Meeting to Focus on Rebuilding Better Valley

Elected officials and community leaders will meet in Reseda on Friday to discuss ways to build a better San Fernando Valley in the wake of the Northridge earthquake.

The “Valley Leadership Conference: Rebuilding the Valley” will include discussions on transportation, regional economic development, emergency preparedness and housing needs.

The conference will be held at Reseda High School’s Regent Hall from 8:30 to 5:15 p.m. and is open to the public.

“San Francisco emerged as a better city out of the rubble and ashes of the 1906 earthquake--not by rebuilding everything as it has been, but by rebuilding as it needed to be,” said state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys).

The purpose of the conference is to “reflect on the opportunities this earthquake gives us for rebuilding our community as new money, new jobs and new designs come our way,” the senator said.

Sponsored by the Senate Select Committee on the Northridge Earthquake, which is headed by Roberti, the conference is expected to draw participants from community groups throughout the Valley. Several state senators, assembly members and City Council members will participate in the discussion, along with representatives of the city’s Housing Department, Board of Transportation, Fire Department and Department of Building and Safety.

Management consultant and CSU Prof. Leo Coleman will be the keynote speaker and will discuss, “Millenium 2000: Living, Learning and Working in the Valley.”

Conference organizers said they hoped that the event would produce a collective plan for rebuilding the San Fernando Valley.

“The common vision of the future that we will start developing on Friday can guide the elected leaders in making their decisions in the coming days and months,” Roberti said.

Friday is the first of what will probably be several planned events sponsored by the Senate Select Committee on the Northridge Earthquake, said Gregory deGiere, Roberti’s spokesman. The committee has coordinated quake-related legislation in the Senate.