Valley Secession

* On July 29, your front page announced that Gov. Gray Davis has thwarted the will of the 60% majority who voted for Proposition 187 (“Davis Won’t Appeal Prop. 187 Ruling, Ending Court Battles”). On the same day, the front page of your Valley section made much of the fact that none of the citizenry bothered to show up for the first public hearing on San Fernando Valley secession (“Public Misses Meeting”).

Maybe that’s because people have come to realize that their opinions carry no weight whatsoever if arrogant politicians do not happen to share them. Why bother participating in a “democratic” process that has been revealed as a complete sham?

JAMES DAWSON

Woodland Hills

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* Knowing that some residents of the Valley feel they are poorly served by the city of Los Angeles, I was half prepared for a long wait for cleanup after two large limbs broke off and fell from a city tree in the parkway between the sidewalk and curb in front of my house.

It was a Monday morning when I discovered the mess and assumed that the accumulation of weekend problems would flood city phone lines with complaints and requests for service. I found a number in the phone book and in a minute or two I’d gone through the various menus and reached an answering machine.

I supplied the requested information and hung up at 8:15 a.m., thinking that this was going to take time to process and turn into a work order and some action. At 1:15 that afternoon, I was alerted by a grinding noise outside the house. A crew from the city Bureau of Street Maintenance was just about finished feeding the fallen limbs into a tree shredder that spewed the mulch into their truck.

They then got out a broom and shovel and carefully picked up the rest of the debris, leaving the curbside cleaner than it’s been since the last time the city sweeper came through. I thanked the two men, who gave their names as Hector Cortez and Jerry Jaime, for the prompt, efficient and business-like way they handled their job. They drove off at 1:20 p.m. to their next case.

This problem is widespread throughout my neighborhood because of a faulty decision made half a century ago when this area was subdivided and a developer built the tract. The trees planted in the parkways turned out to be a poor choice. The roots upend the sidewalks and in the summers the foliage grows so lush that because of the sheer weight the trees go on a diet by shedding their limbs.

As a result, the big yellow trucks of the city of Los Angeles Bureau of Street Maintenance go through my neighborhood almost every day. Here’s one Valley resident who is not convinced a proposed secessionist city of San Fernando Valley would serve me any better.

SAUL HALPERT

Sherman Oaks