Urban Studies, Vol. 38, No. 10, 1701–1731, 2001

Seceding from Responsibility? Secession Movements in Los Angeles

Julie-Anne Boudreau and Roger Keil

[Paper Ž rst received, March 2000; in Ž nal form, December 2000]

Summary. This paper seeks to understand why secession movements gained momentum in Los Angeles and what their effect will be on regional governance. A brief discussion of liberal theories of secession demonstrates that they cannot explain secession movements at the urban scale, as they are exclusively focused on cases of nationalist secession from a nation-state. Furthermore, liberal theories of secession offer normative arguments on the right to secede. Following a change in California legislation granting municipalities the right to secede, the secessionist debate in Los Angeles is not so much concerned with normative issues, but more with devising an effective and revenue-neutral process for secession. Using a threefold theoretical approach based on theories of secession, regulation theory and theories of state rescaling, and theories of social movements, this paper argues that the ‘political opportunity structures’ provided by globalisation and the prevalent neo-conservatism, might explain how secession movements in Los Angeles were able to mobilise large efforts to their cause. We hold that globalisation has forced cities to re-open the debate on size and governance. Secession movements have been very successful in raising public awareness on the issue. Their strength lies mostly in their populism, well in tune with the prevalent wave of neo-conservatism. These movements use arguments well grounded in Southern California’s complex history of regional fragmentation and consolidation. As a social project of the Right, they offer secession as a potential ‘solution’ to the problems of urban governance in the age of globalisation, in a context of simultaneous consolidation.

1. Introduction Los Angeles is usually referred to as a place region ‘to go it alone’.Yet, at closer inspec- of spatial fragmentation, societal dysfunc- tion, the situation may be more complex than tionality and political disjuncture. A current suggested in this linear history. Accordingly, wave of secessionist movements in southern this paper examines these current secession- California, trying to split large parts from the ist movements—especially the ones in the City of Los Angeles—at first glance—looks San Fernando Valley in the north and in the like yet another pearl in a string of historical San Pedro/Wilmington area in the south of attempts by individual communities in the the city—in a different light: rather than

Julie-Anne Boudreau is in the Department of Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles, 3250 Public Policy Building, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656 , USA. Fax: 310 206 5566. E-mail: [email protected] . Roger Keil is in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada. Fax: 416 736 5679. E-mail: [email protected] . An SSHRC Small Research Grant supported research for this paper. The authors are very grateful to all the persons who granted them an interview. As the process of secession is still unfolding and it is not expected to be on the ballot until 2004, this analysis is still preliminary. The authors hope that it will help to clarify the terms of the debate and provide elements of explanatio n for the re-emergence of secessionism in Los Angeles. Roger Keil would also like to thank the Geography Department of the University of Southern California where he was a Visiting Scholar during his sabbatical.

0042-0980 Print/1360-063X On-line/01/101701-31 Ó 2001 The Editors of Urban Studies DOI: 10.1080/0042098012008482 2 1702 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL presuming a one-sided history of fragmen- of this era. Confusion about the urban re- tation, we start from an interpretation of Los gion’s future reigns supreme. In Los Ange- Angeles’ regional history as one of oscilla- les, it was believed widely at the end of the tion and dialectical reinforcement of consoli- 20th century, political deliberation and social dation and fragmentation. We will argue, change activities had fallen into disrespect, specifically, that while largely conservative oblivion and irrelevance. The political middle-class movements are attempting to classes who traditionally had run the affairs ‘secede from responsibility’ in an increas- of the city, appeared to have disappeared. A ingly complex regional-metropolitan en- telling commentary in The Economist re- vironment, they do so in a context of hashes the cliche´ of the rudderless anarchy simultaneous consolidation. It is by viewing that is Los Angeles secessionism against the needs and emerging realities of regionalism in southern Califor- [T]he mayor inherited a city whose upper nia, that its true significance must be under- class had all but disappeared. The big stood. It is possible to argue, we propose, companies that had been decapitated by that secessionism finds its political raison mergers or transplanted to the suburbs. d’eˆtre and popular support precisely because The universities had fallen victim to Marx- of the mushrooming regional agenda in ists and postmodernists. And the en- southern California. Viewed against the real trepreneurs who increasingly drove the and envisioned regionalism in environmen- economy—many of them recent immi- tal, transport, social welfare and other policy grants—had no time for black-tie dinners. areas, urban secessionism is brought into full The sprawling city risked disintegrating relief. into a collection of inward-looking sub- We will make the case that secessionism urbs (The Economist, 1999). in Los Angeles is mostly a class-based, and strongly racialised, movement of social sep- While we do not share the concern about Los aration couched in political terms. It is also a Angeles’ governability as expressed here, we matter of economic gain for some middle- note the necessity to explain the persistent class groups articulated in a language of civic presence and recent success of middle-class rights and liberalism. The social core of the socio-political movements attempting to fill movement’s significance is well described by the apparent void left by what appears to be political pundit Harold Meyerson the abdication of the old ruling classes of southern California. We are aware that the What’s not in question is that, whether or disappearance of power is, of course, largely not the Valley secedes, Los Angeles al- an urban myth. Rather than disappear, tradi- ready has become a collection of separate tionally powerful groups in the urban region cities, divided by a widening chasm of have regrouped into new power coalitions, wealth and income, superimposed over its often with the involvement of global capital, fault lines of race. What’s not in question immigrant leadership and other new power is that the primary challenge to confront brokers (Keil, 1998). Yet, we argue that the our next mayor will be to make L.A. into specific cases of secessionism under scrutiny one city—at a time when neighborhoods here demand a theoretical explanation of the are walled off, people still fear to walk the power and influence of certain middle-class streets at night, middle-class parents have segments on the course of local politics. We pulled their kids from the public schools, will argue that the social and economic se- and the city is home every day to a million cessionism of Los Angeles has to be viewed private secessions (Meyerson, 1999). against the historical and current tendencies In the eyes of local as well as international of consolidation characterising the region’s observers, LA is often seen as the emblem- polity, economy and society. Los Angeles atic, nightmarish, ungovernable urban entity had to deal with these dialectics continuously SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1703 throughout its complex history and, like 2. Los Angeles Secessionism: Trajectories many other cities in the world, is currently of Fragmentation and Consolidation facing acute pressures to find new solutions To be as place-less as we are is to be to the question of urban governance. Seces- history-less, to have no setting for either sionism is but one reaction to these pressures public or private life (Waldie, 1999). brought on—to a large degree—by globalisa- tion and rescaling of urban governance gen- The history of urban governance in Califor- erally (Brenner, 1999). Consolidation nia has shown a consistent reliance on remains a competing tendency. The political philosophically conservative (neo)liberal class of Los Angeles (or what is left of it) is rationale. The political structure of the urban dabbling in rethinking the city region’s gov- region today reflects a history of deliberate ernance system in order to respond to these jurisdictional splitting, of industrial and resi- external and internal pressures for innovative dential enclosures and endless sprawling sub- articulation and integration.1 In a quest to urbs, often only held together by municipal reregulate the city’s system of self-gover- service contracts. Reactions to publicly nance, for example, Angelenos voted for a funded programmes culminated in the 1978 new city charter in June 1999, after a con- property tax revolt that led to Proposition 13. tested debate amongst the political class, but One of the proponents of this citizen initia- largely ignored by the majority of city- tive said that Proposition 13 would defend dwellers (Keil and Boudreau, forthcoming). “the most essential human right … the right According to many political observers, to own property” (quoted in Miller, 1981, mayor Riordan’s drive for charter reform p. 2). It was argued that the government was prompted by secessionist challenges in threatened property rights by taxing property the San Fernando Valley.2 The success of to provide ‘inessential’ redistributional ser- charter reform has led some to confirm the vices despite the preferences of the property- restructuring opportunities prevailing in owning majority. Miller’s study (1981) of the city: “People are into the reform mind set incorporation and annexation in Los Angeles at this point. I think the charter reform vote County examines the effects of this rationale is indicative of that” (Eric Schockman, on the distribution of resources and people. reported in Coit, 1999a).3 The need for His central argument is that property owners’ restructuring is present, as was illustrated by discontent expressed in the 1978 tax revolt the bi-partisan coalition to change the state was anticipated by a full quarter-century of legislature in order to facilitate secession. ‘quiet’ tax revolt, in which property-owners The question that remains is: who are the expressed dissatisfaction individually by actors able to mould the new Los Angeles means of ‘exit’ rather than collectively now that this window of reform seems to through the use of the state-wide initiative have opened? (Miller, 1981, p. 8). Current secession move- We will proceed in four steps. First, we ments follow this line of thought as well. In will look at the history of the dialectics of order to understand the current development, fragmentation and consolidation in Los An- though, it seems necessary to look briefly at geles. Secondly, we will present three theor- the history of fragmentation and consolida- etical approaches to