Activism, Anger Lurk Beneath Suburbia’s Bliss

The San Fernando Valley’s endless expanse of ranch homes and strip malls is one of America’s archetypal suburbs, a place where the large-lot house and carefree middle-class life have seemingly been achievable by all.

But beneath the suburban bliss there has always lurked an angry, activist side, a fear that not all is perfect in paradise--and the politicians can’t be trusted with the solution.

A recurring feeling among Valleyites that they are being done wrong by government--that their American dream is being compromised--has resulted in some of the most dramatic citizen uprisings in modern Los Angeles history.

The Proposition 13 tax revolt. The “Bustop” anti-forced integration movement. The campaign to deconstruct the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District. All have their origins in the Valley.

“Proposition 13 and the cityhood effort stem from the same place,” said Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. President Richard Close, who served as a spokesman for Proposition 13 and chairs the secession group Valley VOTE. “There is a problem. Government is unwilling to address it. The people are turning to the initiative process to fix it themselves.”

Valley activists feared property tax bills were rising out of control in the mid 1970s when the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. and others tried to hammer out some reforms with then-Gov. Jerry Brown. They failed. A man named Howard Jarvis attended some of their meetings and had an idea for an initiative to put a ceiling on property-tax increases.

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The idea was pooh-poohed by politicians everywhere, but caught fire with voters. It passed--big--in 1978 and spawned similar anti-tax laws across the country, resulting in numerous unintended consequences and a roiling debate that continues to this day.

When a landmark lawsuit triggered mandatory busing of LAUSD students to integrate schools around the same period, Valley activists again rose up. A housewife, Bobbi Fiedler, formed a group named Bustop in 1976 at Encino’s Lanai Road School, where a white teacher was about to be transferred and replaced by a black teacher. In a matter of months, the group claimed 30,000 members throughout the city.

Critics said Bustop was fueled by racism--charges its leaders denied. The grass-roots group helped propel Fiedler into public office in a stunning defeat of school board President Robert Docter, who favored busing. She went on to Congress. And Bustop is credited with sowing the seeds that later led to the end of forced busing in Los Angeles.

From the day the Valley was annexed by Los Angeles in 1913, it seems, some residents have been clamoring to get out, complaining that they are dismissed by downtown power brokers and denied their “fair share” of the pie.

In 1975, a group called CIVICC, or Committee Investigating Independent City/County, launched a serious effort to break away. It was quickly thwarted by state legislation pushed by Mayor Tom Bradley to give the City Council veto power over secession efforts, and CIVICC fizzled.

But its activists later rose to political power--Hal Bernson became a councilman, Paula Boland an assemblywoman--and some never lost the urge to secede. Boland led a drive to pass legislation lifting the veto and failed. But Assemblymen Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) and Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) later succeeded.

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Valley residents showed their support for secession earlier this year, when breakup group Valley VOTE, a direct descendant of CIVICC, collected signatures from a stunning 25% of the area’s voters to force a study on the issue.

San Pedro and Wilmington, steered by Valley VOTE, also collected enough signatures for a study, and activists in Hollywood are attempting to follow suit.

If the study shows secession is fiscally possible, the breakup could be on the ballot as early as 2002--and Valley activists could make their most significant shake-up ever by forming America’s sixth-largest city.

That is too little for these activists, however. Valley VOTE recently launched efforts to lead the fragmentation of the LAUSD as well.