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Squeeze Play on Community Groups in Los Angeles Details PLANNING WATCH-Los Angeles is a city of neighborhoods, and the Los Angeles Times has mapped 114 separate communities. Historically, they have self-organized into block clubs, neighborhood organizations, homeowner associations, and tenant unions. For City Hall these grassroots groups have been a nuisance, and officials have resorted to four tactics to weaken them: Tactic 1 - Cooptation: Mayor Tom Bradley (1973-1993) appointed community group representatives to official City bodies, such as the City Planning Commission. By the 1990s the benign co-optation of the Tom Bradley era gave way to escalating tactics to reduce the influence of more assertive community groups.