explaining the current tion as it unfolded in Los Angeles during the secessionism: political theory, regulation the- 20th century. ory and social movement theory. Thirdly, we The history of local state formation in Los will present the cases of San Fernando Val- Angeles was mostly one of fragmented sepa- ley and Harbor secessionism. Finally, we ratism, an orderly movement of containment will conclude with an assessment of the Los of race, class and land use (Hoch, 1985; Angeles cases in light of our theoretical Miller, 1981). While much of Los Angeles’ propositions and possible significance of the political landscape seems like a dream come cases for developments elsewhere. true of public choice theory and the ideal 1704 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL testing-ground for Tiebout’s famous hypoth- politan leadership’ (Crouch and Dinerman, esis (1956), not all the boundary-setting and 1963), the urban region has more recently incorporation that took place during this cen- really been considered the opposite of a fore- tury can be considered a fruit of rational runner in metropolitan governance (Schock- consumer choice (if there is such a thing) and man, 1996). market regulation of local services. Large The Los Angeles agglomeration grew out parts of southern California have been pat- of a series of territorial annexations and later terned by unrestrained imperialism of the was fragmented through a series of munici- central city whose thirst for water, land and pal incorporations that competed with the world market access have made it into the enormous City of Los Angeles. This capacity dog-shaped oddity whose hydrocephalic to determine municipal boundaries and juris- rump is connected to the south bay by a dictions began in the late 19th century by the shoestring of sub-divisions along the Harbor home rule principle, which competed with Freeway. Small wonder that it is at the mar- Dillon’s Rule (an earlier legal decision which gins of this strangely shaped creature—in characterised local governments as creatures Eagle Rock, Venice, Wilmington/San Pedro of the state) (Frug, 1999). Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley—that seces- County was granted home rule in 1913. In- sionist movements have now lifted their corporating cities had to provide expensive head, while the real secessions have already municipal services such as policing and fire splintered LA’s internal governance into— protection on their own. The 1954 Lakewood often geographically emphasised—fiefdoms Plan changed this by permitting Los Angeles of race and class like ‘the westside’, ‘South County to contract these services to newly Central,’ ‘Koreatown’ or ‘the Valley’. An- incorporated cities. The plan considerably nexation has been the name of the game in reduced the costs of creating separate mu- Los Angeles and the current secessionist nicipal entities and facilitating fragmentation. movement can be seen as both a reaction to This resulted in awkward islands of unincor- the contradictions created by this historical porated territories with inadequate services. trend and a departure from its practices in Overall, the post-Lakewood incorporation that it introduces an alternative mode of local movement led to a largely middle-class governance. patchwork of small to medium-sized cities In Los Angeles, consolidation has always held together by the consolidationist service been a means of local government formation monopoly of the County. In an attempt to and so have voluntary associations of local reform institutional procedures for urban governments into action groups and tempo- growth, Local Agency Formation Commis- rary purposive coalitions (an example of sions (LAFCOs) were established in each which is the banding-together of the Hub California county in 1963. LAFCOs are em- Cities in the old industrial core of the urban powered to approve or disapprove new incor- region into an alliance during the 1980s to porations, special district formation, rake in redevelopment and economic devel- dissolution or annexation. LAFCOs usually opment dollars). Equally important has been process non-controversial applications for the formation of rather self-contained politi- readjusting the boundaries of water and sani- cal units such as West Hollywood where tation districts. They have not faced a seces- public choice would be a rather superficial sionist petition since their creation and the explanation of local state formation. Instead, LA LAFCO now has to define the process as economic arguments would have been fairly it unfolds. subordinate to social, political and cultural considerations of incorporation. While we 2.1 Fragmented, Privatised and Horizontal: should also remember that, on many occa- Images of Los Angeles sions, Los Angeles’ Progressivist city charter was considered a potential model for ‘metro- There are abundant common mythologies SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1705 when it comes to Los Angeles. Both in the most generalised, industrialised and publicly literature and on the street, people have vied funded programme for urbanisation and the for workable images to deal with what some never-ending spiral of corporate real estate have described as indescribable. One need speculation, a perverse success story of the not repeat the many attempts of finding that managerial, warfare Keynesianism prevalent one gripping metaphor allegedly capturing in the US during much of the century. This the body and soul of the southern California landscape was built with federal highway metropolis. Many are well known as Los programmes, subsidies for builders of resi- Angeles has become somewhat of a meta- dential homes and loans administered narrative of urbanisation at the 20th cen- through the Federal Housing Administration tury’s fin de sie`cle. Most recently, Mike and the Veterans Administration. Its hall- Davis’ City of Quartz (1990) and Ecology of mark was the paradoxical interplay between Fear (1998) have contributed most power- the practical privacy of one’s own backyard fully to the external image of Los Angeles as and the theoretical accessibility of the entire a prototypical dystopia which capitalist ur- grid of sameness which long-term Lakewood banisation potentially has in store for all resident D. J. Waldie (1996, p. 46) in his cities. In a similar, more academic, and not fascinating ‘suburban memoir’ Holy Land quite as popular manner, Allen Scott’s has characterised as such economistic view of a structured post-Fordist Drive from the ocean to Los Angeles, and metropolis (1988) and Ed Soja’s construct of you’ll stay on the same grid of streets. The a post-modern “thirdspace” (1989, 1996) drive passes through suburb after suburb have set the pace for Los Angeles-gazing. without interruption. It is a distance of Rather than returning to these important fifteen miles, over land so worthless a images, we would like to mention a few hundred years ago that house lots on it others more relevant in the context of our could not be given away. paper. One is certainly the image of the ‘fragmented’ metropolis as put forward most The illusionary dialectics of privatism and prominently by Fogelson (1997) in his clas- openness, still celebrated by the revisionist sic study. Related but not entirely compatible literature since the late 1960s, particularly in with this view is the myth of the ‘private’ Reyner Banham’s Los Angeles: The Archi- city, chastised most outspokenly by the great tecture of Four Ecologies (1971), had taken a Jane Jacobs in her New York City-centred beating during the Watts Riots of 1965 when view of Los Angeles as a dysfunctional pub- it became obvious that shutting out differ- lic entity (1961). Fogelson’s and Jacobs’ per- ence and poverty from the suburban priva- spectives are complemented by the image of topia had to lead to eruptions of the urban Los Angeles as the ‘horizontal’ city, the un- dystopia sooner rather than later. Racism and known suburban territory, the national an- classism had been the invisible builders of tipode of New York City (Krim, 1992). that fragmented, private and horizontal city. Fragmented, private and horizontal have It was time to start accounting for the dam- been strong and often decisive markers of age they had done. It became clear, as Pulido place-making in Los Angeles since at least recently pointed out, that suburban city in- the property boom of the 1880s which corporation had in fact acted as a segregation eventually propelled the former cowtown to tool metropolitan status by the 1920s (Wagner, The exclusionary nature of suburbaniza- 1935). Particularly since the 1954 Lakewood tion is underscored by the fact that once Plan led to what Charles Hoch (1985) called people arrived, they sought to insulate “privatising with class”: the intended cre- their investment through incorporation ation of fragmented political spaces divided (Pulido, 2000, p. 29). by class and often race. This privatised mo- saic was, of course, largely the result of the Later, by the end of the 1980s, when another 1706 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL uprising was in the making, the public spaces tial communities.4 Water, in forms as diverse of Los Angeles seemed to have shed any as the Pacific Ocean and the Owens Valley resemblance they once might have had to the aqueduct, was the public lifeline through democratic openness still celebrated by Ban- which the region was tied together by its ham. They had degenerated into a combi- dominant city. The consolidation of Los An- nation of carceral spaces, corporate citadels geles through annexation also concentrated and gated communities, all watched over by economic and political power in the hands of a burgeoning army of public and private a few place entrepreneurs around the Times police forces (Davis, 1990, 1998). empire. The persisting dominance of Los But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let Angeles (over other regional cities) is but- us approach the fragmented, private and hori- tressed by the continuing presence of much zontal urban myth from yet another perspec- of corporate power there. In addition, the tive. We argue that the fragmentation, administration of some of the City’s special privatisation and horizontalisation of Los districts coincides with the City boundaries Angeles has developed in tandem with the while their powers reach far beyond. Neither urban region’s integration and structuration. water nor transport nor any other large ser- Indeed, the specificity of Los Angeles during vice or infrastructure issue can be discussed the period when other cities created deliber- in southern California without the City of ate metropolitan entities was its capacity to Los Angeles making its weight known. fashion structured coherence through frag- Other hegemonic projects to pull the re- mentation. We are proposing to see these gion ideologically together from the centre dialectics traditionally at work on three have been the Rebuild LA effort since the scales: the city, the county and the region. 