Neighborhood Panels Need Your Street’s Smarts

“Congratulations,” they say. “This will never work, Keith, but good luck anyway.”

I hear sentiments like this since my appointment to the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, a new panel charged with promoting participation in local government by developing neighborhood councils. The board, along with the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, is among the first visible changes brought by passage of the revised Los Angeles City Charter.

Since Mayor Richard Riordan named me to the panel last year, almost every “congrats” has been coupled with condolences. Frankly, I’m not surprised by those skeptical of the potential for neighborhood councils; I too was once a skeptic.

When I read the charter before its passage, I couldn’t help thinking, “Great--more bureaucracy. That’s exactly what the city needs. After all, don’t we already have homeowners and business groups?” I had real reservations.

But once I started to think about solving the disconnect people feel from city government, and the function of a neighborhood council compared to the specific focus of a business or homeowners group, the concept didn’t seem so farfetched. I’ve realized that neighborhood council concepts are already working well in parts of Los Angeles, as are councils in cities in other parts of the country.

For example, Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas’ 8th District Empowerment Congress and Councilman Hal Bernson’s 12th District Citizens Advisory Council are both examples of what neighborhood councils could be. Both organizations have worked on issues from public safety to community development. Even though these groups don’t have formal decision-making authority, their all-inclusive nature makes for a powerful lobbying entity when working toward a common goal.

Los Angeles is extremely diverse in every area, from level of affluence to culture. We cannot employ a cookie-cutter approach to facilitating participation in local government.

The architects of the new city charter didn’t provide a restrictive definition of what neighborhood councils would be. Councils are required to include all neighborhood stakeholders: homeowners, renters, students, business interests, schools, places of worship and community-based organizations. But beyond that, the charter doesn’t give the board or Department of Neighborhood Empowerment any directives in terms of how many neighborhood councils there will be, their size, or how they will organize. They don’t even have to adhere to council district boundaries. These decisions will be made by the residents of Los Angeles at-large with input from the department.

On March 9, at the first of many regional workshops to provide community input on development of the neighborhood council plan, about 250 people (excluding city officials) showed up from the Pico-Union area. Discussions were spirited about what matters most. Participants began to define their neighborhoods and address how the councils should be structured. Many were surprised to learn that they actually control this process.

They began to inculcate power, activism and pride, which, I am convinced, will lead to better neighborhoods across the city.

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Are neighborhood councils the answer? I don’t think there are any easy or quick-fix solutions to empowering neighborhoods. Los Angeles is unique and the problem of people feeling disconnected from government isn’t specific to local government or to Los Angeles or California; these issues affect the entire nation. Proponents of Valley secession might argue that breaking up the city is the answer. But even if the Valley secedes, the result would be the creation of the fifth-largest city in the nation.

The bottom line is that we need to empower people to define their neighborhoods and decide what’s important to them, regardless of city size. The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners and the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment are designed to do just that.

You have nothing to lose by getting involved in the development of the neighborhood council plan and neighborhood councils. Anyone can sit idly by and scrutinize what’s wrong with Los Angeles. The bigger challenge is to get involved. After all, it is your voice, your neighborhood and your city. I invite you to make a difference.