Word Just Got Around

There is a creeping suspicion among people who live in the suburbs that the city is trying to move in on them. As a result, they fight any effort to urbanize their little corners of heaven, and the rage of their resistance can rattle windows.

This was never clearer than at a public meeting the other night in the cheerful multi-purpose room of Live Oak elementary school. There was so much anger that even the chicken and bumblebee pinatas hanging from the ceiling seemed to sway in the verbal turbulence.

The school is part of a Valencia housing tract called Hillgate. Lawns gleam like patches of emeralds in the sun at Hillgate and daisies turn their smiling faces toward a cerulean sky.

On any given Sunday, one can find lovely young mothers pushing babies in strollers down Justamere Lane and young husbands polishing their Fun Time campers around Newport Place.

Hillgate is a place of compassion and serenity. God would live there if he could raise the down payment.

But wait. Something’s not right. The lady with the baby is screaming and shaking her fist. Her face is twisted with fury, her baby is being jostled into stunned silence, and she herself is demanding to know what in the hell is going on here.

Not much. Just that somebody wants to build an industrial center next door and widen a lazy little country road into a six-lane highway and create the danger of chemical spills and giant trucks smashing into back yards where little children play.

Other than that, nothing.

It’s this way. The Newhall Land & Farming Co. is seeking permission to develop about 1,500 acres off the Golden State Freeway into an industrial park. The park would be next to Hillgate.

Those who represent the company say it’s no big deal.

The industries will be clean and non-polluting, and after awhile one gets used to the rumble of passing trucks, much as we’ve gotten used to gang warfare in the downtown neighborhoods.

As for hazardous chemicals, shucks, that’s not going to be a problem, either.

Well, no, the company can’t say for sure there won’t be hazardous chemicals in the industrial park, but, heck, there are (chuckle) hazardous chemicals everywhere, even in grocery stores!

And, of course, there are laws that control the use and transport of any kind of chemical . . . and we all know with what diligence industry obeys those laws, regardless of cost or inconvenience.

Somehow, however, this message of pacification hasn’t trickled down to the folks in Hillgate.

About 400 of them turned out for the meeting at Live Oak School, and for a moment I thought I might be a witness to L.A. County’s first suburban riot.

The people were madder than hell and wasted no time in firing objections that exploded like mortar shells around four surprised Newhall Co. executives. I heard one of them say she’d never seen a meeting like that before in her life.

There was nothing about the plan the Hillgaters liked. Most hadn’t heard about it until a week before, even though the company was going to appear in front of the County Planning Department in two days.

“We were stunned,” says Marilyn Jensen, an organizer of the protest. “We called one quick meeting and about 20 people showed up. Then we called this meeting and you can see what happened. Word just got around.”

I’ve never seen a protest meeting like that before, either. The pitch of dissent approached levels of hysteria usually reserved for soccer meets and holy wars.

What’s going on here, I think, is more than just the basic dislike of an industrial park next door or the arrogance of industry in trying to sneak it through.

Those count too, but underlying that basic unhappiness is the dawning of a disquieting truth: There’s just no place to hide anymore.

The sins and necessities of humanity are no longer confined to the inner city. You can’t gate yourself off from an industrial center anymore than you can prevent suicide by passing a law against it.

They’re dealing crack on Shady Lane with the same alacrity that characterizes the efforts on Main Street. Crime accelerates where people gather. Industry locates where need exists.

Having said that, I still hope the warriors of Hillgate win their battle. Land developers need lessons taught and restraints applied to at least delay the day when they own the world.

In applying for permits that would facilitate their project, the Newhall Co. has promised that the work would not adversely affect the peace or comfort of the surrounding communities.

I’ve got news for them. It already has.