1992 riots and the continuing redevelopment of the downtown which has recently come to be supported by a high-price, commuter- 2.2 Coherence through Fragmentation (rather than community-) oriented, rail-based One way in which this occurred historically transport policy including subways, light rail was certainly the growth and development of and regional trains that radially converge in the City of Los Angeles itself. Founded in the downtown of Los Angeles. These institu- 1781, it grew little beyond its core by the Los tions and projects, their policies and regula- Angeles River during the 19th century. The tions as well as their planning and political boom and push for expansion came around practices, attempt to implant a new sense of the turn of the 20th century when first the Los Angeles as a unified political space. In port and later the San Fernando Valley were the absence of a unified e´lite strategy, how- annexed and gave Los Angeles its odd form ever, this process which is driven by the with a big ‘head’ and a shoestring connection traditional and emergent power centres of with the southern districts. An expansive web Los Angeles leaves cracks and niches where of real-estate-oriented streetcars and trains counter-hegemonic forces and competing provided the infrastructure of sprawl long e´lite groups can make their mark. before the automobilisation of the city truly Another type of consolidation has been at set in. Through what amounts to a series of the level of the counties. In Los Angeles imperialist acts which privatised regional and County, the Lakewood Plan of 1954 allowed even supraregional wealth by making some individual communities that sought to incor- place entrepreneurs rich, but which also porate into cities to buy municipal services brought water and commerce into the reach from the County rather than having to run of common Angelenos, the growth of Los these services themselves at a premium. The Angeles through annexation can be inter- experience of almost half a century of life preted as resulting in a largely integrated under the Lakewood plan has been a steady urban area with a hegemonic primary city in consolidation and densification of urban ar- a sea of industrial, agricultural and residen- eas in the County while furthering political SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1707 fragmentation. Some of Los Angeles’ post- fragmenting capacities of the typically sin- war suburbs grew into old suburbs, edge gle-purpose, technocratic regional agencies cities and dense urban centres. Together, the of Los Angeles are remarkable in many 88 cities of Los Angeles County and the ways. He summarises the significant charac- interspersed unincorporated areas have teristics of southern California regional gov- grown into one consolidated metropolis with ernance as lateral ties to neighbouring counties and to (1) its scientific technical emphasis, (2) its the entire globe. LA County is the core area single-purpose compartmentalisation of re- of this huge urban region and the City of Los gional policy, and (3) its institutional insu- Angeles is something like the downtown of larity (Bollens, 1997, p. 117). this core area. Other forms of consolidation, finally, have The technical focus has undermined effective included the attempt to create a body of all handling of social and environmental issues; municipal governments through the volun- the single-purpose compartmentalisation has tary member organisation Southern Califor- replaced geographical with functional frag- nia Association of Governments (SCAG) mentation; and the institutional insularity of with 188 cities in 6 counties. SCAG has southern California regionalism has estab- aquired some regional planning and policy lished an aloof and bureaucratic, as well as co-ordination capacity and has been able to unaccountable, regional governmental struc- play a certain role in transport planning and ture. Bollens concludes: research. However, it remains a largely Shadow regionalism bears but a faint con- toothless tiger among many well-financed nection to the true potential of regional and politically powerful single cities or coun- governance. A more robust regional gov- ties. SCAG, without doubt, is the prime ex- ernance would be a more democratic and ample of what Scott Bollens has called broader regionalism that would elevate the ‘shadow regionalism’. Another prominent level of intergovernmental discussions, example of this tendency is the intended overcome the distorting effects of single regulation of air pollution through the South mandate regionalism, and integrate en- Coast Air Quality Management District vironmental, social, and economic policies (SCAQMD) which encompasses the non- on a metropolitan wide scale. … Local desert areas of 4 southern Californian coun- governments wary of a more robust re- ties and 13 million people. gionalism should realise that in many Bollens has discussed the ‘shadow gover- cases their authority has already been nance’ of the Los Angeles region in the usurped by empowered single focus re- context of an increased interest ‘in multi- gional agencies. Indeed, incorporation of jurisdictional governance by public, private single purpose foci into an integrating and non-profit sectors’ which he sees ‘theater of collective action’ may reintro- spawned first by the necessity for city- duce general purpose local government to regions to come to terms with their internal the decisionmaking table (Bollens, 1997, divisions in an age of international economic pp. 119– 120). competition; and, secondly, by the necessity to deal decisively with the siting of unwanted Political community and social territoriality facilities in an era of NIMBYism (Bollens, have to be created in and beyond the econ- 1997, pp. 105– 106). Contrasting ‘regional omic. Cities and regions are largely made by activism’ with the myth of local government the people that live in them in a constant home rule, Bollens takes us through some of struggle with the constraints put upon them the traditions of municipalism and regional- by larger processes such as capitalist globali- ism in southern California and develops a sation. Thus, Bollens’ observations can, we typology of current attempts at regionalisa- believe, be complemented and added to by a tion in the area. Bollens’ insights into the couple of critical considerations. His analysis 1708 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL remains largely limited to institutional ar- the 1980s, when activists argued that their rangements of regionalism. There is little struggle to keep the General Motors plant in recognition, in his account, of metropoli- Van Nuys open constituted an instance of tanism and regionalism as contested terrain. ‘regional planning from below’ in the ab- But there is an emerging alternative tendency sence of any employment-related policies in to establish a larger political community in local government; secondly, when the Cen- the city which is represented by social move- ter, as part of its campaign in the early 1990s ment groups and other initiatives coming out to raise an environmental justice agenda in of civil society. They seek to create a critical the fight against air pollution, attempted to regionalism from below. Yet another ten- democratise the Board of the Air Quality dency altering the spatial meaning of frag- Management District, arguably the South- mentation and community is the creation of land’s most powerful regional agency; and, (progressive) cities. Let us look at regional- thirdly, when Strategy Center involvement in ism from below and progressive cities in turn. the Bus Riders Union in the mid 1990s opened up a rather self-contained regional transport planning debate to public scrutiny 2.3 Insurgent Regionalism and legitimation. Regional transport issues One unlikely form of alternative regionalism can now not be discussed anymore without has crystallised around the arcane world of central reference to the Bus Riders Union air pollution control. The 1989 Air Quality which brought issues of class, race, gender, Management Plan had called forth political social justice and civil rights to the debate reactions on several planes of discourse and (Burgos and Pulido, 1998; Brown, 1998). activism, including the one of popular resist- The core of each of the Center’s cam- ance. This was an entirely new development. paigns was an anti-hegemonic appropriation Where consolidation, regionalisation or of the political space of the urban area: from metropolitanisation had taken place prior to the shop floor at General Motors to the air- this time or where it was proposed tradition- shed in the Southland, from working-class ally, it mostly occurred on purely technical residential communities to the transit routes grounds such as air quality management, in the communities of colour, the L/CSC’s transit, flood control, etc. and was usually politics established new spatial meanings. met with neither public involvement nor re- Like the L/CSC, other community groups sistance. And whereas there has been much have participated to redefine their political organising around and against this kind of space innovatively. In almost all such cases, governance technocracy, especially since the there is an aspect of territoriality and political emergence of stronger environmental move- control over space involved. The now de- ments, few actual inroads have been made by funct Los Angeles Manufacturing Action progressives into these institutions. This cer- Project (LAMAP) in the 1990s, which sought tainly changed, for a while, when air pol- to organise workers along the industrial lution became a public issue rather than just Alameda corridor in Los Angeles’ industrial a public nuisance in the late 1980s. Main- core, is another case in point. Similarly, stream environmental organisations such as while Los Angeles lacks the intense debate the Clean Air Coalition and more radical common in other cities on issues of urban environmental justice organisations called sustainability and biogregionalism, regional business as usual into question and de- interventions of progressive movement manded environmental change as well as groups have occurred in the ecological field, democratisation of regional governance. The where organisations like the Friends of the attempt to establish a regional planning pro- Los Angeles River, Heal the Bay, Unpave cess from below has been expressed consist- LA and the Tree People have proposed a ently in the consecutive campaigns of the radical rethinking of southern California’s Labor/Community Strategy Center: first, in system of regional environmental regulation SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1709 in the direction of a more ecological ap- nomic terms, poorer communities on the proach. A large number of initiatives to re- eastside have also been experimenting with naturalise and resocialise the LA River and new municipal strategies to revive their dein- to make it an axis of community develop- dustrialised economic base, to discuss sus- ment along its banks is a prime example. tainable development and to build links with other progressive municipal initiatives around southern California (Keil, 1998). 