Left Behind: The Impact of Secession on Low-Income Residents and Workers in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood
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A joint project of Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education
Next month, voters in Los Angeles will decide whether Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley should secede from the city. If the areas win voter approval to break off from Los Angeles, the result will be a fundamental change in municipal resources, in needed programs that serve residents throughout the city, and in laws that help ensure quality of life for workers and residents.
Previous analysis and media coverage of secession have often focused on what effect it may have on the remaining city. This study looks specifically at what could happen to the low-income residents of the Valley and Hollywood, and the public employees who currently serve those areas. It's another piece of the argument why Los Angeles should remain one city.
The study examines the following key issues:
- Section Two: A Closer Look at Poverty: Income and housing trends in Los Angeles City, and in the Valley and Hollywood secession areas; and the need to take a regional approach to fighting poverty.
- Section Three: Charter vs. General Law Cities: The difference in powers between charter and general law cities, and the difficulty in becoming a city with "home rule" authority.
- Section Four: Lost in Transition? (Part I): The major Los Angeles City ordinances protecting low-income workers and residents, and what will happen to them upon a new city's incorporation.
- Section Five: Lost in Transition? (Part II): The impact of tightened restrictions on municipal funding; the new cities' ability to finance services; and imperiled city programs that serve low- and fixed-income residents.
- Section Six: A Good Job Is Hard to Find: The threat to economic security for thousands of public employees and their families, particularly lower-earning workers of color.
- Section Seven: Conclusion: A brief conclusion about the failings of the two secession proposals, and the hope for meaningful public dialogue that considers positive solution's to the region's problems.