EDITORIAL SUPPORT LOCAL CONTROL.

ALTHOUGH usually lumped together, there are many important differences between the Hollywood and San Fernando Valley secession movements.

The Valley is a community unto itself, separated by mountains from the rest of Los Angeles, while Hollywood is contiguous with the rest of the city. The Valley has received virtually no redevelopment investment or attention from City Hall, while taxpayers have handsomely invested in trying to revive Hollywood.

Yet distinctions aside, the Hollywood and Valley movements are similar in the ways that matter most. Both are desperately seeking local control, fed up with trying to reform an incorrigible L.A. City Hall.

That's why voters in the Valley - and all of Los Angeles - should support Hollywood's independence effort Nov. 5 by voting yes on Measure H.

L.A.'s downtown power structure has no intention of sharing power with the city's neighborhoods, and so secession is the only way to give residents control over their communities.

If the Valley and Hollywood both are able to form their own cities, the politics of Los Angeles will be changed to the benefit of everyone. Council districts will shrink in size by nearly half. City Hall will be chastened, and the remaining neighborhoods will be emboldened to demand the kind of government they want.

The people of Hollywood - like those in the Valley and every other neighborhood - deserve to be able to determine their own future. By voting yes on Measure H, all L.A. residents will benefit.