EDITORIAL : MUNICIPAL DEMOCRACY; NEW GROUP FORMS TO FIGHT DOWNTOWN BUSINESS INTERESTS.HERE'S nothing silly about the decision of homeowner and business leaders from the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and the Westside to join forces in the charter reform battle over neighborhood empowerment. Driven by longstanding resentment against City Hall's fixation with downtown development and neglect of the city's neighborhoods, the homeowner and business leaders present a united front to the attempt by a narrow group of corporate executives to dictate the terms of a new City Charter. Dubbing dubbing removal of most of the comb of day-old chickens. See also decombing. itself The Coalition, the group is fighting the notion that the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Business Advisors, a committee of 26 downtown business interests spearheaded by the Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). , has a proprietary lock on charter reform with its proposal to expand the City Council from 15 to 35 members without any form of neighborhood councils Neighborhood councils are governmental or non-governmental bodies composed of local people who handle neighborhood problems. They can be found in many cities throughout the world. . The new group, which includes the United Chambers of Commerce of the Valley, the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations, the San Fernando Valley Federation, the Westside Civic Federation and members of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, is getting organized to fight for a government that gives the organizations a say in neighborhood issues. The Coalition is an authentic coming together of business groups and homeowner organizations - and potentially the union of blue-collar city employees - in support of including elected and empowered neighborhood councils in a revised City Charter that will go before voters next year. Elected decision-making community councils is the one thing that could help keep Los Angeles together by decentralizing de·cen·tral·ize v. de·cen·tral·ized, de·cen·tral·iz·ing, de·cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To distribute the administrative functions or powers of (a central authority) among several local authorities. city government and encouraging a broad range of people to participate in city government and create a new and better Los Angeles. Obviously, it will be awkward for the power-brokers in this city to exercise the same degree of power and influence down at City Hall if hundreds of people out in the neighborhoods have power, influence and most of all information to affect the decisions of city government. The point of reform is not to preserve the status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. and create a bigger and costlier City Council. It is to open the doors of power to the whole city so that we can dialogue together and work together to build a better city. The real issue isn't whether the mayor or council gains or loses power. But that the people in the neighborhoods of this richly diverse city have a say in their own government. So the fight has been joined. We trust it will be a lively and interesting debate. We are confident that the result will be a better city. In the words of Erwin Chemerinsky Erwin Chemerinsky (born 1953) is a well-known professor of Constitutional law and federal civil procedure, has recently accepted a position at the University of California, Irvine, in the new Donald Bren School of Law, beginning in 2009. , chairman of the elected commission, ``The more people who get involved, the better for everyone in the city, and the more likely it will be charter reform is approved.'' |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion