[43] In an effort to regain tourism lost after September 11, Hahn launched the "See My LA" program in Tokyo with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Los Angeles Dodgers' Kazuhisa Ishii[44] and partnered with Korean soccer star Hong Myung-bo to boost Korean tourism to Los Angeles.[45] Other agreements made the Los Angeles Zoo the first in the United States to exhibit a pair of Chinese golden monkeys,[46] regionalized air service by shifting Taiwan-based EVA Airlines' operations to Ontario International Airport, and improved air quality by plugging more Asian cargo ships into natural power while docked at the Port of Los Angeles.[47]

Mayor Hahn partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District to expedite the construction of new campuses to relieve overcrowding[48] and worked to create joint-use partnerships with the district so that schools become the central focus of their respective neighborhoods.[49]

The Mayor led a major expansion of the after school program for elementary school students, "LA's Best," to 52 more elementary schools,[50] serving an additional 5,500 students, bringing the total to more than 20,000.[51]

Hahn launched the Literacy@Work program to train LA's workforce after a study he commissioned identified fifty-three percent of working-age Los Angeles County residents had trouble reading street signs or bus schedules, filling out job applications in English or understanding a utility bill[52] and the One City One Book program "One Book, One City LA," a citywide reading initiative anchored by a book selected by the Mayor. Choices included Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 in 2002,[53] Sandra Cisneros' House on Mango Street in 2003, and Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit in 2004.[54]

Hahn also created the Free Cash for College program, to assist more low income high school seniors secure financial aid for college.[55]

As Mayor, Hahn canceled the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's proposed investment of up to $400 million in a coal-fired electricity plant in Utah, instead saying those resources should meet his goal of increasing's the city's use of renewable energy from three percent to twenty percent by 2017.[56][57] He later endorsed a goal of specifically generating one percent of the city's electricity from solar power by 2017.[58]

Hahn began the transition of the city's fleet of vehicles to hybrid vehicles[59] and created the Alternative Maritime Power program at the Port of Los Angeles to enable large cruise and cargo ships to plug into clean power while docked at the port.[60] The Mayor also pledged to make Los Angeles a landfill free city by 2006.[61]

The Mayor's Traffic Safety and Congestion Relief plan targeted improvements to the city's worst twenty-five intersections each year[62] and his Street Smart program made improvements to 35 of the city's busiest thoroughfares.[63]

After negotiating an agreement with City Councilmember Cindy Miscikowski, Hahn passed a $9 billion modernization plan for Los Angeles International Airport to both increase the number of annual passengers and make the airport more secure post-September 11.[64][65]