2.4 Progressive Municipalism We can summarise the argument so far. Finally, there is the emergence in Los Ange- Rather than seeing metropolitanism/regional- les of ‘progressive cities’. Apart from a cer- ism in Los Angeles as an historical antipode tain limited presence on the County Board of to the region’s traditional home-rule frag- Supervisors in Los Angeles (with a weak but mentation, Bollens’ analysis actually points consistent representation of liberal and civil to the two as being compatible strategic op- rights supervisors) and in the Bradley regime tions in an attempt to create government in in the City of Los Angeles (1973– 93), pro- the region. Both come with similar assump- gressives in southern California have had tions on the predominance of private over more success in secessionist and small-scale public spaces; on the need to segregate func- politics. While the fragmentation of the pol- tions and uses of urban space (including itical territory in southern California into social and economic segregation as an op- dozens of small incorporated cities has his- tion); and both are usually driven by the torically been an instrument of class and same type of middle-class citizens—albeit on racial segregation, it has, in the recent past, different sides of the political divide. This also created the possibilities for smaller com- dialectic of fragmentation and consolidation munities to establish progressive municipal is also present in the current era of secession administrations. Always under pressure of and charter reform—both appealing to the falling into line with the rest of the region’s same kind of voting, tax-paying public more conservative municipal policies, West which, of course, is only a part of the overall Hollywood and Santa Monica have still been democratic polity of the region. important testing-grounds of alternative ur- ban governance over the past 20 years and 2.5 Centrality and Identity have, at least in the metaphorical sense, been ‘secessionist’ to a degree. For almost 20 Contextually, it is possible to interpret the years since 1979, in Santa Monica, a co- current round of boundary redrawing and alition of middle-class radicals and renters fragmented consolidation as an immediate was able to sustain a progressive regime. A reaction (and in some cases pro-action) to the strict rent control law (until its recent abol- challenges posed by globalisation. The ition), managed urban growth and an exemp- emergence and formation of a ‘world city’ lary homeless policy have been the most Los Angeles came with a wildly differenti- consistent ‘progressive’ features of this sea- ated local urban reality. By this, we do not side community which has also experienced just mean the usual argument about the in- large-scale gentrification and economic ex- creased social polarisation and spatial seg- pansion. West Hollywood, a city which was mentation produced by the global city only incorporated in 1984, brought together (Sassen, 1991), but the social, spatial, cul- a majority tenant population and a strong tural and economic (one can even argue eco- lesbian and gay community to form a logical) differentiation of world city society. municipality which—15 years after its Regionalised globalisation occurs through inception—can still be considered pathbreak- fragmentation of labour markets, consumer ing in questions of social policy, human markets, niche economies, marginal cultures rights and rent control. While these westside and the like. This has had its most visible communities are fairly well off in socioeco- effects in cities like West Hollywood and 1710 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL

Santa Monica where progressive govern- glue that keeps the region together in an era ments have created middle-class niche spaces of globalised centrifugal forces is a compli- in the overall globalised metropolitan area of cated amalgam of centralised and concen- southern California. Fragmenting here be- trated globalised regional economies and comes the condition for participation in the decentralised and deconcentrated local iden- consolidated whole. One could go so far as to tities. The articulation of competing identi- argue that, in West Hollywood, a strongly ties of place and people helps to create the gay community where identity and lifestyle socio-cultural and political space of the have become grounds for cityhood and citi- world city. Interestingly enough, while these zenship, difference has once again been pri- identity-based differentiations span the pol- vatised. While seemingly resembling of the itical spectrum from the left to the right, they earlier forms of suburban fragmentation of are all framed in terms of political rights and difference, the substance of this development the enhancement of regional democracy is one which allows for and does not shield through localised governance structures. off the democratisation of both the niche and Theoretically, fragmented consolidation can the larger society. Indeed, a developing be a political strategy for both progressives literature on urban secession in France sup- and conservatives, with different degrees of ports this argument. Referring to Castells’ articulation between the seceding group and early work, Donzelot, for instance, argues the wider region. We will see below that in that the ‘urban question’ is today more a reality the agenda of secession has been question of the political capacity of cities to largely occupied by conservative political create coherence in ever more diversified, forces. fragmented and open societies. Faced with the secession of the privileged, reforming 3. Political Rights, Governance Rescaling urban governance means finding ways to and Social Movements democratise these new and flexible forms of social solidarity based on individual aspira- After having provided some historical con- tions and localised identities (Donzelot, text, in this section we briefly lay out our 1999; Ascher and Godard, 1999). theoretical and methodological framework Previous waves of fragmentation and con- for explanation of current Los Angeles seces- solidation tended to be fuelled by the articu- sionism. lation of centrality versus decentrality, of city versus suburb, of big government versus 3.1 Secession as a Political Right community, etc. The current round of frag- mented consolidation, however, seems to be Secession movements are usually studied at driven by different dynamics. Partly in re- the national or regional scale. There is, in the placement of the old centre– periphery model literature, a general constitutional and liberal of the urban region which has dominated democratic debate on secession. Theories of urban research from Max Weber through the secession are firmly grounded in liberalism Chicago School and beyond, urban spaces with an emphasis on individual rights and/or are no longer just or predominantly articu- nationalism. Most theories of secession are lated or disarticulated with centrality but concerned with secessionist challenges to the rather with identity. Whereas the global city sacredness of national territories and they commands centralised spaces of control and exclusively deal with cases of complete se- decision-making and whereas these forces cession of one nationalist region from a na- have strong centripetal powers, it also rests tion-state. Therefore, secession is seen as a heavily on the existence of highly decen- dramatic break-up at the level of moral and tralised and variegated spaces at the street political legitimacy. Buchanan (1998) identi- level, in the residential neighbourhoods and fies two basic types of theories on the right to in the interstices of the official economy. The secede: remedial right only theories; and, SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1711 primary right theories. The former holds that on national or regional scales. Secession at the people have the right to overthrow the the urban scale—at least rhetorically—is less government only if their fundamental rights about recognition or self-determination in are violated and more peaceful means have nationalist terms, but self-determination and not given any result (Freeman, 1998). The autonomy in fiscal and political terms, which theories of primary right take one of two has important repercussions for the redistri- different directions. Either they assert that bution and collective responsibility in urban groups with ascriptive non-political charac- settings. teristics (even in the absence of injustices) Perhaps more conducive to understand se- have the right to secede (most often ethnic cession movements in Los Angeles are argu- groups); or they maintain that no ascriptive ments focusing on secessionist territorial characteristics are necessary for the right to claims and emphasising individualism over secede, but instead that is the voluntary communitarianism. Freeman holds that political choice of the majority of the group members. Reflecting the communitarian/ strictly speaking … the people, not the individualist rift, both theories are grounded state, are the owners of the territory. The in the moral universe of liberal political state is the agent of the people in relation thought. These theories hold that political to ‘its’ territory. The state has territorial legitimacy rests on the contractual consent of sovereignty, i.e. a set of jurisdictional the people to remain within the state. When powers over territory, and not a property this contract is not honoured and when peo- right (Freeman, 1998, p. 23). ple do not want to be part of the polity anymore, secession is morally acceptable on Property rights are individual rights and, for liberal grounds. Individualist theories are this type of liberalism, all legitimate group even more explicit on this voluntary scheme claims must be aggregations of the legitimate of legitimacy, arguing for the human right to claims of individual persons. This would personal autonomy and thus for a freely cho- mean that “a group’s legitimate territorial sen political association (Beran, 1998). claims can extend no further than the legit- There are clear differences between seces- imate territorial holdings of its members or sionist movements on the scale of the nation their agents” (Steiner, 1998, p. 65). Because and those in the municipal context as in Los other types of territorial claim (such as tra- Angeles. Secession movements in Los Ange- ditional occupancy of a homeland or commu- les are definitively more concerned with the nal needs) do not apply to the San Fernando practical institutional issues of secession than Valley and the Harbor communities, it would its moral legitimacy. However, moral legiti- follow that secessionist arguments focus macy is invoked by secessionist activists all mostly on the right to a fair share of the the time and secessionists often take a pos- power to govern the justly acquired land of ition of moral indignation common in pop- the Valley. This purely liberal-individualist ulist political positioning. There are also interpretation of territories as the voluntary traces of remedial rhetoric in the movements ‘aggregations of their members’ real-estate studied below. We nevertheless suggest there holdings’ (Steiner, 1998), might highlight the are similarities that allow us to benefit from rationale offered by Los Angeles Valley se- the extant secessionist literature which, so cessionists. Led by home-owners’ associa- far, has not considered administrative mo- tions and chambers of commerce, the tives or municipal boundary changes cases of secessionist groups in southern California secession. One could argue that, at the urban rely much more on this type of argument metropolitan scale, secession is indeed politi- than the more traditional secessionist rhetoric cal—and rests on fundamental beliefs held of nationalism.5 by US citizens about their rights—but it is This rationale has been well entrenched in not nationalist or separationist as movements