The New Turf Battles

The Great Los Angeles Land Grab is on. Not unlike the 19th century farmers who raced their covered wagons to homestead on newly acquired prairie lands, local homeowner and community groups are eyeing adjacent blocks, hoping to get a jump on staking out neighborhood councils.

The catalyst for this 21st century scramble is not new territory but rather the new city charter, which encourages communities to form the voluntary neighborhood councils to oversee fix-ups on rundown streets, help attract new businesses, plant trees or whatever else the locals want. The charter also promises support for these councils and an audience at City Hall but requires that they include representatives of residents and local businesses, schools, churches and other institutions.

The councils can’t officially convene until the city adopts rules, perhaps by next June, specifying how they must organize themselves. But community leaders are already poring over maps, walking blocks and quietly carving up the city--at least on paper.

In the short run, this planning, taking place from Hollywood to Westchester and Venice to downtown, could spark some hot boundary disputes. It will raise a question not often asked or easily answered in Los Angeles: What defines a neighborhood?

In South Los Angeles, for instance, members of four long-standing neighborhood councils contemplate expanding to include nearby communities, beyond the lines of the 8th Council District, which currently confines them. In Venice, a group called Grass Roots Venice has already held two meetings to discuss community councils; more than 100 people attended the last one. Westchester residents and business leaders are drafting council bylaws, as is a loose coalition in Rancho Park and Cheviot Hills.

Boundary arguments loom especially over affluent residential and commercial tracts. On the other hand, there are neighborhoods so depressed and unorganized that no one is likely to claim them. If they don’t organize, how will the city’s new Department of Neighborhood Empowerment help them improve?

To succeed, the councils will have to tackle some tough issues--for example, balancing development with the needs of residents or reviving flagging business districts.

This community-building is slow and messy work, but it can hardly be otherwise if the impetus is to come from the grass roots rather than downtown politicians. The most hopeful sign from the pockets of ferment across Los Angeles is that there is keen interest in neighborhood councils, perhaps more than charter drafters imagined.