Clipboard : NEIGHBORHOOD PROFILE: SOUTH LA PALMA

A little knowledge is said to be a dangerous thing. For south La Palma, the futile struggle of a handful of dairy farmers to keep oncoming development at bay taught them a hardlesson in city politics. But the bedroom community seeks to retain its slow, bucolic flavor, even if the only cow left in south La Palma stands on the city seal.

Rancho Los Coyotes included a small parcel of sandy river bottom that is modern-day south La Palma. It was left undeveloped and unused until the early 1920s. At that time, dairy farmers--pushed out of Los Angeles County by a massive population and housing boom--answered newspaper advertisements for the rural area and found the grassy land perfect for grazing.

Fortunately, the area’s population boom increased the need for more milk and cheese products. But the dairy farmers sensed an impending encroachment of growth on their fair community. In 1955, residents voted to incorporate the community they called Dairyland, which by then boasted 500 people, 12,000 cows, 17,000 chickens and row upon row of strawberry plants.

In 1962, five school districts, each covering a portion of Dairyland, stumbled upon a basic tenet of government power--eminent domain. Dairyland’s agricultural land could be appropriated by the school districts for the “public good,” in this case school sites. They were interested in this particular land because it cost less money per acre than adjacent developed residential districts.

Within the next three years, 134 acres of Dairyland were condemned by the various school districts and removed from tax rolls. Dwindling city coffers forced council members to abandon their vision of the biggest area of exclusive dairy land in California to favor rezoning the city into residential, industrial and commercial areas. By 1965, when the city was renamed La Palma, more than 1,250 homes had been built and 5,000 new residents had moved to the “City of Vision.”

Families were drawn to La Palma’s accessibility to Los Angeles, yet a quiet hometown feeling painted the bedroom community with a wash of civic pride and neighborliness. Schools were new and streets were safe.

For Betty and Ted Reina, La Palma was also the ideal place to raise a family.

“Fourteen years ago, we lived in Torrance and our daughter, Kim, was in junior high school,” Betty Reina said. “When she started coming home telling us about students keeping guns in their lockers, my husband and I knew it was time to move. Our children deserved the best protection we could give them.”

After visiting a cousin in La Palma, the couple decided to make the city their home, too. Betty Reina joked about the little-known area. “We used to call this the ‘Hidden City of La Palma’ because no one ever knew where we lived.”

The Reina children grew up knowing the security of small-town life, attending the neighborhood schools of Walker Junior High School and John F. Kennedy High School.

But, since Dec. 21, 1988, the Reina family has had to deal with the painful visions that the reality of death brings into one’s home and one’s community.

Betty and Ted Reina’s daughter, Jocelyn Kimberly Reina, was a flight attendant killed in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, above Lockerbie, Scotland. Kim Reina is the only La Palma resident to have been killed by an act of terrorism. “Her old high school classmates and friends came, people she hadn’t seen in years paid their respect,” Reina said. “The sense of community, of family, is very strong here.”

Earlier this month, La Palma Councilman Orbrey Duke, defining terrorism as “an undeclared act of war,” moved to add Jocelyn Kimberly Reina’s name to an eternal flame memorial at City Hall. The plaque reads: “In memory of La Palmans who have given their lives for their country.”

However, the issue has yet to be decided, and council reaction to the suggestion appears to be split. The eternal flame was dedicated in 1972 for the purpose of honoring soldiers who had died in war. Acts of terrorism are not clearly defined as acts of war, therefore Mayor Eva G. Minerand Councilman Richard Polis both opposed adding Reina’s name to the memorial. Only one name, Richard Shields, killed in the Vietnam War, is engraved on the memorial. The La Palma family would like to see their daughter honored by her hometown.

For the Reinas and other residents, life in south La Palma has been an education in the inner workings of a small town government. As evidenced from the cow on the city seal, this little city, aside from encroaching newly developed multi-dwellings and a legal argument over a single name being added to war memorial, south La Palmans seek to keep its rural heritage alive.

“South La Palma is a community, a hometown,” Betty Reina said. “These bonds are among the strongest I know.”

And as everyone knows, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Population: Total (1990 est.): 5,812 1980-90 change: +3.3% Median age: 32.5 Radical/ethnic mix: White (non-Latino): 64% Black: 2% Latino: 13% Other: 21% Income: Per capita: $22,257 Median household: $61,983 Average household: $68,734 Income distribution: $100,000-and more: 12% $75,000-99,999: 19% $50,000-74,999: 37% $25,000-49,999: 24% Less than $25,000: 8% By sex and age: in hundreds Males: Median age: 31.6 years Females: Median age: 33.7 years