US political culture since the Civil War (Ab- 1712 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL bott, 1998). Libertarian Donald Livingston 3.2 Rescaling Urban Governance goes as far as stating that Our second theoretical approach to secession the very concept of secession and self- in Los Angeles derives from current debates determination of peoples, in the form being on regulation, scale and governance. We discussed today, is largely an American posit that, under the current conditions of invention. It is no exaggeration to say that globalised urbanisation, local states are being the unique contribution of the eighteenth- restructured to meet the needs of the reregu- century American Enlightenment to politi- lation and rescaling of governance. Brenner cal thought is not federalism but the has argued that globalisation has to be principle that a people, under certain con- viewed as reterritorialisation (Brenner, 1999) ditions, have a moral right to secede from and that in large metropolitan regions we can an established political authority and to observe the rise of what he calls the ‘glocal govern themselves (Livingston, 1998, territorial state’ (Brenner, 1998, p. 19). He p. 1). concludes In this theoretical tradition, secession is Because urban regions occupy the highly understood as a moral and economic individ- contradictory interface between the world ual right, more than as a nationalist quest economy and the territorial state, they are for recognition. If we transpose this to the embedded within a multiplicity of social, urban scale, the argument is that smaller is economic and political processes or- better and more efficient. Competition be- ganised upon superimposed spatial scales. tween municipalities will favour economic The resultant politics of scale within the growth and citizen satisfaction over redistri- political-regulatory institutions of major bution. In an article frequently cited by Los urban regions can be construed as a se- Angeles secessionists, Howard Husock quence of groping, trial-and-error strate- writes that gies to manage these intensely conflictual forces through the continual construction, independent jurisdictions are a crucial deconstruction and reconstitution of rela- means through which a nation as diverse tively stabilised configurations of terri- as the U.S. can develop a modus vivendi torial organisation. The rescaling of among peoples of sharply different values urbanisation leads to a concomitant rescal- and widely various backgrounds (Husock, ing of the state through which, simul- 1998). taneously, territorial organisation is mobilised as a productive force and social His argument rests on Tiebout’s economic relations are circumscribed within deter- theory stating that different people want dif- minate geographical boundaries (Brenner, ferent services and that local governments 1999, p. 447). compete with one another for residents by offering different packages of services The participants in this debate on rescaling (Tiebout, 1956). and governance have clarified recent state– While the principles of this debate need to regional and state– local relationships. Jessop, be taken into account when studying seces- in particular, has enhanced our understanding sion at the metropolitan scale, they do not of the spatial selectivity of the state (for a provide—in themselves—a satisfactory ex- summary of this work, see Jones, 1997). The planation for secession movements in Los focus of these debates has been economic Angeles. We will need to situate the debate development policies (Clarke and Gaile, on rights in the context of the rescaling of 1998; Jonas and Wilson, 1999). Yet, the urban governance and need to discuss the interest of researchers has recently branched agents of change in the secessionist discourse out into other substantive fields, most nota- as social movement actors. bly into environmental regulation (Gibbs and SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1713

Jonas, 2000). What has been rarely dis- review of liberal political theories of seces- cussed, though, is the emergence of a new sion and neo-Marxist theories of rescaling sub-local scale of government as part of an and reregulation of urban governance, we overall regional governance of large urban now turn to theories of social movements. regions. We suggest that secessionism can be Our point of departure is the existence of viewed as one instance of such sub-local middle-class movements in regions in several institutionalisation of rescaled governance. parts of the world which are in one way or With the growing flexibilisation and ‘lique- another intent on reframing the governance faction’ of territories in the global economy of the urban regions where they occur. The (Storper, 1997; Brenner, 1998, 1999; Cox, case of the Italian Northern Leagues, in par- 1997), opportunities to restructure territorial ticular, has received much attention over the jurisdictions are opened. And secession past decade as researchers have puzzled over movements in Los Angeles are to a large the stunning success of what many consider a degree responses to these opportunities. Ur- right-wing populist movement in benefiting ban governance at the turn of the millennium from the political opportunity structures cre- needs to respond to the dialectics of fragmen- ated by the crisis of the post-war political tation and regional consolidation (Keil, system in Italy (Schmidtke, 1996; Diamanti, 2000). In Los Angeles, secession is one of 1997; Agnew, 1997, 1999). The League has the many battle cries of local e´lites (and had great electoral success regionally in those who would like to be e´lites) to enter northern Italy but also in national elections their local territory more successfully into culminating in their participation in govern- the global interurban competition: ment under the prime minister Berlusconi until December 1994. The collapse of the The idea of secession raises so many po- right-wing government led the League to tential problems that before we add up concentrate on more explicitly secessionist benefits and drawbacks, it makes sense to goals and to the proclamation of an ‘Indepen- ask what the Valley—and all of southern dence Declaration’ for the northern state of California—really needs to succeed in to- Padania in September 1995 (Diani, 1996). day’s global economy (Flanigan, 1997). While the significance of the political style, rhetoric and social composition of the north Italian movements for urban social move- 3.3 Social Movements ments has been noted and its lessons applied The debate on rescaling, reregulation and to other cases (Keil and Ronneberger, 1994), reterritorialisation has largely been struc- little systematic research has been done in turalist in nature. The increased insistence on applying the lessons from the Italian case to the larger context of structural change has an urban situation. been partly a reaction to what was perceived The Northern Leagues have to be under- as the rampant voluntarism of much urban stood as a populist phenomenon whose ident- regime literature (for an excellent discussion, ity is built on hostility against those forces see Jessop et al., 1999). Yet, while largely that do not belong to ‘the people’. While in sympathetic to this project of regrounding the case of the Leagues, this hostility has a urban political theory, we feel that a simulta- fairly clear spatial, ethnic and national di- neous glance at the actual actors of rescaling mension, it works socially—through sym- may be of help. Hence, we consulted recent bolic politics—in two directions: upward social movement theories—both in the new against e´lites, particularly against politicians social movement tradition and in the re- but also against big capital (there is ample source mobilisation tradition—in order to disregard for intellectuals and journalists); heighten our understanding of the motiva- and downward against the badly defined tions, tactics and strategies that guide the ‘Other’ of the South and the foreigners. urban secessionists. In addition to our critical League members and leaders display open 1714 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL suspicion and hostility against marginal so- ‘frames’ for action, from realignment to in- cial groups and they demonstrate a sus- clusion, to revitalisation, and to anti-system picious attitude against the mediating role of frames. According to this typology, we could political institutions, particularly parties (Di- qualify the charter reform drive as a revitali- ani, 1996, pp. 1059–1061; Sciortino, 1999). sation effort (Keil and Boudreau, forth- This confirms Tilly’s (1998, p. 467) observa- coming), while secession movements—as tion examined in this paper—would fit more in the anti-system frame. Diani defines anti-sys- Social movements take place as conversa- tem frames as tions: not as solo performances but as interactions among parties. any representation of political reality that defines political actors along lines other We shall indeed see how urban secessionists than established cleavages and denies le- in Los Angeles are caught in a similar gitimacy to the routinised functioning of “conversation” with the larger Los Angeles the political process (Diani, 1996, over claims of ‘normalcy’ and rights to ‘dif- p. 1057). ference’. Social movement theory has often been And he adds in a footnote “without necess- broken down into resource mobilisation arily aiming at revolutionary outcomes or (RMT) and new social movement (NSM) acting violently”. orientations (Carroll, 1997). NSM can be Recently scholars have defined a social used with much success in explaning the movement as general conditions of social change in Los a kind of campaign, parallel in many re- Angeles (see Keil, 1998, ch. 11, for a dis- spects to an electoral campaign. This sort cussion of movement politics in this tra- of campaign, however, demands righting dition). The concept of ‘political opportunity of a wrong, most often a wrong suffered structures’ employed in our analysis here, by a well-specified population (Tilly, however, emerged out of the literature on 1998, p. 467). collective action and social movements usu- ally connected with RMT (Eisinger, 1973; While social movements cannot be regarded Tilly, 1978, 1998; Tarrow, 1994; Diani, as pure political actors but as products of 1996; Schmidtke, 1996). In brief, political interchange with third parties with direct opportunity structures emerge from a combi- links to the political process (such as parties), nation of structural conditions, systemic they rely on two kinds of mystification: the cleavages of existing political camps and the non-contradictory character of their constitu- resource mobilisation capacity of individual tive elements; and their internal solidarity, a and collective actors. Building on two major quality which is usually constructed through lines of investigation—resource mobilisation historical cohesion of a given group. It is this theories and constructionist approaches fo- set of mystifications through which social cusing on the capacity of actors to reshape movements gain internal strength and exter- systems of meaning—the question asked by nal profile in relation to the larger society these students of social movements evolved and authorities on which claims are being to take a more structuralist stance: Under made. We believe all of these aspects