Wishing her success. She has a lot of work ahead of her. But if she can show quick results in terms of getting people work (and I don't mean that in a ghetto context). Actual jobs and job training will make her stronger among the constituency.
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Now she has to convince others. One longtime activist, Joyce Kelly, says she’s watching to see if Brown helps vulnerable constituencies the Compton City Council has ignored. “They address no issues about youth,” Kelly says. “And seniors? They’re on their own.”
And Julius Franklin draws on the old Compton paranoia, saying, “Technically, [Brown] is an outsider coming in, and it’s hard for some people to accept that.”
Since its founding in the 1800s, Compton residents have been wary of outsiders. When its middle-class white residents left between the late 1950s and late ’60s, the black politicians and residents adopted their old attitudes. “It’s a gatekeeping mechanism,” explains Church of the Redeemer pastor Allison, an effort to resist “people who would use the challenges against Compton and throw the city in a negative light.”
PHOTO BY TED SOQUI
Compton's Mayor Aja Brown
PHOTO BY TED SOQUI
Brown oversaw a sleek transit-oriented development at Compton’s Blue Line station.
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In a region where termed-out career politicians regularly move from one Southern California neighborhood or city to another to seek their next office, Compton’s anti-outsider mentality marks the tough inner-city patch, even now, as a small town. That could mean problems for the other new City Hall upstart, Isaac Galvan, the first Latino council member in a city of about 63,000 Latinos. “I haven’t seen him at any City Council meetings,” Franklin says, echoing a common sentiment. “He hasn’t really talked. I don’t know where he stands.”
Born on Valentine’s Day in 1987, Galvan is the youngest person ever elected here. He is eager and sincere but defensive about being tarred as an outsider. Almost humorously, Galvan avoids admitting he was born some 14 miles away, in L.A., instead pumping the fact that he sometimes lived with his grandmother in Compton.
Raised by a single mother after his father died in a car accident when he was 12, Galvan says his mom, Esther, taught him not to “take my responsibility lightly. … My mom told me to not betray the people’s trust.”
Galvan studied business management at Santa Monica College and now owns a printing business in West Los Angeles. Three years ago, he moved to a small apartment in Compton across from Cesar Chavez Park and started working as a youth pastor at Victory Outreach Church. Seeing trash dumped in the streets, gangbangers hanging out and city workers failing to perform such basic services as trimming overgrown trees, Galvan decided to run for office.
“I prayed about it,” he says, “talked with my family — and here we are.”
Galvan defeated Compton City Councilwoman Lillie Dobson, 74, a deeply entrenched member of the black old guard. Before he took office on July 2, Galvan says, he’d already gotten the city to trim trees in his neglected neighborhood, organized two street cleanups and installed a red-white-and-blue basketball net at Cesar Chavez Park.
His election is largely thanks to two activist Latino residents, Felicitas Gonzalez and Flora Ruiz, who sued the city in 2010, alleging a California Voting Rights Act violation. A settlement required Compton officials to put forth a ballot measure that would create geographical city council districts instead of “at-large” seats, which led to continual election of black politicians — and kept out the majority Latinos. “The lawsuit is what got me here,” Galvan says.
During a recent tour of his council district, Galvan zipped from one spot to another in a white 2006 Acura TL, brimming with ideas of what to do. “You know what’s a big problem that I want to tackle someday?” he asked at one point. “Compton has a big gopher problem.”
It remains to be seen whether Galvan and Brown — very young outsiders with a fresh vision for Compton — will become allies. Galvan is so new to the game that, he concedes, even Latino community leaders told him “I was too green and too young and didn’t deserve to run for office. They went against me. They even started a rumor that I was Filipino.”
After he won, those unnamed Latino leaders gave him some troubling advice: Keep a safe distance from black political leaders, who, they warned, would “use” him. Galvan says he is having none of it. “If someone tells me to stay away from the blacks,” Galvan says, “I will never talk to them again. Period. I have a lot of passion about that.”
One Latino community organizer, who insists on anonymity because he fears racial retribution, says, “If Isaac tries to placate the African-American leadership, he’s not doing what needs to be done for the Latino community, and that will be the end of him.”
