EDITORIAL GOOD NEIGHBORS PROPOSED HIGH SCHOOL SITE IS ALREADY MAKING AREA RESIDENTS ANGRY.IDEALLY, schools should be good neighbors, a center of life for the surrounding community. But in the case of Granada Hills, the community already seems to hate the proposed new high school -- the third in the area. That might be reason alone for Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. officials to rethink their determination to build a 1,215-student high school on the site of the closed Granada Hills Community Hospital. On the one hand, it's probably better for the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) to seize an empty nonresidential site than to use eminent domain eminent domain, the right of a government to force the owner of private property sell it if it is needed for a public use. The right is based on the doctrine that a sovereign state has dominion over all lands and buildings within its borders, which has its origins in to force people out of their homes, as the district has had to do in other, denser neighborhoods. But on the other hand, the district's claim that it needs the new high school is suspect at best. The entire district has been experiencing declining enrollment, especially in more affluent areas of 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. . Proof of that is the Valley campuses that have gone unused for years. LAUSD officials don't have to heed the public's concerns about the new high school. But if they want to rally community support before Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio (Tony) Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872. starts exercising some control -- and supporting school board candidates -- they might want to consider their neighbors first. |
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