Mayor tom bradley biography channel

Mayor tom bradley biography channel: Learn how Los Angeles mayor

He influenced two generations of policy makers and leaders. He brought the city a glowing spot on the world stage with the Summer Olympics — the first-ever profitable Games. He enacted environmental reforms, powerful anti-apartheid business practices, and ordinances prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians and people with AIDS.

He prevailed in his long struggle to reform and bring civilian control to the LAPD. He enacted environmental reforms, powerful anti-apartheid business practices, and ordinances prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians and people with AIDS. He prevailed in his long struggle to reform and bring civilian control to the LAPD.

He held office of mayor for an unprecedented five terms. His carefully constructed coalition frayed at the edges as the issue of forced busing erupted into a municipal war for Bradley, and a controversial speech by Louis Farrakhan, Minister of the Nation of Islam, strained relations between the black and Jewish communities. Black and Latino relations also fissured as the city was unable to neither prevent economic decline nor constrain police brutality.

InLos Angeles exploded into three days of civil unrest and shattered the illusion that a black mayor could end inequality and hopelessness. Bradley did not seek a sixth term and announced his retirement in Three years later, he suffered a stroke, which left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak for the rest of his life. Inhe died of a heart attack.

Tom Bradley was 80 years old. Yet, this film is far more important than a man and his dreams. This documentary resonates with the story of coalitions, which changed a city and set the stage for a realignment of politics and values, which on a national scale, led to the election of Barack Obama. It is the story of the challenges of diversity facing cities and nations, and the decisions that we all must make.

Mayor tom bradley biography channel: The story of Los

Mayor Tom Bradley. Screenings Gallery. With the race factor, even many liberal white voters became hesitant to support Bradley. It would be another four years, inbefore Bradley would unseat Yorty. Powerful downtown business interests at first opposed Bradley. But with passage of the redevelopment plan and the inclusion of mayor tom bradley biography channel leaders on influential committees, corporate chiefs moved in behind him.

A significant feature of this plan was the development and building of numerous skyscrapers in the Bunker Hill financial district. Bradley served for 20 years as mayor of Los Angeles, surpassing Fletcher Bowron with the longest tenure in that office. Bradley contributed to the financial success of the city by helping develop the satellite business hubs at Century City and Warner Center.

Bradley was a strong supporter of public transit throughout his political career, and he was a driving force behind the construction of Los Angeles' light rail network. The Tom Bradley International Terminal is named in his honor. Bradley was offered a cabinet-level position in the administration of President Jimmy Carterwhich he turned down.

InBradley presided over the first profitable Summer Olympics. Although Bradley was a political liberal, he believed that business prosperity was good for the entire city and would generate jobs, an outlook like that of his successor, Richard Riordan. For most of Bradley's administration, the city appeared to agree with him. But in his fourth term, with traffic congestion, air pollution and the condition of Santa Monica Bay worsening, and with residential neighborhoods threatened by commercial development, the tide began to turn.

Inhe was elected to a fifth term, but the ability of opponent Nate Holden to attract one-third of the vote, [ 23 ] despite being a neophyte to the Los Angeles City Council and a very late entrant to the mayoral race, signaled that Bradley's era was drawing to a close. Other factors in the waning of his political strength were his decision to reverse himself and support a controversial oil drilling project near the Pacific Palisades and his reluctance to condemn Louis Farrakhanthe Black Muslim minister who made speeches in Los Angeles and elsewhere that many considered anti-Semitic.

Bradley chose to leave office in rather than seek election to a sixth term. Bradley ran for Governor of California twice, in andbut lost both times to Republican George Deukmejian. He was the first African American to head a gubernatorial ticket in California. Inthe election was extremely close. Bradley led in the polls going into election day, and in the initial hours after the polls closed, some news organizations projected him as the winner.

These circumstances gave rise to the term the " Bradley effect ", which refers to a tendency of voters to tell interviewers or pollsters that they are undecided or likely to vote for a black candidate, but then actually vote for his white opponent. Bradley had a heart attack while driving his car in March and underwent a triple bypass operation.

Later, he suffered a stroke "that left him unable to speak clearly. He initially seemed to be faring well, but suffered another heart attack on the morning of September 29 and was pronounced dead at a. He was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery. Tom Bradley's political coalition originated with liberal African Americans and liberal white Americans, particularly Jewish Americans.

This Bradley coalition expanded to include liberal and moderate whites, Latinosand Asian Americans and proved a model which would later go nationwide for President Barack Obama coalition in the United States presidential election. Bradley was the first liberal mayor of Los Angeles, which previously was politically a conservative western town.

After the Reagan Revolution led to a drop in federal funding, Bradley changed to become a more business-oriented mayor. Bradley cut funding to the LAPD several times but was unable to reform it. A panel survey of 69 historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the University of Illinois at Chicago saw Bradley ranked as third-best mayor in the United States since Bradley was ranked the ninth-best American big-city mayor to serve between the years and Bradley's mayoral archives are held at UCLA.

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Mayor tom bradley biography channel: American politician, the first

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