EDITORIAL HOLLYWOOD JOINS IN TWO SECESSION MOVEMENTS CHALLENGE CITY HALL.

WITH Hollywood secession now officially on the Nov. 5 ballot along with the split-off of the San Fernando Valley, the fight over breaking up Los Angeles into self-governing pieces can begin in earnest.

The Hollywood breakaway movement doesn't seem to raise the same ire downtown as the Valley's. Perhaps it's size: The Valley has nearly 1.4 million people, Hollywood 186,000. Or it could be the belief that secession is far more popular in the Valley than in Hollywood, which is geographically connected to the rest of the city and has a name synonymous with L.A.

But it's noteworthy that Mayor James Hahn has become a regular drop-in guest in the Valley, while he's left the ground fight in Hollywood to local City Councilmen Tom LaBonge and Eric Garcetti. And county Supervisors Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Gloria Molina, who tried to block a Valley secession vote, approved a similar measure for Hollywood.

Whatever the explanation, residents of the city's most famous community, home of some of the city's most prominent landmarks, are scarcely three months away from a historic vote on their independence from Los Angeles.

Perhaps together Hollywood and the Valley can get the public throughout the city to come together and demand real power for themselves and their neighbors whether through breaking up the city or restructuring city government so every community has a seat at the table of power - and not just the City Hall insiders.