Feeling Rootless : Straightening L.A. Boundary Means More Than Drawing a Line

When Herman Kohler wakes up in his bedroom he’s in Lomita. When he goes to the kitchen for breakfast he enters Los Angeles. He votes in Lomita, has his trash picked up by Los Angeles, has a sidewalk in front of the Lomita side of his house and bare dirt on the Los Angeles side.

He has library cards in each city but prefers calling the Los Angeles Police Department when there is a disturbance.

Despite the confusion of having a city boundary running down the middle of his house, he likes things just the way they are.

Shirley Jenkins and her neighbors along Alta Vista Avenue don’t want to leave Lomita. Many have deep roots in the small South Bay community and they like the almost Midwestern closeness that they say this city of 14,000 offers--a closeness they claim is lacking in the big city next door, Los Angeles.

But Lomita may be leaving them.

Torrance Preferred

Linda Cline lives in Los Angeles and fervently wishes her neighborhood would become part of Torrance. She says “a lot of little things” made her decide that Los Angeles just isn’t the place.

Each is playing a role as the governments of Los Angeles, Torrance and Lomita begin a process that could lead to new boundaries for the three neighboring cities.

Los Angeles’s western boundary runs south from the South-Central area toward the Harbor and San Pedro using two main thoroughfares as the dividing line--first Vermont Avenue and then Western Avenue. But when it reaches 238th Street, the boundary takes a sudden turn toward the west for about a quarter mile before resuming a southern bent, this time slicing, often in a jig-saw pattern, through neighborhoods--Jenkins’s, Kohler’s and Cline’s included--without concern for geographical logic.

It was a small issue at first. Cline, a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, started a petition drive in her neighborhood of about 100 homes, just west of Western from 238th Street down to the Lomita city line at 246th Street, requesting that they be ceded from Los Angeles to Torrance.

Neglected by L.A.

“I saw things that were being neglected by Los Angeles that weren’t being neglected by Torrance,” Cline said. “For instance, I’d been after Los Angeles for a long time to build a divider down Western. They did it eventually, but it was nothing but gray, stark concrete.

“Torrance built one about the same time over on Sepulveda, one that they put some work into and made aesthetically pleasing.”

Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who represents the district, took Cline’s proposal one step further. In order to eliminate the confusing boundaries, she suggested that the Western Avenue demarcation be lengthened even more, from 238th Street down to the city of Rancho Palos Verdes. Everything east of Western in that area would be Los Angeles, everything west would be Torrance or Lomita.

Flores also suggested that Normandie Avenue become Los Angeles’s eastern boundary in the area, which would require annexing some unincorporated land to the city. No controversy has stemmed from that proposal, as only a small, sparsely populated area would be affected.

‘Straight as Possible’

“The only reason I’m going along with this at all is that I feel we need to get the boundary as straight as possible,” Flores said. “I don’t want to straighten out the boundary with Torrance and then not Lomita. I want to get this done all at once.”

Her proposal would take several neighborhoods from Los Angeles and put them into one of the other two cities and place one--Jenkins’--into Los Angeles.

Several people in Jenkins’ neighborhood have directed their hostility against Cline for bringing up the matter. “Just because she wants to be in Torrance everybody else is going to have to suffer,” is a typical comment along Alta Vista.

But Cline pointed out that it wasn’t her idea to extend the line, but Flores’s.

“It would be fine with me if they stopped at Pacific Coast Highway,” Cline said, which would leave the Alta Vista area unaffected.

Flores said she sympathizes with the people along Alta Vista, but believes the area would be better served by her plan.

‘Give Good Service’

“Nobody likes change and I can understand being frightened by the thought of being lost in a big, megacity,” Flores said. “But, frankly, I think we give good service to our constituents in that area.”

Many in the neighborhood admit to a fear of being lost in the shuffle in Los Angeles.

“We like the smaller community atmosphere in which to raise our children,” Jenkins said, as she presented the Lomita City Council with a petition signed by 45 of her neighbors who are against the proposed changes. “We deeply want to remain in Lomita, where our neighbors, churches and friends are.”

The plan, according to Lomita City Manager Walker Ritter, should formally come before his City Council in early February.

Torrance and Los Angeles are waiting for Lomita to make a decision before deciding the issue themselves. Approval by those cities is expected to be a formality because little opposition has been expressed within either city.

Could Go to a Vote

If the city councils approve the plan, it would go to the Local Agency Formation Commission of Los Angeles County. If approved by LAFCO, the proposal could be stopped only by a petition drive among affected voters and landowners. If between 25% and 50% signed petitions, an election would be held. If more than 50% signed, the project would be stopped without a vote.

Economics has played a large part for homeowners on both sides of the issue. A house with a Torrance or Lomita address can be worth substantially more than a house in Los Angeles, some residents say.

“I think the proposed change stinks, because it’s going to take $10,000 or $20,000 out of my pocket when I go to sell my home,” said John Swift, who bought his house on Alta Vista three months ago. “Other people like myself will tell a real estate agent that they want to live in Lomita, but not (Los Angeles).”

Those sentiments were echoed by a neighbor.

“When we bought this house, the biggest thing for us was that it was in Lomita,” said Shirley LeBert, a three-year resident of Alta Vista. “We wouldn’t have bought this house if it had been (Los Angeles).”

Cline, who says she was not motivated by economic concerns, admits some of her neighbors want the change because it could increase the value of their homes.

“Maybe L.A. has a stigma about it,” Cline said. “Neighbors have asked me about real estate values. I tell them I don’t know anything about that.”

Mayor Favors Plan

Lomita Mayor Hal Hall understands the concern, but favors the plan, because Lomita would pick up significantly more homes--and property taxes--than it would lose.

“I certainly don’t blame them for wanting to stay in Lomita,” Hall said of the Alta Vista homeowners, “but in my opinion, the pluses for the city overshadow the minuses. In fact, I’ve got a couple of friends . . . who live in that area who are pretty disgusted with me right now, but it’s the only logical way to go. I’m sure economically it’s going to pay the city very well.

“I hate to give up that part of Lomita, but we may have to.”

Business owners in the Alta Vista area are upset because of the costs involved in changing letterheads, corporate papers, advertising and promotional items, not to mention what they perceive as a drop in property value.

Suit Considered

Carol Schoepflin, the owner of Lomita 911, an auto repair shop on the east side of Western, said the affected businesses might file a class-action suit against the cities involved if the plan goes through.

“We would do it to defend ourselves against what we consider to be the crime of being thrown out of Lomita,” Schoepflin said. “We are very happy to be in Lomita. If we had wanted to be in (Los Angeles) we would have bought property there.”

Schoepflin and her retail neighbors are also upset because a Los Angeles business license is about five times more expensive than one in Lomita.

A retail business in Los Angeles that does $500,000 in gross sales per year pays $671.88 for a license. In Lomita that license costs $125.

Some Services Cost Less

But, as Los Angeles city officials are quick to point out, some things cost less in Los Angeles. Trash collection costs $1 a month there, but $9.50 in Lomita and $8 in Torrance. They also claim that electricity through the city’s Department of Water and Power is cheaper than through Southern California Edison, which serves Lomita and Torrance, although an Edison spokesman said the difference is slight.

“For a typical large residential user (a family of five, using 500 kilowatt hours per month), our rates are 1% to 2% higher,” said Ted Porter, area manager for Edison. “But if a person uses less than that, our rates are just about the same, possibly lower.”

Lomita City Manager Ritter said that any homes that Lomita acquires would probably remain with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power because of the high cost of stringing wires and exchanging pipes when such a small number of houses are affected. But he did say that Lomita would take over their refuse collection.

Kohler, who was born in one of the two houses on his lot 61 years ago and has lived there ever since, admits that he wants to keep things the way they are for purely selfish reasons. Sitting on the Los Angeles-Lomita border gives him the “best of both worlds,” he says.

Prefers LAPD

He especially doesn’t want to lose access to the services of the Los Angeles Police Department. He cited two examples of noise problems--one on the Lomita side of his property and one on the Los Angeles side--to explain his preference.

“One time I called the LAPD about noise at the apartment house next door at 1 in the morning,” Kohler said. “They hadn’t come in an hour, so I called them back and they told me that there had been some emergencies and that I was low man on the totem pole. Well, I told them to not bother coming out then, but they insisted.

“When they came, they went over there and talked to the person. I don’t know what they told her, but the next time I had a problem with the noise with them I went over there and asked them to turn it down. They said they’d turn it down, ‘Just don’t call the cops.’ ”

Kohler said he’s had less success with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which patrols Lomita.

“One time at the gas station behind me they were playing loud music for some promotion they were having,” Kohler said. “It was during the week, so I called the Lomita City Hall and they sent someone out right away and told them to shut it down. But it started again that weekend, and since the City Hall’s closed, I called the Sheriff’s Department. They just pushed me off and laughed at me.”

Problem of Perception

Confusion over which law enforcement agency has jurisdiction at a particular address and the quality of service given is at the core of many residents’ complaints. The police say it’s a perception problem.

“If it’s an emergency, we respond no matter what,” said Deputy Jeff Milbourne of the sheriff’s Lomita station. “After everything’s OK, then we figure out whose territory it is.”

“There’s not a real boundary problem,” said Capt. Dennis Conte of the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor substation. “There used to be a delay sometimes because people would call the wrong department, but with 911 that’s not a problem anymore.”

(With the 911 system, a caller’s address and the appropriate agency is automatically flashed onto the operator’s screen.)

Respond to Emergencies

“But if we see an emergency, we’re not going to drive away, we’re going to respond, it doesn’t matter what the particular jurisdiction is. We back each other up,” Conte said.

While no one could recall a problem of police response in an emergency, several people complained that the law enforcement agencies themselves were often confused on routine calls.

“It’s a pain” trying to get someone to investigate bad checks that have been passed in his store, said John Olague, the owner of a combined sportswear and furniture store that sits directly on the Los Angeles-Lomita line. “They do nothing but pass us back and forth.”

Cline said a Los Angeles police officer once told her that “the department is so understaffed that rarely does a car actually go through your neighborhood.”

No Problem With Police

But Schoepflin, who, with her husband, has been in business in the affected area for 17 years and doesn’t want the boundary changed, said she has never had a problem with the police because of boundary confusion.

“I find comments about that quite amusing,” she said.

Cline said that if her neighborhood was taken from Los Angeles, “We wouldn’t even be missed.” Jenkins said she’s beginning to believe that Lomita feels the same way about her neighborhood.

“When I gave the council the petitions, the mayor laughed and said, ‘At least it’s nice to know we’re wanted.’

“I said we don’t know that feeling.”