Latinos Map Out Clout Safeguards if Valley Secedes

Though opposed to San Fernando Valley secession efforts, a group of Latino political activists met Wednesday to discuss ways to safeguard Latino clout should the Valley be split into a separate city or school district.

At the meeting, the Valley chapter of the Mexican American Political Assn. discussed creating two Valley cities--and two Valley school districts--should the breakup become inevitable.

“We are extremely concerned about the political impact of secession on Latinos,” said Xavier Flores, a MAPA spokesman. Creating two Valley cities or school districts, he said, “is one option we will be looking at.”

Alan Clayton of the Los Angeles City/County Latino Redistricting Coalition presented draft concepts to create two cities and school districts in the Valley with roughly the same boundaries.

The Valley would be split roughly along the San Diego Freeway into east and west cities and school districts, giving Latinos an approximate 56% majority in the east and an approximate 21% minority in the west.

Clayton said his organization formally opposes Valley secession from the city of Los Angeles and is so far neutral on the issue of breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Valley VOTE, the group supporting Valley cityhood, welcomes all input into how the new city should look, said president Jeff Brain.

“Everything is to be considered,” Brain said. “We think it’s good that they are meeting to discuss the issue.”

Valley VOTE recently decided to study a school district breakup as well.

Flores and Clayton said the presentation Wednesday was just the start of discussions so the Latino community will be ready if an ongoing study of secession finds that the issue should be placed before voters.

“We’re still not in favor of secession happening but if it happens, we need to know what are our options,” Flores said.

However, the topic of the meeting reflects a concern among some Latino leaders that the secession movement may be motivated by the idea of gentrifying the Valley and increasing the white population of the area in a way that would reduce the influence of minorities, Flores said.

Brain disputed that notion, noting that the Valley VOTE board is diverse and includes Latino leaders who believe a Valley city could help all people. He said the highest percentage of petition signatures of any community came from the northeast Valley.

“That is not the intent,” Brain said of the charge that secession would hurt minorities.

Currently, districts for elected office in the northeast Valley have been drawn in ways that have helped Latinos get elected to key positions. That is evidenced by the election of State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) and Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla of Pacoima.

To avoid seeing a new Valley city created that dilutes the voting strength of Latinos, Clayton used city planning districts to fashion two cities and school districts that maintain concentrations of Latino voters in the east.

The draft report says an East Valley city would have a population of 716,598, and could include parts of Arleta, Pacoima, Mission Hills, Panorama City, North Hollywood, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, Sun Valley, Sylmar and Sunland-Tujunga. To get the Latino population of that city up to 56%, Clayton said the city of San Fernando would also have to be included, but the Latino population would still be high without San Fernando.

The draft concept says a West Valley city and school district would have a population of 587,900 people and could include parts of Canoga Park, Woodland Hills, Chatsworth, Porter Ranch, Encino, Tarzana, Granada Hills, Knollwood, Northridge, Reseda, West Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks and Studio City.

Whites would make up about 32% of the population of the East Valley city and school district and about 65% of the population of the West Valley city and school district, Clayton said.

Flores said any consideration of the impact of secession would also have to look at the economic impacts.

“If we are cutting up the Valley that way to protect political influence without also considering the economic impacts, that would be myopic,” Flores said.

The MAPA members met for an hour in public to hear the presentation, then adjourned into a closed session. Flores said he did not expect the group to take an immediate position on the concept.