L.A.'s quandary: breakup or boroughs. (Commentary).(Brief Article)

The breakup of the great world city of Los Angeles could happen this fall. Secession proponents have forced a measure onto the November ballot splitting off the San Fernando Valley, home to 1.35 million people, or almost 40 percent of L.A.'s 3.5 million total.

A parallel measure would cut off Hollywood. Next up, say some, may be the Wilmington/San Pedro harbor area, or the city's affluent west side.

Set us free, cry the secessionists, from a floundering, inefficient central Los Angeles government that's always treated us like stepchildren anyway. Let us form our own cities, run all our own affairs.

No way, declare L.A. defenders, including present and former mayors. Secession, they argue, solves no problems. Or as Kevin Starr, the California state librarian and a professor at the University of Southern California pleads, don't let Los Angeles, one of the most creative, dynamic metropolises on earth, become the first great city in world history to voluntarily deconstruct itself.

A bitter, acrimonious struggle leading up to this fall's secession vote seemed inevitable. Then in June, a carefully designed alternative was presented by Robert Hertzberg, immediate past speaker of the California Assembly and respected legislator from the San Fernando Valley's Sherman Oaks area.

Hertzberg's idea is to keep a unified city of Los Angeles, but divide it into nine boroughs--Center City, Westside, South Harbor, Northeast-, West-, and Mid-San Fernando Valley, for example. Each borough, from districts of roughly 82,500 people, would elect a five-member council with full control over local budgets and services ranging from community development and housing to parks, libraries, and planning.

Each council would elect a borough president (for a two-year term) from its own membership. The borough presidents would constitute a citywide board of presidents, replacing the existing Los Angeles City Council. The L.A. mayor would still have the expanded powers granted him (belatedly) in a 1999 city charter revision. Citywide responsibility would continue in such areas as taxation, police, airports, harbors, and information technology.