EDITORIAL EQUALLY UNFAIR TWO YEARS LATER, CITY HALL STILL NEGLECTS VALLEY, AND EASTSIDE, AND SOUTHSIDE ...TWO years after the cityhood vote failed under a barrage of tainted taint v. taint·ed, taint·ing, taints v.tr. 1. To affect with or as if with a disease. 2. To affect with decay or putrefaction; spoil. See Synonyms at contaminate. 3. money in Mayor James Hahn's ugly campaign, 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. still hasn't got its fair share from 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. City Hall. Of course, as we have noted repeatedly over the years, neither has East Los Angeles East Los Angeles, uninc. city (1990 pop. 126,379), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a residential suburb of Los Angeles, in an industrial area. It has a large Mexican-American population. There is a performing arts center and a cultural center. A junior college is there. or South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. or even the wealthy Westside. In fact, none of the city's many neighborhoods gets what it should from City Hall, which spends too much of its money on paychecks and politics and not enough on potholes and police protection. That's true everywhere except for the one neighborhood where practically no one lives: downtown. While fees and taxes go up for the residents who mostly live outside of downtown, services go down. Meanwhile, elected officials are dropping hundreds of millions into beautifying downtown, buying office buildings or building new ones, tying up valuable police resources on rounding up the homeless on Skid Row skid row a run-down area frequented by alcoholics. [Am. Culture: Misc.] See : Alcoholism Skid Row district of down-and-outs and bums. [Am. Usage: Brewer Dictionary, 1008] See : Failure , and handing over public money to downtown developers. That was what was wrong with city government two years ago when the secession movement turned into a near revolt, with both the Valley and Hollywood looking to cut ties with the historic municipal failures of Los Angeles. And it's what's still wrong with the city. In fact, things may have even gone from bad to worse since the vote failed. ``If it has changed, it's changed for the worse,'' said Assemblyman Keith Richman Dr. Keith S. Richman is a California, United States, Republican politician. From 2001 to 2007, he served in the California State Assembly representing the 38th Assembly District based in Northwest Los Angeles County. , R-Granada Hills, the man who would have been Valley mayor. He cited a stepped-up effort by politicians to improve services in the Valley and Hollywood before the vote, which then was dropped. After the secession vote, which lost citywide but passed with a majority of voters in the Valley, Hahn and others promised they wouldn't stop this new emphasis on a fairer distribution of the city's resources. In a way, they didn't. The Valley is as equally neglected as all the other neighborhoods in the city. But it's a far stretch to call it progress - or fair. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion