WILMINGTON to L.A.: We Want Out

They’ve been meeting like this every other week since the year began. And this gathering at VFW Post 2967 on Anaheim Street, across from a graffiti-scarred butcher shop and within earshot of the meanest streets in Wilmington, included the usual complaints about how the community has been forsaken by the city of Los Angeles.

But this time, the plain-talking, God-fearing, working-class crowd went a step further.

This time, the New Wilmington Committee decided to show others what they already know: that a good number of Wilmington’s 72,000 residents want out of the city of Los Angeles.

This week, the 70 or so members of New Wilmington launched a community survey to pinpoint the support for seceding from Los Angeles. And the survey is a significant step forward in what committee members admit will be a long, perhaps impossible, climb toward cityhood.

“The city may never let us go. But something has to be done for this community because we’re not even the stepchildren of Los Angeles anymore. We are orphans,” said Gertrude Schwab, a committee leader and president of the Wilmington North Neighborhood Assn.

First incorporated in the 1870s, Wilmington is one of Los Angeles’ oldest communities and was consolidated into the city in 1909. The consolidation, protested by Wilmington’s residents, came with a promise of revitalizing the community.

But that promise, like others made to the community over time, was never kept, according to Schwab and other longtime residents.

Today, as it sits on the outskirts of the nation’s busiest harbor, Wilmington remains a community rich in history and resources. At the same time, it has the look and reputation of an impoverished community. With its major roads clogged and cracked by truck traffic, its businesses plagued by crime, many neighborhoods overrun by gangs, Wilmington is widely regarded--even by those who call it home--as an urban nightmare.

“If you look at what has happened to Wilmington over the years, our future looks nothing but bleak,” said Peter Mendoza, a New Wilmington activist and president of the Wilmington Home Owners. “So we’ve got nothing to lose fighting for cityhood.”

And a fight it will be.

Although inspired by Malibu’s successful battle for incorporation, Wilmington’s activists realize that they face one huge obstacle that Malibu and other new cities have not: before Wilmington can incorporate, it needs Los Angeles’ permission to secede. Notwithstanding Wilmington’s problems, the community seems too valuable, in tax revenues and location, for Los Angeles lawmakers to forfeit.

“In my wildest imagination, I just can’t see how this can ever be successful,” said Ruth Bennell, executive director of the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission, the state-chartered agency that oversees annexations and incorporations by cities. “They have to get the concurrence of the Los Angeles City Council to detach, and if they don’t do that, anything else they do is a waste of time.”

Harbor Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores agrees. “The obstacles are probably insurmountable,” she said Thursday. (See story Page B3.)

Regardless, the New Wilmington activists are launching their survey, convinced that they can rally the community and finally draw the attention--and respect--of City Hall. And even if no community has ever seceded from the city--Van Nuys and Venice have tried, others including San Pedro have talked about it--the New Wilmington movement will forge ahead.

“This is a very serious movement,” Howard Bennett, the group’s organizer, said after Monday night’s meeting. “The people of Wilmington want out of Los Angeles. They want a government that responds. They want a government they can elect and unelect.”

Toward that end, the committee not only launched its survey, it also enlisted the advice of Larry Sullivan, the Venice Town Council president spearheading that community’s third drive toward cityhood.

In some ways, the appearance of Sullivan was evidence enough that the Wilmington activists are tired of the status quo. A long-haired liberal, Sullivan seemed out of place as he addressed the blue-collar crowd at the VFW Hall. But as the meeting got under way, after the crowd stood for the pledge to the flag, Sullivan’s words seemed to inspire the people, persuading them that they should not give up their fight.

“Having been to the Harbor before, I can tell you that you have a viable city. You have an enormous tax base for a relatively small city,” Sullivan assured the crowd. “So please don’t let the city of Los Angeles bamboozle you. You can make it as a city,” he said to applause.

For nearly an hour, Sullivan addressed the crowd: “As we all know, the city of Los Angeles speaks with several forked tongues. So be prepared that the city will raise all sorts of objections to your actions.”

“They’ll say Wilmington can’t run its own sewer system, that it can’t get its own Police Department, that it can’t get along with the Harbor Department. Well, nobody knows how to talk to the Harbor Department,” Sullivan said, drawing laughter and applause.

And although the community must prove its viability as a city, Sullivan reminded the crowd that it doesn’t need to justify its desire to be out of Los Angeles. “You don’t have to show anything bad about the city of Los Angeles, if you can bite your tongues long enough,” Sullivan said. “You could have a list of complaints as long as the Bible . . . but it’s irrelevant.”

All that matters, Sullivan said, is that Wilmington residents feel strongly enough about cityhood to rally the community, petition the politicians, and continue their fight to Sacramento or the courts if that’s what it takes.

Just before he took the podium, the one time anti-war and civil-rights activist acknowledged that he and the community of Venice have little in common with the Wilmington crowd he was about to address.

“Sure, there’s a certain irony about me being here,” Sullivan said. “But there are so many communities in Los Angeles that feel City Hall has lost touch with them. And divergent communities like Wilmington and Venice have the common goal of local control.”

That much was clear Monday night.

“Good luck,” one of the Wilmington activists told Sullivan as he left the VFW Hall. “Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll be sister cities.”

THE STEPS TO SECESSION

Before New Wilmington leaders can succeed in their drive for secession, there are major requirements that must be met.

The first and most immediate obstacle is getting the Los Angeles City Council to pass a resolution that identifies how much property tax money would transfer to Wilmington if it becomes a city. What follows would be similar to the initiative process. First, 25% of Wilmington’s registered voters must sign petitions in favor of seceding from Los Angeles and incorporating as a separate city. The Local Agency Formation Commission studies the financial viability of cityhood. After issuing its findings, a public hearing is held before the seven-member commission. If the plan is approved by LAFCO and the City Council, the matter comes before the County Board of Supervisors.

Unless more than 50% of Wilmington’s voters file a written protest, an election is automatically set by county supervisors. If and when an election is held, the secession and incorporation must be approved by more than 50% of Wilmington’s voters.