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Why the San Fernando Valley Should Become a City

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* Thank you for your article showing how the Valley, if it were its own city, would rank against the other metro centers in the country (Aug. 3).

San Fernando Valley would be a dynamic city, the sixth-largest in America, with one of the lowest crime rates among major metropolitan centers. Our amenities, commerce and people rival any city in the world.

So why hasn’t there been a recent serious effort to break away from Los Angeles? Because under current law it’s nearly impossible!

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After citizens go through numerous governmental procedures and a vote by the people of the city approving a detachment plan, the Los Angeles City Council could still veto the detachment!

That is why I have authored AB 3370, which would deny the Los Angeles City Council power over an election already decided by the people.

The Assembly Local Government Committee will be holding a hearing in the San Fernando Valley this fall to take testimony on this important issue.

The fact is, for over two decades, the people of the Valley have been struggling with City Hall to receive their fair share of government services. Though it’s nice to now have a mayor who knows where the Valley is, the reality is the council districts are still unfairly gerrymandered, our police divisions are undermanned and we do not receive value for the tax dollars we contribute to the city coffers.

I believe the San Fernando Valley measures up as its own metropolis.

PAULA L. BOLAND

Granada Hills

Boland represents the 38th District in the California Assembly.

* We Valleyites have a serious case of an inferiority complex. We, who number over 1.2 million, and who, if we broke from Los Angeles, would be the fourth or fifth most populous city in the country, still kowtow to little West Los Angeles.

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Politically we are dictated to by the West L.A. mafia run by Reps. Henry Waxman and Howard Berman and City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, so that our next new state senator will be Herschel Rosenthal.

He doesn’t know the Valley. He doesn’t live in the Valley. He doesn’t care about the Valley. But he doesn’t want to lose his job.

Getting rid of Rosenthal and his ilk was exactly the reason we, with great reluctance, voted for term limits. Having exceeded his term limits for West L.A., he is now the Democratic candidate for a large part of our Valley. Shouldn’t that be illegal?

In the Valley section of July 28 we find that poor little, rich little West L.A. can’t find a place to do its recycling, so the 18-wheelers drag their recyclable trash over to our Valley to pollute our air.

The black community thinks of us as bigots though we have a higher proportion of ethnic minorities than the basin. The West L.A. community thinks of us as bumpkins, without theaters, museums or concert halls.

Maybe it’s not just a separate school district we in the San Fernando Valley need. Maybe we need to be a city independent of Los Angeles.

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M. STEPHEN SHELDON

Studio City

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