ONE STEP FORWARD / ONE STEP BACK

It might have been a triumph, perhaps Los Angeles’ happiest and most anticipated moment in 1997. Deep beneath the Santa Monica Mountains, a mechanical mole clawed through rock to connect tunnels for a subway between the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood. Wouldn’t this one day bolster civic unity and L.A. pride while offering a way to beat the traffic in the Cahuenga Pass?

Maybe. Maybe not.

As with so many of Los Angeles’ big stories of 1997, the tunnel breakthrough in October was a bittersweet saga laced with irony. And more than a few head-shaking contradictions.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority kept digging even though the agency was reeling from a fiscal and managerial meltdown that left extensions of the Red Line beyond downtown and North Hollywood in serious doubt. The situation was so bad that two finalists turned down offers of $235,000 a year to head the MTA before a “crisis management” specialist, Julian Burke, arrived to propose layoffs, rail fare hikes and a postponement in future construction.

What’s more, just as the light appeared at the ends of the subway tunnel, the San Fernando Valley was seeking to secede from Mother Ship Los Angeles. In October, Gov. Pete Wilson signed a bill that would make such a move easier--but not easy--for the Valley as well as for other wannabe cities such as San Pedro and Venice.

L.A. unity indeed.

It was that kind of complicated, messy year with, mercifully, no riot or earthquake to dominate news pages or our lives. Not wrapped up neatly for a made-for-TV movie, 1997 in Los Angeles County moved with the fitful advances and retreats of an odd novel writ large.

Violent crime decreased dramatically. At the same time, such awful incidents as the Ennis Cosby murder, the Museum Row killing of rap music star Notorious B.I.G. and the North Hollywood bank shootout attracted international attention.

Even predictions about the strength of El Nino bounced back and forth. The dreaded weather pattern once seemed as inevitable as the summer smog. Later, the forecast was softened. Now, it is again projected to pack a fearsome punch.

In the meantime, it did rain some--in a year that also featured the longest dry spell in Los Angeles history, 219 days.

Local government resembled a contemporary dysfunctional family, complete with money woes, divorce and substance abuse.

Richard Riordan easily won a second term as mayor, besting state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) in an election that also saw passage of a major bond measure to finance L.A. Unified school repairs. Elsewhere in City Hall, authorities discovered evidence of cocaine residue on the desk of Councilman Mike Hernandez after he was busted for drug possession. Some constituents promised to recall Hernandez even as he returned to office, promising to clean up his act.

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The Los Angeles Police Department experienced an ugly divorce. Chief Willie L. Williams had helped restore public confidence in the force after the 1992 riots, but city leaders concluded that his leadership skills were weak and that he had not told the truth about accepting free hotel rooms in Las Vegas. So he was rejected in his bid for a second five-year term. In April, he accepted a $375,000 severance package, and in August, Deputy Chief Bernard C. Parks, whom Williams had once demoted, was promoted to take Williams’ place.

The city’s hopes for post-recession financial relief were jeopardized by news of the Department of Water and Power’s $7.5-billion debt. So officials proposed 2,000 DWP layoffs. At the same time, the year produced progress toward renewing downtown Los Angeles as a center of sports, culture and religion via three projects awaiting construction: a new sports arena, the Disney Concert Hall and a new Roman Catholic cathedral.

On the county side, a nasty showdown over plans for a new County-USC Medical Center raised all sorts of economic, health and ethnic issues. Despite a campaign backed by medical experts to build a 750-bed facility, the Board of Supervisors in November approved plans for 600 beds.

Yes, there were big stories of unshaded joy or goofy astonishment in 1997. Real estate values continued to recover. Pat Boone took to the stage dressed as a heavy-metal rocker, disturbing some conservative fans. The opening of the Getty Center proved that a billion bucks can build quite a showplace. “Star Wars” returned. And Luke Skywalker faced real-life competition in Pathfinder’s spectacular Mars exploration, directed by the local Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena--ah, sorry, La Canada Flintridge.

But some other prominent news stories seemed to travel sideways, back and forth.