can which conditions will some mobilising mes- productively be applied in the analysis of Los sages be more effective than others? Thus, it Angeles and we will try to demonstrate their was pointed out that mobilisation is affected usefulness below. by variables such as differential access to power and the possibilities opened by the 3.4 Summary of Theoretical Approach political system.6 Diani (1996) adds that dif- ferent combinations of dimensions of the In sum, we are proposing a three-pronged political environment will lead to different theoretical approach which combines the dis- SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1715 course on secession in political theory with in an era of crisis of Fordism and emergence the debate on urban governance and regu- post-Fordist globalism (for a lengthy analysis lation and the literature on (new) social inspired by this tradition, see Keil, 1998). In movements. Theoretical work from the lib- the current review, though, we concentrated eral-rights-based discussion on secession al- on the contribution of RMT which holds that lows us to understand the US political culture it is largely the political opportunity struc- and context in which claims for secession are tures afforded to social movements that al- made. While developed for the national con- low them to operate successfully. From this text, these considerations have some rel- combined approach, we have developed the evance for the urban level, particularly in the following hypothetical propositions: way individuals and communities in cities ground their arguments for self-government 1. Rights-based liberal theories of secession in a fundamental understanding of legitimacy have limited use in describing the politi- of statehood and citizenship as resting with cal mindset and philosophical background the people. The usefulness of this literature is of urban secession movements. obviously limited. While urban secessionists 2. Urban secessionism is part of a larger develop positions of class-based and ethni- process of governance rescaling in Los cally based ‘founding’ of community and Angeles. It can be understood as a part of individual rights in the political struggle they the spatially strategic selectivity of the regional state structure in southern Cali- are waging, they are neither nationalists nor 7 regionalists in the way these terms have been fornia. used in the traditional literature on secession. 3. Urban secessionism can be understood as We suggested, therefore, to join the liberal a social movement which reacts to secessionist debate with the discussion on the specific political opportunity structures rescaling and reregulation of urban gover- created by the crisis of regulation of nance. One of the preliminary results of this Fordist Los Angeles and the onset of a discussion has been the insight that urban globalised mode of urban regulation in governance is under pressure from globalisa- that urban area. The actors driving the tion. It is in the specific context of globalised secessionist movement tend to be con- urbanisation—the tying-in of local with glo- servative. Secession appears as the project bal circuits of capital, commerce, consump- of the political right. tion and cultures that some have called ‘glocalisation’—that rights-based demands 4. Secession in Los Angeles: The Cases for self-government and localisation of ser- vices gain significance beyond their locality. We turn now to an overview of the main two Having established major urban areas as an secession movements in Los Angeles, the arena of intense negotiation over the mean- San Fernando Valley and the Harbor area, in ing of globalisation and the role of the state, light of their meaning in the current phase of we have, finally, addressed the question of redefinition of urban governance in the con- who the driving-forces of secessionism are. text of globalisation. Who are these social groups holding con- servative liberal views on how to govern 4.1 Divorce Requested by a Neglected- themselves? What kind of locality can be feeling Partner: The San Fernando Valley expected to gain shape as a consequence of their drive for the rescaling of governance? There was even a song written about the We sought answers to these questions in Valley, suggested perhaps by the popular taking our cues from newer social movement ‘California Here I Come’. The recurrent theories. New social movement theories theme in ‘San Fernando Valley’ was ‘I’ll (NSM) help us to understand the social struc- make the San Fernando Valley my home’. tures leading to the emergence of movements Sung, whistled, and played throughout the 1716 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL

nation, the song helped—along with the cisely at the time of its growing complexity. increasing presence of movie stars, glam- As Norman Klein puts it orous estates, and numerous swimming The denser, the more ‘urban’ the postwar pools—to make more and more people do suburbs get—more slums, more corporate something about making their Valley headquarters, more banking districts, me- dream come true (Robinson, 1961, p. 41). dia companies and gridlock—the more the Yes, there are stupid girls and drunk boys cry for secession (Klein, 1997). and malls and bad hair, but the valley also The current wave of secessionism began in has the closest thing to a ‘real life’ in the the early 1990s in a climate of state-wide Los Angeles area. It is a suburb, but it is a debates on local governance restructuring. A suburb of the city of movies (Anderson, Commission on Local Governance for the 1999). 21st Century was established to “complete a Now marketed as the ‘Valley of the Stars’ study of potential revisions to the policies, for its concentration of movie studios (see practices, and statutes that govern city, Blankstein and Robinson-Jacobs, 1999), the county, and special district boundary San Fernando Valley struggles to redefine changes”.9 The new momentum brought the the suburban US dream. No longer the white emergence of a concerted effort of state and suburbia of the 1960s when the Census indi- local politicians as well as local activists to cated that 92 per cent of Valley residents roll back the disastrous consequences of were white, the 1.2 million population was Proposition 13 (1978) on local government down to 74 per cent white in 1980 and 57 per finances.10 One of the immediate causes of cent in 1990 (Dixon et al., 1993, pp. 6, 9). the wave of secessionism is the crisis of The Valley is a diverse region, in many governance in Los Angeles—a crisis that respects as diverse as the rest of Los Ange- rose after the demise of the Bradley coalition les. Pacoima, for instance, at the northern (1973– 93) and the series of social and en- end of the Valley, is where Rodney King was vironmental disasters. The 1994 Northridge pulled over and beaten and arrested in 1992.8 earthquake, for example, hit the Valley very Yet, the political class of the Valley and strongly. It is often cited as a turning-point in elsewhere in the Los Angeles region still the identity of the area as citizens of the think of the Valley as a predominantly white Valley found a spirit of mutual care and help US suburb. For instance, Valley politician in this moment of crisis which nurtured the Bobbi Fiedler said that idea that it was possible to go it alone as a city (Chu, 1997; Gordon, 1997). the Valley is principally homeowning fam- On 12 October 1997, California Governor ilies who are upwardly mobile, trying to Pete Wilson signed into law Bill AB62. This get their kids through school and live in a Bill gives San Fernando Valley and other decent safe neighborhood (Hill-Holtzman, California communities the right to secede 1997b). through a much-simplified process. It re- The possible racialised markers of such a placed the 1977 more restrictive law that was depiction and alleged open allegations of passed in the California legislature to impede racism in Valley VOTE’s campaign were secessionism in San Jose at the time. The often denounced (Garvey, 1998; see also Los most important change won by Valley law- Angeles Times, 19 January 1999). This repre- makers was to “remove city council veto sentation of the Valley is rather one-sided. It power over so-called detachment petitions does not recognise that past experience with submitted by an area of the city” (Hill-Holtz- incorporation and secessions has always been man, 1997a). This requires majority votes in pushed for by, and in the interest of, mostly both the entire city and the area affected, as privileged social groups. The Valley seems well as revenue neutrality. The secession Bill to be seeking an easily readable identity pre- calls for the collection of the signatures of 20 SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1717 per cent of voters in the secessionist area to Alliance for Self-Determination as an um- ask for a feasibility study. After receiving an brella body of local organisations, but it extension of the period during which they eventually faded away (Haynes, 1998). As could collect the necessary number of signa- we will argue below, this illustrates the tures in late 1998 (Martin, 1998a), Valley strength of the opportunity structure provided VOTE collected 202 000 signatures and by globalisation and favouring territorial re- 132 490 were ultimately verified. This structuring. However, in the case of the Val- amounts to roughly one-fourth of the San ley VOTE and Harbor VOTE leadership, Fernando Valley’s registered voters. Con- populist right-wing arguments clearly flicts over who would pay the expected cost emerge as the main motivations behind the of the study emerged after this successful movements. drive (Bustillo, McGreevy and Riccardi, As it is often noted in the literature, seces- 1999; Bustillo, McGreevy and Fox, 1999).11 sion does not seem to have apparent limits. While bi-partisan legislators from the Val- In fact, at the political level, some of the ley, former Republican Assemblywoman architects of the new legislation are already Paula Boland, Tom McClintock (R- speculating about the possibility of further Northridge) and Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman ‘balkanisation’ of southern California. Bob Oaks) supported the drive for the legal Hertzberg, one of the writers of the bill, change, the movement was rooted in a broad predicted in 1997 that Valley residents would coalition of Valley community activists, not stop at creating a new seceded city of 1.2 many of whom have had a long history of million participation in tax struggles, anti-busing campaigns and other issues often identified Clearly, there is a frustration level. That is with conservative populist causes (Willon, why this bill was written. But ultimately, if 1998). The previous drive for secession, led we have a secession in the Valley, it will by the Committee Investigating Valley Inde- be lots of different secessions. I think it pendent City/County (CIVICC) in 1975 was will break up into a number of pieces formed by insurance salespersons, real-estate (Hertzberg, quoted in Martin, 1997). agents and business people, two of them currently members of LAFCO (Larry Calem- The desire for more small-scale polities is ine and Hal Bernson). Paula Boland who directly linked by various commentators to lobbied for the state legal change was also the challenges posed by globalisation, as we member of CIVICC.12 will elaborate below (Flanigan, 1997). These activists, and particularly those Other observers note the timeliness of cur- from existing groups such as the Sherman rent secessionism in a period when “people Oaks Homeowner Association, formed the focus more on neighborhood, regional and group Valley VOTE in 1996. Valley VOTE international ties” (words attributed to Rick lobbied for the passing of the bill and subse- Cole, former director of the West Hollywood quently the feasibility study for secession, marketing corporation, mayor of Pasadena one of the bill’s requirements (Hill-Holtz- and southern California Director of the Local man, 1997a). A caution note needs to be Government Commission; quoted in Gordon, made as it would be too easy to equate 1997). In another newspaper article, Kevin secessionism with populist and conservative Starr, California’s state librarian and chroni- politics. The secession bill had strong sup- cler of the state’s history, is paraphrased as porters in all political camps from arch-con- having said servative Bobbi Fiedler on the Right to progressive Democrat Tom Hayden on the these secession movements are part of a Left (Schockman, 1997). In addition, the se- natural human desire for community—a cessionist movement has followers all over desire that ironically is made more intense Los Angeles and has attempted to create an by the globalisation of people’s lives 1718 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL

