Time for Downsizing at Los Angeles City Hall

Re Hollywood secession: As a 16-year resident and property owner in Hollywood, I have been continually disappointed by the service, or lack of service, from the city. Two short examples: Several years ago a hillside collapsed into the roadway, partially blocking the route. I called multiple times for assistance, my neighbor called, and after several weeks of no response we shoveled out the mess ourselves.

Recently, I called for “dead animal pickup” to remove a large dead skunk in the road. I bagged the animal and put it on the side of the road; after one week, no response, no pickup, nothing. I disposed of the corpse myself.

Is it reasonable to leave a rotting dead body in the street? Is that the great service Mayor James Hahn alludes to? A smaller city is more governable and more responsive to citizen needs. It’s time to downsize and lay off the deadwood at L.A. City Hall.

Robert Dames

Hollywood

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Ron Thomson of Cheviot Hills gave his opinion (letter, Oct. 20) as to how rapidly street repairs are made by the wonderful, bureaucratic but incompetent Bureau of Street Services. “It gets fixed in a day or so,” he wrote. Well, not here in the harbor area.

The northeast corner of Western Avenue and 25th Street has had broken asphalt near the curb face for over two years. During that time I have e-mailed the problem in several times with no results. The phone maze is impossible to maneuver, so I gave up with that form of communication.

In my last attempt to get it fixed I visited Councilwoman Janice Hahn’s office in San Pedro and gave the exact location and description of the problem to her aide. That was three months ago. The owner of the gas station adjacent has also made numerous attempts to get it fixed with the same result: nothing. The spot is still broken, collects water and now a nice green carpet of (very slippery) algae and other plant life growing there.

Maybe if the spot were in Cheviot Hills it would be fixed by now. But it’s in San Pedro, and I must admit, maybe it’s asking too much to get a street here repaired in two years. Secession certainly appeals to me.

B.J. Hildebrand

San Pedro

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Being a Valley resident since birth -- and that does go back several decades -- I was intrigued by the TV ad proposing the concern that if one voted for secession one would be taking a big gamble on taxes going up, the DWP fees going up, etc. Yet I did not hear that if we voted against secession there is a promise that these fees would be guaranteed not to rise. And according to my bills, everything keeps going up and nothing has come down. I feel it’s a gamble not to vote for secession.

Arlene Ober

Van Nuys