Remember when the Santa Monica courthouse was media central for the Trial of the Century, Round Two? In February, a jury ordered O.J. Simpson to pay $33.5 million in civil damages to the families of murder victims Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. But full payment remains in doubt even though Simpson’s Brentwood estate was sold and his Heisman trophy, missing for a while, was eventually handed over to authorities, followed by its nameplate. Simpson, of course, was acquitted of the killings in a previous criminal trial.

A judge in May reversed the quarter-century-old murder conviction of former Black Panther Party leader Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, citing suppressed evidence that could have helped Pratt. Pratt was freed, but Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said he would appeal the appeal.

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Elsewhere in the category of cops and courts, what could shatter a neighborhood’s sense of security more than the North Hollywood shootout? Two bank robbers, wearing body armor and wielding enough assault weapons for a small army, battled the Los Angles Police Department on a bloody, unforgettable February morning. In the end, 11 police officers and six civilians were wounded or injured and the two gunmen died.

In January, Ennis Cosby, the 27-year-old son of entertainer Bill Cosby, was shot to death as he tried to fix a flat tire on a road in the Sepulveda Pass. Police described the incident as a bungled robbery; the alleged killer, Mikail “Michael” Markhasev of North Hollywood, awaits trial.

On the same day, we were reminded how violence also can destroy the lives of youngsters with no connection to fame. A teenage gang member aiming at a rival opened fire at a crowded MTA bus in Watts, killing 17-year-old Corie Williams, a senior at Centennial High School in Compton. Bill Cosby spoke to the dead girl’s mother. A 16-year-old, Robert Johnson, was arrested after he fled to Milwaukee.

Those may have been hits on Southern California’s reputation, but none compared to the mass suicides of the Heaven’s Gate cult, discovered by a former group member and a businessman, both from Los Angeles. An alien spaceship in a comet tail was supposed to wing followers of former music teacher Marshall Applewhite into eternal life. Their final earthly taste of phenobarbital and alcohol in late March resulted in 39 dead bodies in a San Diego mansion. The story unleashed a new American euphemism: “shedding our containers.”

Back on the ground of downtown Los Angeles, more concrete concerns were debated. After a nasty squabble for control between its architect and major fund-raiser, the much-delayed Disney Concert Hall received big-money boosts including a $25-million matching grant from the previously uninvolved Walt Disney Co. A ground-blessing ceremony was conducted in September for the planned Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral. And developers and city leaders cobbled out a final deal for a proposed $300-million basketball and hockey arena.

Thanks to Councilman Joel Wachs’ threat to launch an initiative challenge, the sports arena agreement guarantees that repayment of $58 million in municipal bonds will not come from sales, property or utility taxes. Meanwhile, an office-supplies chain agreed to pay about $100 million to become the arena’s main corporate sponsor.

If “Live from Staples Center” does not turn you on, what about “Live from Fox Field?” That scenario became a possibility after Peter O’Malley announced that he planned to sell the Dodgers and, then, that the buyer would be Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which owns part of the Fox Sports cable network that televises Dodger games.

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The O’Malley-Murdoch deal was just one example of some of the big-name comings and goings around town, many in the field of education.

Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias was elevated to lead the 670,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District, replacing Sid Thompson. Textbook shortages and squabbles over how to air-condition classrooms and build a new Belmont High School greeted Zacarias.

Mr. UCLA, Chancellor Charles E. Young, was succeeded by Albert Carnesale, the former provost of Harvard University. In Pasadena, Nobel laureate biologist David Baltimore was named president of Caltech, replacing Thomas E. Everhart. Charles B. Reed, the head of Florida’s public universities, will take over as chancellor of the California State University system. And Cal State chief Barry Munitz was appointed as executive of the $4.2-billion J. Paul Getty Trust, a spot being vacated by Harold Williams.

The new Getty Center, by the way, boasts a tram system that whisks visitors up its mountainside. No tunnels were dug for the air-cushioned ride, but computer troubles did force one of the two trams out of service on opening day. Maybe the Getty people can talk to the MTA folks.

Have a happy 1998.