brought on by technology from television across the city’s diverse neighbourhoods that to the Internet (Bernstein, 1998). had endured through the Bradley years and even partly during Riordan’s mayoralty. While many Los Angeles politicians, particu- In this context, the main arguments sup- larly those from secession-prone communi- porting secession are a desire for local con- ties, are very careful about the issue in trol and autonomy, a greater return on tax public, Mayor Richard Riordan, who will be dollars locally, greater efficiency, a fear of out of office in 2001 due to term limits, has the big size of Los Angeles and the feeling been on record calling secession “a terrible that the Valley is not getting a fair share idea, both for the Valley and for the rest of (these are the top five reasons identified by the city” (Riordan, quoted in Newton, 1998). an independent survey, reported in Martin, He constantly repeats his clear opposition at 1998b). Forty-seven per cent of registered every possible occasion and pitted his hopes voters city-wide favour the Valley secession, (and much of his own and his wealthy a percentage that rises to 60 percent in the friends’ money) on the successful passing of Valley (Newton and Bustillo, 1999a). the new City Charter in the polls in June The term ‘secessionist’ is very much dis- 1999 as a possible antidote to secession.13 liked by Valley VOTE and its supporters.16 Many supporters of secession also weighed The Valley’s Daily News newspaper, finan- in heavily in favour of charter reform before cial supporter of Valley VOTE, wrote in an the 8 June 1999 vote. Secessionists, in other Editorial words, posed yet another subtle ultimatum: if The issue is not—nor has it ever been— Los Angeles cannot even find a way to re- about secession. The issue is the quality of form its 75-year-old charter, there is little our lives and the quality of our govern- reason to believe the city will be able to ment (Daily News, 2 July 1999). change its attitude towards the Valley in the foreseeable future (Newton, 1999). For these reasons, the secession movement is During the charter reform debate, Valley often likened to a divorce demanded by a VOTE submitted its proposal about how they neglected-feeling partner; the secession study thought the Los Angeles Local Area Forma- being “the first attempt to outline the div- tion Commission should conduct its study of orce, allowing the parties to begin haggling the ‘special reorganisation’ of Los Angeles over who gets the silverware” (Jones, 1999, into two separate parts (Valley Study Foun- p. B1). An important reason for rejecting the dation, 1999).14 Yet, the secession drive still term ‘secessionist’ is the willingness to pre- faces huge obstacles. Among them is a grow- sent the movement as a rational, efficient and ing sense that ‘revenue neutrality’ should morally just liberal claim for local control, govern any secession. This would mean that personal autonomy and a fair share. In order the potential new Valley city would need to to legitimate these claims, Valley VOTE reimburse the old city of Los Angeles for any constantly calls for depoliticising the issue. costs incurred by the split to the old city Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain said to the (Bustillo, 1999a). Moreover, the issue of wa- Ad Hoc Committee on Secession of the Los ter distribution will remain very complex.15 Angeles City Council Nevertheless, the political momentum is on The issue here is not secession, but getting the side of the secessionists. Whether they the facts. Being such a politically charged can ultimately split the city apart will be a term used by the media, we would request matter of the future political choice of Los that you rename the Committee to the Ad Angeles’ voters, within the highly structured Hoc Committee on ‘Reorganization’ (re- arena of political power in southern Califor- ported in Siegel, 1999). nia. It is now clear, however, that secession- ists have been able to challenge the old Valley VOTE presents itself as a fair player, political consensus of coalition-building who at this point is only seeking the facts and SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1719 to demonstrate that both the new city and the margins of the old model, citizen-driven ini- City of Los Angeles will be better off divorc- tiatives realised this new opportunity struc- ing. ture. The political principle of centrality, which had driven LA since the beginning of Secessionists’ position themselves as the century, started to be replaced by a poli- fighting the corruption of LA’s big politi- tics of geographical identity. This territori- cal machine: the days of obstructionist in alised politics was undergirded and this city rule are over. The people running intersected by a set of class-based, racialised Los Angeles need to come to grips with and gendered interests that made individual that and change their attitude about how places connect in specific ways with the they treat the ordinary, working-class resi- structured coherence of the urban region. San dents who only want to live out the Amer- Pedro– Wilmington is such a special place. A ican Dream in peace, safe in the movement in these southernmost Los Ange- knowledge that city leaders will provide les communities, connected to the city by a the basics of urban life in the 21st century mere ‘shoestring’ of land and encompassing (Daily News, 27 August 1999).17 the entire port area, is seeking secession and Valley VOTE insists very much on the rea- the founding of a new city in the South Bay. sonableness of their application for a feasi- Wilmington was incorporated in 1872. It bility study. They do not want to ‘throw fire’ would have been one of California’s oldest on a very sensitive issue (interview with Jeff incorporated cities if it had not been annexed Brain, President of Valley VOTE, 12 May by the City of Los Angeles in 1909 (Cultural 1999). However, it is clear that once the Affairs Department, 1995). It is a lower- study is completed and secession is on the income, blue-collar and very diverse com- ballot for city-wide approval, it will become munity that provides the largest tax-base in much politicised. In the end, as professor of the City of LA because of its many oil urban and regional planning Willson puts it, refineries.18 San Pedro was incorporated in 1888 and was annexed—not without oppo- Valley secession may trigger passions sition—by the City of Los Angeles at the similar to those raised in Canada by the same time as Wilmington in 1909 (Wilton, independence movement in the province 1999). It has always been a tight community, of Quebec … But in the end, Angelenos with many original families from Portuguese, will base their decisions on bread and Scandinavian, Greek, Italian, Latino and butter issues, not philosophy (Willson, African-American descent still residing quoted in Gordon, 1997, p. A19). there.19 San Pedro is usually credited with a strong cultural identity developed from its 4.2 The ‘Good People’ of San Pedro– past as a port town and its mixed European Wilmington and Mexican ancestry. Industries and unions, churches and other institutions provide for a Still, all this talk about distant rulers and qualitative distinctness from the rest of Los taxation without representation has an ap- Angeles (Wilton, 1999, p. 177). While San pealing ring. Maybe it’s time to throw a Pedro is more of a “gentrifying, insular com- tea party (Press-Telegram, 1998). munity with an Italian-Balkan flavor”, Wilm- In the final days of the political tenure of ington is most of the time described as a Tom Bradley, traditional modes of urban “gritty Latino enclave that is struggling to regulation—based on geographically and overcome years of zoning monstrosities and functionally concentrated control and service municipal neglect” (Press-Telegram, 1998).20 provision, concentrated civic power and The proposed new city would also include technocratic professionalism—failed to inte- parts of Harbor city and would encompass grate Los Angeles urban society into a com- about 140 000 residents. Despite being mon project. In the crevices and at the overshadowed by the better-funded, better- 1720 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL organised and bigger Valley secessionist for the emotions involved but, given that the movement, secession of the Harbor area Harbor is a regional resource, just like the would have enormous impacts on the City of Los Angeles International Airport or water, Los Angeles because it is home of the large secession is assumed to be unlikely, undesir- Port of Los Angeles. Indeed, access to a able and unfeasible (interview with Kelly deep-water port was the main interest for Los Martin, Deputy Mayor and Chief of Staff, Angeles to annex the two communities at Los Angeles, 19 May 1999). the beginning of the century, linking the area While secessionism has had long roots in 27 miles from downtown by a long, San Pedro (Wilton, 1999), Harbor VOTE shoestring strip officially named Harbor came together in 1991, as a joint effort by Gateway, but disdainfully known as the ‘um- San Pedro Citizens for Cityhood and the bilical cord’. It is important to note, though, New Wilmington Committee (itself the result that San Pedro, in particular, has played a of local activism dating back to 1988). Both major role in the strategic early geography of organisations decided to continue the fight southern California. Rather than being back- together and also created the California As- water villages swallowed by an imperial Los sociation of Detaching Cities (including Angeles, the port communities were major grassroots representatives from La Jolla, the sites of the early insertion of Los Angeles San Fernando Valley, Hollywood, Venice, into the national and global economies. Their Westchester, Eagle Rock). Founded by connections to Los Angeles via rail, tele- Howard Bennett, current Co-chair of Harbor graph and road were important beyond the