Putting the Future of Los Angeles on the Line

With a few strokes of his pen, Gov. Pete Wilson made it easier Sunday for residents fed up with their municipal governments to split off and form new cities of their own. Although the bill (AB 62) applies to cities statewide, it grew out of decades-old discontent in the San Fernando Valley over how City Hall treats the farthest-flung neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Wilson’s signature capped a two-year, bare-knuckle political fight in the state Legislature, but the real battle is just beginning. Over the next three years, nothing less than the future of Los Angeles is at stake. The debate over secession offers both the risk of shattering a great city and the opportunity to unite it. The outcome may depend largely on how city leaders from the mayor on down choose to respond.

The bill by Assemblymen Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) and Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) only removes the power of a city council to unilaterally thwart voter efforts to secede. The Times supported the bill as a way to give power back to residents. But we remain unconvinced that breaking apart Los Angeles--where greatness stems from diversity--is the best course to what secession advocates say they seek: more responsive local government. Yet the discussions and studies that must accompany a secession drive can highlight the successes and failures of local government. With that information, city leaders can work to improve services and access across the city.

Hertzberg and McClintock’s bill does not make it easy to break from a municipal orbit. First, advocates must draw the boundaries of their proposed city. Then, they must gather signatures from 20% of the proposed city’s residents. In the Valley’s case, that’s about 80,000 people. After that, supporters would have to study the financial feasibility of secession. The new city would have to support itself without ruining the tax base of the city it leaves. In fact, the study may prove that communities from the Valley to Venice get more than secessionists realize. As in any divorce, the new and old cities would have to work out a division of property. How to split an airport? Or a harbor? Or a sewer system? Only after all those issues are resolved would the choice land before voters.

But Los Angeles leaders don’t have to wait for a looming vote to try to alleviate the sense that downtown ignores the Valley, or San Pedro, or Venice, or South-Central. Cutting down the bureaucratic distance to City Hall would benefit the whole city, and help it remain whole.