EDITORIAL JUSTICE DELAYED FUNDS FOR POOL FIX COULD HAVE BEEN ``FOUND'' YEARS AGO.

IT took five years and a change of political leadership, but Northridge is finally in line to get a new pool. Two, actually.

Councilman Greig Smith said this week that he's managed to scrounge up $4.9 million from seven different state and local funding pots to build an ``aquatic center'' with two smaller pools and a water slide in two years to replace the earthquake-damaged larger pool that was closed in 1999.

It's great news - finally - for the residents of the recreation-poor area, but it begs the question: Why couldn't city leaders come up with the cash long ago?

Clearly, it was a question of political priorities. Money's tighter now than it was in the previous five years, thanks to endless employee pay raises while the economy stalled. But still Smith, a City Council staffer for years, has managed to ``find'' the funds, which could likely have been found back in 1999.

Even though it was closed, the Northridge pool has acted as a reflecting pond of sorts. In its waterless depths, residents could see clearly the results of a neglectful and contemptuous City Hall - just one of many that led to the 2002 secession revolt.

Certainly the newfound attention to San Fernando Valley neighborhoods is appreciated, as will the reopened pool. But justice delayed is justice denied, especially to the generation of kids who didn't have a local pool to use in the hot summer months.