THE NEXT L.A. / REINVENTING OUR FUTURE : Community : IDEA FILE : NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS

HOW IT WORKS

Neighborhood-oriented communities would catalyze around innovative community centers, possibly on school grounds. Community councils, with bona fide powers to resolve local planning issues and liaisons with city government, would blossom at these sites.

A library with computer learning centers, lectures, concerts and plays would be the centerpiece of each. The landscaped grounds would include a park and other small-scale recreational facilities. A police substation and day-care center would be included at most sites, and other social service providers might also set up shop.

As public-private ventures, the centers would also include what author Ray Oldenburg has termed “great good places”--a coffee shop, tavern or similar such establishment to which people naturally gravitate for conversation and conviviality.

BENEFITS

The councils would draw residents together to hash out all variety of local concerns, from zoning ordinances to ugly lawn ornaments. the common grounds would enhance community, and strong community helps to solve an array of problems spawned by societal detachment, from ethnic conflict to the rootlessness that encourages short-term pollution.

SHORT-OR LONG-TERM IMPACT

Long term. The idea is hardly new, but the ways in which people are thinking about it have evolved and grown more comprehensive as people have come to long more for a sense of “belonging.”

SUPPORTERS

Decentralized problem solving is often effective, supporters believe. Residents get to know each other, Libraries increase literacy and information sharing. Substations give real meaning to “community based policing.” If there aren’t enough police, the local patrol agency could move in. Cynicism and despair diminish. Neighborhood pride flourishes.

OPPONENTS

Critics say a previously quiet corner of a neighborhood may become more active--i.e. nosier. Some local business may see the center as a threat.

THE COSTS

A fee might be required for some services: video rentals, admission to lectures, day care. As private-public cooperative efforts, the centers would grow, in most cases, on existing city property. Capital improvements could be shared by local corporations in exchange for access to community resources or other considerations, and a half of 1% local property tax might be levied. Sister-center pacts would be encouraged.

REALITY CHECK

67% on a scale of 100%. A realistic idea. Yes