Not Ready to Leave L.A.

Los Angeles residents know their city is not perfect. They worry about crime, schools and traffic. Their opinions of Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Chief Bernard C. Parks have slipped after a year dominated by the Rampart police scandal. They hold an even more tepid view of their City Council. And two-thirds believe that the city will likely face a recession in the coming year.

And yet a new Times Poll shows that Los Angeles residents remain resiliently optimistic. Three-fourths believe the city’s economy is doing well, and almost that many describe their personal finances as secure. More say their quality of life has gotten better or at least stayed the same than say it has gotten worse. And no matter what problems face Los Angeles, more registered voters polled oppose than support efforts to break up the city.

Even in the San Fernando Valley, the only section of town surveyed to support a breakup, those who favor secession dropped from 60% in a March 1999 Times Poll to 51% today. And when asked whether forming a new city would cause property taxes and assessment fees to go up--a question not asked in the 1999 poll--support in the Valley dropped to 23%.

Why the decline, especially given that Angelenos in general are slightly less optimistic about the city than they were two years ago? Valley secessionists might argue that the issue was in the news more then, when petitions were being gathered to put breakup to a study. Yet it’s been in the news this past year as well, with the Harbor area and Hollywood petitioning to join the secession study now underway. No such proposal received support from residents citywide.

It could be that most residents simply aren’t convinced of the secessionists’ charge that the Valley isn’t getting its “fair share.” In truth, probably no one feels they’re getting enough city services. A majority of those polled in South and Central Los Angeles said they felt “shortchanged.” Only Westside voters said they got about what they should.

Los Angeles mayoral and City Council candidates, fearful of alienating the voter-rich Valley, have tiptoed around the secession question, sympathizing with the Valley’s perennial complaints while rejecting breakup as the solution, at least for now. A more compelling campaign would simply use the word most frequently cited by those polled as reason to oppose breakup: community. A city that believes in the importance of shared community is a city--whatever its imperfections--that still works.