Secession Vote

Re “Secession Merits a Citywide Vote,” Feb. 23.

The real issue is not (as many secession proponents claim) whether the Valley is getting as much value back from the city as it is giving to it. What everyone in the Valley really wants is to feel that we are part of a community that takes care of its own, that is in control of its future.

A city is supposed to serve its community. A county is supposed to serve a region of communities. Ours is a region of communities served by Los Angeles County. The city of Los Angeles is not a community. It is a collection of very diverse communities (more like a county), each having no city government of its own.

If the politicians in Sacramento really cared about the well-being of California’s diverse communities, they would recognize that we the people of the self-supportable California community known as the San Fernando Valley have every right to define our community and form our governing body. We want a city council that answers only to Valley residents when considering ordinances, taxes, services and all of the other common concerns that we, the Valley community, care about.

What about the other communities in the city? They need to decide their own destiny too. Would East or West or South Los Angeles benefit by having their own city government? I don’t know. I would never try to decide that issue for them because I live and work in the Valley.

PHILLIP CRIPPS

Van Nuys