Though the city’s political establishment was built by black civil rights leaders who fought for equality, black leaders “didn’t give the Latinos a string of power in the last 43 years,” former sergeant Baker says. That created “an impasse” between blacks and Latinos, Stanford’s Albert Camarillo says.
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19 comments
One of the best things that happened to Compton, was the lynwood skatepark. Skateboarding is here to stay and it's cheap to get into, so helps give the kids something to do. I've been by that skatepark a dozen times and there is always kids there using it! And skateboarding has a bunch of the top ranked Hispanic pros too. It's a good influence for the kids and the community. I will be taking my kids to x games (8/1-4) to see some of these guys compete. Paul rodriguez among others. I hope Aja sees the opportunity in continuing to build skateboarding around the neighborhood.
Omar bradly would have done a better job he had the city on a upswing Aja junt don't know what she's getting herself into perridon put the city 20 years back and why are people looking for Latinos to run the they are only going to look out for themselves and make it worse than what it is it's to many illegal imigrints in Compton and it looks like the worst of Mexico Omar tried to make the city a lot better he got local people jobs he gave rebates on city tax and he cared about the city it was a lot cleaner now it's just dirty all it has is a big dirty court house that needs to be torn down Aja can't do anything but be the first female mayor of compton
Love that you're featuring Ms. Brown.
But I notice you mention her looks in the first paragraph. Did you know that when media mentions female politicians' appearance, even in a positive way, it makes voters think less of her?
We don't see descriptions of male politicians' suits and admiration of their ruddy complexions in articles about them. It's frivolous and irrelevant. Please stop doing it in articles about women.
No one ever talks about the experiences the Hispanic people of Compton have at the polling places. The Hispanic community has continuously experienced discrimination and mistreatment and those issues get no attention. The problem in Compton is that it is a city focused on KEEPING people of a certain color in power, no matter what! The people in power are the ones creating the hostility in Compton. They go around saying that Latinos want to "take over". Latinos want EQUALITY and RESPECT. The youth in Compton is being deprived from the benefits they can enjoy from a city that should embrace diversity and be more culturally aware.
Mayor Brown has the support of her colleagues and has worked for organizations that allowed her the training necessary to have a better start than some of the mayors of neighboring cities.
I want to see how Mayor Brown will address the potential loss of another large employer in the city should AB 820 passes. The city already lost Belkin and to lose the casino would really hurt the city financially.
The City that Shows No Pity Compton Ca. is still part of the Wild Wild West ! The Sheriff with it's massive resources of tools to suppress Criminal Activity, & the fact that the city is now 67% Latino, has inherited a Quagmire of Crime Infestation ! I think we can realize the Tantamount job the 125 force of the Compton P.D. accomplish from the worst crime-wave to hit America, based on it's population from 1970 to 2000 was able to accomplish in keeping the lid on the City ! John R. Baker Author of "VICE" Memoir on the Compton P.D. !
Aja Brown is the real deal and the Supervisor was smart in supporting her. I hope our leaders and citizens get behind her to bring a new day to Compton. Go Mayor Brown!
Thank you for the interesting article about what is happening in Compton and how the political class there is changing. The challenges of merging the needs of all members of the city family seem enormous.
The services Compton residents are asking for aren't hard to give, but the problem lies in where's the money to provide them?
Why wasn't Yvonne Arceneaux voted out with Dobson and Perrodin? Diana Sanchez was expected to do much better in D3 than she did.
@lnjon36 she is the 2nd, Doris Davis was the first.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Compton,_California
@comptonlulac I have witnessed it at a recent candidates forum leading up to the election. With the significant amount of Lations in the city, I was surprised Diana Sanchez wasn't successful in her bid for D3. She is a board member of the Metropolitan Water District which serves Compton. She is more visible than Isaac Galvan and lost?
@bhenning32 no real vested interest? those before her with a "vested" interest have the city in a $40 million dollar deficit. Supervisor Ridley-Thomas was wise to support this young black woman who will represent the city well. Even her former colleagues who I have spoken with speak very highly of Mayor Brown.
@UrbanGirl Yvonne, is still part of the Ole Black Guard that will not surrender power easy ! The Latin Community must muster a massive voter-drive to rid itself of the Corruption of the past !
@rosecransrick the Latin community was successful in electing Galvan and not Sanchez who represents Compton on the water board?
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