A Leap for Neighborhoods

Los Angeles’ ambitious plan to give neighborhoods more say in government decisions and services--and, if it is handled correctly, to help stave off city secession movements--takes a big step forward today.

More than two years after voters approved a new city charter creating neighborhood councils, community groups throughout Los Angeles can begin to apply for the official “neighborhood council” designation. This means that money, support and, most important, clout with City Hall should follow.

Getting to here from the June 1999 city charter vote that created the councils has been a bumpy ride.

Just three weeks ago, the trendily named city Department of Neighborhood Empowerment released a 21-page draft certification application. Community groups, increasingly impatient at the bureaucratic process, pronounced it ridiculously complex and invasive. What sets this case apart is that the problem got fixed, and quickly.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who chairs a newly created council committee on neighborhoods, took the complaint to her brother, Mayor James K. Hahn. Instead of setting up a round of meetings and hearings, the mayor simply told the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to redo the application. It did, turning in a reasonable six-page version.

This is the kind of cut-the-formalities leadership that’s needed to reenergize a movement that even some early enthusiasts have begun to doubt over the past two years.

For neighborhoods still struggling to organize, the city will have to provide better guidance. It will need to make special efforts to assist low-income neighborhoods and areas without a history of organizing. And the city neighborhoods department, headed by Greg Nelson, longtime aide to former Councilman Joel Wachs, will have to ensure that the councils already organized are not mere extensions of existing homeowner or business organizations but rather are fully representative of a community.

Neighborhood councils were touted as a way to bring City Hall closer to home. It’s time to make good on the promise. To Take Action: For information on neighborhood councils, call the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment at (213) 485-1360 or visit its Web site, www.lacityneighborhoods.com.