Valley Secession

Our mayor is feuding with the City Council. City Council meetings find punctuality to be a challenge. Too many City Council members impress us with their lack of civility. The city fails to properly orchestrate the spending of our money in the most nationally visible public project, our metro system. The incompetence, the neglect is enormous. And we are told the city charter is the culprit.

We don’t need to study politics to plainly see that the astounding progress occurring in [surrounding] cities is not occurring in Los Angeles. Transformation of decrepit cityscapes into attractive landscaped communities is the reality in cities like Burbank, West Hollywood, Glendale and Santa Monica. In Burbank, a landscaped Chandler Boulevard hardly evokes the arid, dumpy characteristics of its continuation in North Hollywood. Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank is tree-lined and welcoming, unlike its bargain-circus-like extension into North Hollywood.

So why wouldn’t any thinking person in the Valley support secession, when [these] cities reflect a pride of ownership that seems to elude Los Angeles? Worse than missing out on a beautified city, we are being robbed of it and all the inherent values that accompany urban renewal.

I hate the idea of secession. But it does seem that a city does better without the lollygagging of our mayor, City Council and the elected and paid personnel of Los Angeles to enact a convincing plan of renewal for our Valley streets.

JONATHAN GREGORY

West Toluca lake