EDITORIAL NO HOPE FOR NOHO ONCE AGAIN, THE VALLEY SUFFERS AT CITY HALL'S HANDS.

WHILE North Hollywood desperately awaits long-overdue redevelopment, a single, massive, unmovable obstacle stands in its way: City Hall.

Specifically: the Community Redevelopment Agency, Mayor Richard Riordan, City Council President John Ferraro and Councilman Joel Wachs, who carve up the Valley under the city's gerrymandered district system that lets everyone off the hook.

Preoccupied with their own selnterests and the interests of downtown, they have ignored prime real estate in North Hollywood.

The property is above the new subway station, adjacent to the burgeoning arts and theater district and in the neighborhood of Warner Bros., Universal and Disney. It ought to be a jewel at the heart of this entertainment district; instead, it's empty.

Two years ago, the CRA awarded building rights to Santa Monica developer Allen Radford.

Radford promised the world - sound stages, garden offices, shops, stores and a multiplex. He didn't have the money to do any of that then and he doesn't now.

His contract for exclusive developments lapsed this week with his pie- in-the-sky plans still up in the air.

Incredibly, the CRA is debating whether to give him his umpteenth chance or to allow the umpteenth potential developer to take it over without a plan at all, only a promise.

So where are your leaders? Nowhere to be found as usual.

That's why so many people in the Valley want to secede and form their own city. They're tired of failure, of being let down by city leaders downtown.