EDITORIAL COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT CREATING FAIR CITY COUNCIL DISTRICTS FOR AN INDEPENDENT SAN FERNANDO VALLEY.

AN independent San Fernando Valley would be the most diverse and integrated big city in America as well as the richest and safest.

Last week's special election in the 2nd District of the Los Angeles City Council, which snakes through the East Valley, shows just how far the Valley has come as its population has changed in the last 20 years.

It's hard to believe that just a few years ago Richard Alarcon became the Valley's first Latino elected official when he won a City Council seat. In 1998, Alarcon beat former Assemblyman Richard Katz in their state Senate race despite being a Latino in a district where whites dominate the voter rolls.

Although Latinos only make up one quarter of the district's registered voters, Assemblyman Tony Cardenas took the plurality of the votes - 47.6 percent. He bested his white opponent, DreamWorks executive Wendy Greuel, by almost 5 points, and now they will compete in a March runoff.

Contrary to the myths perpetuated by the downtown power structure in its desperate effort to deny the Valley a seat at the table of power, the Valley has proven itself to be far more integrated and open-minded and far less race-conscious than the rest of the city.

Valley voters tend to be less mindful of irrelevancies like skin color and ethnicity when they go to the polls. Vals vote for the person they believe to be the best candidate, not the candidate who happens to look the most like them.

That's how it should be everywhere.

So the debate over how Valley City Council districts should be divided, and what districts ``belong'' to which ethnic group, is largely academic. The new maps should be as fair as possible, with the districts being compact, contiguous and representing established communities of interest.

And within those parameters, there's a value in giving each ethnicity as much of an opportunity as any other. There's also the need to comply with federal election laws.

Last week, two Latino groups endorsed a proposed map for the new Valley government that they believe would create four districts (out of 14) with a majority of Latino voters.

For Latinos, that's an improvement over the plan proposed by a consultant to to the Local Agency Formation Commission. Using the LAFCO map, Latino voters would be the majority in only three districts (although they would be a demographic majority in nine districts total).

The idea behind Valley secession is to give all communities a fair say in government that Los Angeles City Hall has consistently denied them. It's about creating an opportunity for new leadership to arise. Empowering diverse communities is a crucial part of that process.

The leaders of Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment have welcomed the California Latino Redistricting Coalition's proposed map, as well they should. The key to a successful Valley city is the empowerment of all sectors of the community, respect for each other's values and interests and the active participation of all.

It's not about empowerment of one group over another but community empowerment. That's what the Valley is all about, and it's what Los Angeles could be about if the narrow special interests that have robbed the neighborhoods of their wealth and health for so long would only put the greatest good of all the people ahead of their own selfishness.