Dividing Los Angeles

Glidden was addressing the issue of small communities having adequate representation in the governmental bodies that are imposed on them. I suggest that it is not necessary to create new governments.

Compare the situation in Los Angeles with the situation in Chicago and Cook County:

-- City of Los Angeles, approximately 3.5 million; 15 council members. City of Chicago, approximately 2.7 million; 50 aldermen.

-- Los Angeles County, approximately 9 million; five supervisors. Cook County, approximately 5 million; 17 commissioners.

I suggest that increasing the number of members in each of the above bodies would be simpler than any other move. Los Angeles city could have neighborhood representation with 70 councilmen. Los Angeles County could have neighborhood representation with 30 supervisors.

Let me make another suggestion: Combine all the cities in Los Angeles County into one city-county government. Merge into the “board” all elected mayors, plus the Los Angeles city councilmen and Los Angeles County supervisors. This would be about 75 people. This new super-board certainly would represent all the segments of the population. The second step then would be to divide the county into 75 districts for elections to take place in a year or so following.

SOL H. MARSHALL

Van Nuys