L.A.’s Quiet Revolution

A proposal to counter secession by dividing Los Angeles into semiautonomous boroughs didn’t quite make it onto the November ballot. But some of the innovative ideas that came out of the last-minute effort are being put into action. Secession leaders deserve some thanks, yet to spite the city they won’t even take the credit.

Mayor James K. Hahn last week directed all city department heads to meet quarterly with Los Angeles’ fledgling neighborhood councils and promised to include the councils in planning next year’s budget. Councilman Tom LaBonge introduced a motion to establish seven regional offices staffed by City Hall workers so that residents could apply for permits and work with the city on local problems such as street repairs and tree trimming without having to make the trek downtown. And, more symbolically, the City Council voted to meet regularly in each of the 15 council districts.

All these ideas draw from borough proposals put forth this summer by state Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg and City Council members Wendy Greuel and Janice Hahn. Leaders of the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood secession movements dismiss such efforts as a cynical ploy to convince residents to vote against a breakup in November. No, it would be a cynical City Hall that didn’t try to address the sense of alienation and neglect that fosters support for secession.

In fact, last month’s actions build on reforms undertaken over the last three years in direct response to the secession threat. These include setting up the neighborhood councils, establishing new regional boards that give residents more say in local planning decisions and creating a fifth City Council seat in the Valley.

Secession leaders rejected those reforms too, even as residents throughout the city began mobilizing to make the city better, not tear it apart. At last count, 39 neighborhood councils have organized, twice the number projected for this stage.

It suits the secession leaders’ cause to be negative. They issued a “Declaration of Independence” last weekend, officially launching their campaign.

“As our forefathers did before us,” they wrote, “we have for decades petitioned for redress of these inequities.... Our petitions have not only gone unanswered, they have resulted in scorn and ridicule from a tyrannical City Hall, led by a modern-day King George, Mayor James Hahn.”

Someone should tell the fellows in the tri-cornered hats that, rather than expressing Valley concerns seriously, this is the kind of hyperbole that invites ridicule. It also ignores the quiet revolution that is underway.