Giving Political Power Back to the Neighborhoods

Joyce Prager and her audience at a San Fernando Valley school represent a side of Los Angeles ignored by movies, culture commentators and other trend setters.

Writers who chronicle the glitzier L.A. would not have been interested in Prager’s presentation to the Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission at James Madison Middle School Wednesday night.

But the scene was familiar to me, for it brought back memories of the city I first encountered in 1970. It was an L.A. of community meetings, unpaid political volunteers trekking door to door and housewife-researchers combing through documents, trying to determine how much poison escaped from the neighborhood dump.

As a local political reporter for The Times, I attended their meetings, followed their canvassing and waded through the documents they had pried loose from government planning and health officials.

Their efforts wouldn’t have made a movie, or an article in Vanity Fair. But they represented the best in a period of intense community involvement, and Joyce Prager and her audience would like it back.

*

Prager, community affairs director of the 20th Century Insurance Co. of Woodland Hills, grew up in the Valley in those days, graduating from North Hollywood High School, Valley College and California State University at Northridge. She’s active in the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. (VICA), an organization of large and small Valley businesses.

At last Wednesday’s meeting, she stood at a rostrum in Madison’s multipurpose room, facing the members of the charter revision commission, one of two such groups that are trying to write a new constitution for Los Angeles to present to the voters next year.

The crowd looked sizable, but a majority were students, assigned to attend by civics teachers. Mingled among them were the community activists and other charter reform junkies, a skeleton crew compared to the ‘70s.

The proposal Prager offered has been floating around VICA for several months. It’s so revolutionary that it doesn’t have much chance of ever making it to the ballot. In fact, VICA members haven’t approved it yet. But I know several influential members of the organization who think it’s a fine idea.

And you might too.

Start with eliminating the Los Angeles City Council.

Replace it with town councils, representing communities such as North Hills, Encino, Crenshaw, San Pedro, Venice, Rancho Park, Lake View Terrace, Wilmington and the rest of the places on the map that add up to the city of Los Angeles.

As the VICA position paper put it, “as we look at surrounding autonomous jurisdictions such as the city of San Fernando, and the city of Calabasas, we believe that smaller jurisdictions are more manageable and result in a closer working relationship between local government and its citizens.”

These town councils--possibly working on a volunteer or modest per diem basis--would meet once a week or less, and decide on local matters, such as whether to grant a zoning permit to a new shopping center or widen a street.

Citywide and regional issues--police, the harbor, the airports, firefighting--would be handled by a Metro Council, appointed by the town councils.

The power of the mayor would be greatly increased, including authority to hire and fire department heads.

*

I can see flaws in the proposal.

If West Hills wants to widen a street, and the next community insists on having it narrow, traffic would be backed up for miles.

In some neighborhoods in this religiously and ethnically diverse city, arguments over zoning for synagogues, mosques and churches could turn into battles of West Bank proportions.

And writing a new charter or constitution doesn’t automatically improve the system. The United States has a great Constitution, but we see how often the federal government screws up.

But I like the idea of town councils. There are two unnecessary new malls in my neighborhood and I have no idea why they were built--except for profit--or who gave permission for their construction. If we had had a Town Council, rebellious neighbors could have fought the malls or scaled them down.

Now such projects emerge from the mysterious reaches of the Planning Department and the City Council planning committee, surprising even the most well-informed residents.

This leads to the frustration that is behind secession movements in the San Fernando Valley and other places.

So the town council proposal is not revolutionary at all. It is conservative, aiming to preserve the city of Los Angeles from the threat of dissolution.