When Patrick West was earning his M.B.A. at California State University, Dominguez Hills, he was deeply impressed with the campus as an environment conducive to learning. Similarly concerned about his home environment, the former city manager of Paramount went into action when he found that his city was named the eighth worst suburb in America in the early 1980s, working with that community’s agencies and developing an infrastructure in the city to prevent and fight crime. Now, as the new city manager of Long Beach, he plans to do the same thing with the sprawling metropolis.