EDITORIAL LEVINE'S NIMBYS DRIVEN TO DESPERATION BY L.A. CITY HALL.

LARRY Levine, the big-bucks political consultant playing pitchman for the anti-San Fernando Valley cityhood movement, revealed his real attitude about his fellow Valley residents at a recent debate before some Van Nuys Airport business operators.

Under the terms of the city divorce plan, the airport could become the property of an independent Valley if federal officials approve the transfer of ownership. That, according to Levine, would be disastrous for the businesses that operate in the facility.

Local control, Levine warned, would make the airport ``subject to the NIMBYs of the Valley.''

NIMBYs?

Is that how Levine sees residents of the Valley who are scrapping and fighting for a voice in a city government that mostly ignores them?

Does he think Vals are just a bunch of selnterested complainers?

Is that what Levine thinks of the voters in the Valley's 40th district, where his son, Lloyd, is running for the state Assembly?

What, exactly, is a NIMBY anyway?

The acronym, short for Not In My Back Yard, usually conjures up images of small-minded and small-town intransigents, people who resist any change in the local law or landscape for their own selfish reasons.

But not all ``NIMBYism'' is motivated by selfishness.

Sometimes, it's merely a sane response to the insanities of government. When decent people find that local authorities consistently ignore, deny and steamroll over their rights and interests, they get desperate. With the traditional channels of open government and public debate either closed or rendered useless, they find what little bit of protection they can in obstructionism.

And that, to be sure, has happened in the Valley, thanks to City Hall's long-standing indifference to the community's interests.

For decades, one decision after another in City Hall has gone against the Valley - where to station cops, where to spend resources, where to open up a massive garbage dump.

And so, seeing that they can't seem to influence City Hall's decisions, many Vals have tried to stand in their way instead.

The results have been tragic.

City Hall-induced NIMBYism no doubt played a major role in the Valley's inability to get a subway line or light rail and many other things that would have broadly benefited the region.

But the solution to NIMBYism is not to further disrespect disenfranchised voters, it's to turn more power over to the people. If Valley residents had control over their own land-use and spending policies, if they had a real say in the decisions that affect their very lives, they would become a lot more cooperative. They would be responsible and not downtown.

At the Van Nuys Airport and elsewhere, they would be willing to embrace policies that serve the greater good, and work out compromises that balance the interests of all.

The Los Angeles City Council could have taken a key step toward ending NIMBYism last week by placing a plan for a citywide borough system on the November ballot, but it rejected the opportunity. In doing so, it sent a clear message that L.A.'s communities will never get a seat at the table of power.

The blame for NIMBYism rests not with Vals, but with the downtown machine that has driven them to it. That machine consists of many of the people Levine has helped elect to office, a machine that he now defends in the secession debate without regard to the greater good of his community.

Like many others who oppose secession without ever having given it serious consideration, he's eager to protect what he's got with no regard for the people who pay the bills to keep the City Hall machine running but don't get a fair share in return.