Boroughs Pitched as Middle Ground
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\nSearching for a middle ground that acknowledges separatist sentiments but that would keep Los Angeles whole, City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said Sunday that her proposal for a borough system would likely give local areas meaningful control over zoning, development and delivery of services.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSuch a structure would go far beyond the city’s existing neighborhood council system in spinning power away from City Hall and to communities across Los Angeles.
\nThe cure-all for bad governance is seen as smaller government\u0085smaller in span, smaller in footprint, smaller in authority.
\nYou gotta wonder, though. Yes, Los Angeles is in the grip of an essentially corrupt \u0093iron triangle\u0094 on development\u0085there the rules are murky, the process uncertain, and the homeowners and developers are locked in a battle to see who can seduce the local council member, who essentially has absolute control over what will and will not be built.
\nBut as I look around at the smaller cities in the area, they break generally into three categories:
\nUber-prosperous enclaves: Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, San Marino, etc.
\nRelatively well-run middle-class communities: Glendale, Torrance, etc.
\nProblem children: Carson, Hawaiian Gardens, etc.
\nObviously, the immediate reaction is that these are stratified by class, race and income (and they are). But each has it\u0092s own unique problems, and if the city is going to become a collection of local fiefdoms\u0085the region will have problems as well. I’m not just talking about corruption.
\nThe problem, of course is that by giving the immediate neighbors total control over zoning and land use, for starters, little things like airports, transit hubs, jails, sewer plants, trash staging or disposal, low-income housing, and services for the homeless are Right Out.
\nEveryone wants a world-class medical center in the region. But no one wants to live with the traffic, noise, congestion, etc. that one brings. And to the extent that local voters will control what is built, they won\u0092t have to.
\nThe problem, of course, is that for the region to function, we have to have regional services; some are optional \u0096 music centers, universities, etc.; some are nice to have \u0096 world class hospitals, international airports, etc.; some are important but arguable and often argued about: affordable housing, services for the homeless, mentally ill, or addicted; and, finally, some are necessary: trash, sewers, generating plants.
\nSomeone please explain to me how we allocate these in a region where every neighborhood gets to say \u0093no\u0094??<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In today\u0092s LA Times: Boroughs Pitched as Middle Ground Searching for a middle ground that acknowledges separatist sentiments but that would keep Los Angeles whole, City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said Sunday that her proposal for a borough system would likely give local areas meaningful control over zoning, development and delivery of services. Such a structure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}