ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Tom Bradley’s popularity and political success can be attributed to two major factors: his political style and the structure of the political environment in Los Angeles within which he operates. Bradley has been reelected to an unprecedented fifth term as mayor of Los Angeles, our nation’s second-largest city. While Bradley takes part of the credit for the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw shopping mall located in the black community, there are few other development projects in the area to be claimed. Given the structure of Los Angeles city government, power brokers such as mayor Bradley are able to unite the assortment of factions and rule for long periods of time without serious opposition. The scandal involving Mayor Bradley points to some important similarities as well as differences between the political behavior in machine-run cities such as New York and Chicago and in reform cities like Los Angeles.
