Second in a series

Re “Parks Yes, Recreation No in Council District”

As Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s second day dawned representing District 8 on the Los Angeles City Council, Damien Goodmon, community observer, sought to define how he will be different from his three-term predecessor.

“Now you have a Council member who comes from an orientation of being a community organizer and a consensus builder,” Mr. Goodmon said.

“Bernard Parks came from the orientation of a bureaucratic police officer.

“I don’t think you can get more different than that.”

Not to mention the yawning generational gap.

At 45 years old, the almost youthful Mr. Harris-Dawson will reintroduce an energy level to this section of South Los Angeles that has been missing for more than a decade when Mr. Parks, a tired 71, administered his duties in the fashion of a reserved, desk-comfortable executive.

Not that their 26-year age difference is a guaranteed panacea for what ails District 8 neighborhoods.

Says Mr. Goodmon, himself a millennial: “I am a young person, 32. I am not wild, though, about all of these people who say I am of a new generation because I am young.”

Much more is required.

“A lot of young people just try to be replacements for old people,” said the astute Mr. Goodmon.

Then came a zinger.

“Like (Sebastian) Ridley-Thomas,” the second-year state Assemblyman who chose the political career modeled for almost four decades by his father Mark, the County Supervisor,

(to be continued)