Is Everything Really Local?

I live in the Northwest part of the San Fernando Valley in a community called Canoga Park. Most of the Valley is within the city limits of Los Angeles. It’s a one hour drive to downtown Los Angeles. That is the location of city hall and where the city council meets. This is not a convenient location for most residence in the San Fernando Valley.

As a result, city decisions about this community are made with little input from Canoga Park residents (most are at work during city council meetings). To give each community in the city a sense of participation the city charter requires the government to create local neighborhood councils. However the local councils have no authority to affect any services provided to the communities. The councils only have advisory authority. I posted a blog entry about neighborhood councils on August 27, 2007.

The consequence of this government arrangement is local participation in neighborhood councils is minimal. After all, who wants to be a part of a group that cannot accomplish anything? Despite this predicament, a home owner three blocks from me is trying to organize a local group that might be able to influence the downtown bureaucracy with respect to maintenance of the neighborhood (street paving, tree trimming, street cleaning, etc.).

I have visited many of my neighbors to encourage them to participate in this endeavor. Some have said they are interested. This will be an ongoing effort. I will post success or failures here.