VOTE, the association was a means of pro- region. tection against possible lawsuits. Bennett felt Yet, this centrality in the early geography that as a grassroots organisation, Harbor of the region has been discursively overshad- VOTE was vulnerable and needed to build a owed by the trope of marginality. Despite support network. Harbor VOTE launched their strategic location and function, the com- their cityhood study petition initiative in munities evolved on their own and activists November 1998 and had gathered the necess- in the secessionist movement tend to express ary signatures by April 1999. The LAFCO an apparently contradictory position. On the will now undertake a parallel feasibility one hand, residents speak proudly of their study at the same time as the Valley study, community’s historical autonomy (a fact with California state funding as well which belies the strong federal military inter- ($320 000). est in the area at least since the Spanish- Often cited as the ‘sibling movement’ of American war; Abu-Lughod, 1999, p. 430, n. Valley VOTE (Smith, 1999), Harbor VOTE 27). On the other hand, among the residents, is nevertheless different in many respects. there is a strong feeling of neglect by the Most striking is the level of funding and City of LA—a sentiment which often takes institutionalisation. Harbor VOTE insists on centre stage in the secessionist discourse. its grassroots character (Harbor Vote Realising the potential political fallout from Creed).21 Members are much more openly these feelings, the forces of central power in passionate about secession, contrasting with Los Angeles, in turn, have started to create a Valley VOTE stance of a ‘reasonable’ drive discourse of inclusion with respect to the for information. For that matter, the group south bay neighbourhoods. Strategists in had internal dissension between the ardent Mayor Richard Riordan’s Office, while secessionists and those who are first of all firmly opposed to secession, are taking the seeking for information. Whereas Valley secessionists seriously. The Mayor is said to VOTE officially took the second position, spend much time there and his policy-makers Harbor VOTE chose the first one, which begin to understand that Harbor Vote is a eventually led to the formation of a smaller distinct group that must be reckoned with. group of less ‘passionate’ information- The Mayor’s people express much empathy seekers.22 SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1721

The Harbor area also differed in its rejec- strongly grounded in grassroots community tion of the new City of Los Angeles Charter, control and pride. This is not to attain homo- adopted by voters on 8 June 1999. This could geneity, they argue, but to create a space for be explained, apart from the fact that some their diverse community to blossom Valley VOTE leaders had come out in favour of the charter, by Harbor VOTE’s strong Our potential ability to become a CITY on populist vision. They saw charter reform as our own will not effect the tremendous strictly ‘the Mayor’s baby’, politically moti- ethnic diversity that we have. In fact, vated by the attempt to create dissension CITYHOOD will help us together, all di- amongst secessionists and take time away verse people of San Pedro & Wilmington, from the petition drive (interviews with to say ‘enough’ to being treated as second Frank Fasullo, Howard Bennett and Frank class citizens (Harbor VOTE, FAQs). Broidy, 26 May 1999). Harbor VOTE repre- sentatives are generally much less confident Our analysis of community sentiment behind in current city government and display much the secessionist drive in San Pedro coincides suspicion about the City of Los Angeles. with and partially builds on an in-depth study They would hold that the old charter was of the San Pedro community by Robert drafted in the 1920s as a means to deal with Wilton (1999).24 His focus is on community corruption. However, currently, they would attitudes towards human service facilities and argue, Los Angeles has grown so big and so clients. He concludes that during the 1990s complex that it became an enormous system there were where it is impossible to trace back any transactions nor contributions. Instead, Har- growing concerns about the number of bor VOTE support their secessionist position human service facilities in [San Pedro] and with arguments about the loss of common the impact of these facilities upon the local sense, the lack of a fair share, the fact that quality of life (Wilton, 1999, p. 162). the Harbor faces numerous unfulfilled promises, that policy does not reflect the In addition, local residents had a number of needs of the community; that the current concerns: among them were that facility op- system gives them taxation without represen- erators were not from the local area, that tation and so on.23 Argumentative momen- problems would be brought to the com- tum has been building for a genuine ‘San munity from the outside and that San Pedro Pedro Tea Party’. had to accommodate more problem facilities The group’s populist perspective is further than other areas in LA (Wilton, 1999, accentuated by a language of family values, pp. 162– 163). Similarly, specific anger was building on the sense of community, and expressed in our conversations with local trying to be good people, good citizens car- activists about the existence of halfway ing for their ‘own’ disadvantaged people. houses in middle-class residential communi- What they find difficult, they argue, is to ties.25 face the constant influx of disadvantaged Wilton reports on the emergence of a local people coming into their community from group formed to advocate tougher controls Los Angeles. They want to gain local control on service providers and facility clients on zoning requirements to stop the increasing which turned out to be instrumental in publi- number of special-need housing complexes cising concerns about the number and loca- in the area. They claim that most of these are tion of human service facilities and was thus unlicensed and harm the security of their responsible for the growth in local awareness families while driving down property values and the concomitant increase in support for (interviews with Frank Fasullo, Howard Ben- restrictions on facility siting (Wilton, 1999, nett and Frank Broidy, 26 May 1999). The p. 164). This group and the political ideas ‘good people’ of San Pedro–Wilmington are they embrace can also be seen as one of the 1722 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL points of origin of the current secessionist 5. Conclusion: Secession in Los Angeles as drive a Social Project of the Right? Revisiting our initial propositions, we can It is unrealistic to suggest that the whole now conclude in the following manner: community was caught up in this debate [on facility siting], but there is consider- 1. Secessionists in Los Angeles operate in able evidence to suggest that it did touch a the tradition of US rights-based liberalism. great many people (Wilton, 1999, p. 166). Their language and political strategy are re- plete with references to the rights of citizens The debate certainly gave focus to other (i.e. property-owners and tax-payers) to rule sentiments in the community that had differ- their own matters on as local a scale as ent and longer roots such as anger about the possible. In this scheme, the voluntary basis common lack of implementation of plans of the liberal democratic contract is seen to such as a 1962 plan to deal with rapid growth function better at the local level. An Execu- which was not followed through “by the City tive Officer for the Los Angeles LAFCO Council in faraway Los Angeles” (Wilton, noted that in his opinion this process was 1999, p. 175). In addition, Wilton reports that democracy in action and that citizens have an increase in rental housing structures had the right to question government. The current become a major concern for many residents events in Los Angeles are viewed as nothing during the 1970s and 1980s. In summary, the more than the democratic process (even context of community politics in San Pedro though at a different size and scope) in a has been characterised by geographical iso- “nation created by secessionists” (interview lation, political isolation, economic restruc- with Larry J. Calemine, Executive Officer, turing, socio-demographic change, the LAFCO, 21 May 1999).27 The concepts of special situation of housing and poor repre- exit, voice and loyalty take their full signifi- sentation (Wilton, 1999, pp. 176– 211).26 cance in this voluntary contractual tradition, Particularly the last issue is constantly where individuals can legitimately ‘vote with foregrounded by activists of the San Pedro their feet’ in case of dissatisfaction with the Citizens for Cityhood who maintain that in political system. (Tiebout elaborated a simi- terms of representation, Los Angeles is too lar theory with respect to economic dissatis- large and there is no equivalent representa- faction.) tion of San Pedro that would match the econ- But beyond these individualistic economic omic income drawn by the city from the port. and political explanations, we have argued Wilton concludes that, on the surface, Los that secessionism in Los Angeles is also Angeles secession movements overall seem based on niche identities largely determined to “constitute a NIMBY reaction on a grand by class, race and place. However, nationalist scale which would create an impoverished, and communitarian theories of secession can- inner-city Los Angeles surrounded by not provide full explanation of these right- wealthier suburban satellites”. Yet, San Pe- wing populist and local responses to dro’s “secession efforts have been directly globalisation. Given the lack of theoretical linked to more specific concerns, including underpinnings, as well as the uncharted ter- the special needs housing issue”. In fact, rain secession movements are opening in Los secessionist statements link concerns about Angeles and other cities, there is an array of political isolation and underrepresentation conflated terms used to define these social with the perceived problems of special needs projects: reorganisation, detachment, div- housing, immigration and welfare depen- ision, secession, deconstruction, divorce, in- dency (Wilton, 1999, pp. 185– 186). It is this dependence, partition, localism and so on. kind of specificity of populist secessionism The political meaning of these terms is the in various places which makes any general very terrain on which urban secessionists theory on urban secessionism quite difficult. have fought for the legitimacy of their SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1723 symbolic claims for real independence and with Sam Bell, President, LA Business Advi- enhanced democratic governance. sors, 19 May 1999). And, as Jones puts it, the mayor and other opponents to secession “ask Valleyites to reject cityhood, in part, to main- 2. We found secessionism to be a central tain the size and stature of Los Angeles, as if element in the current debate on rescaling the Valley shares in its Pacific Rim glory” urban governance in Los Angeles. Most im- (Jones, 1999, p. B6). It is exactly this share mediately, this fact is confirmed by the view in global glory that the Valley and the Har- held by many that the threat of secession bor area are seeking by seceding. Secession- prompted the passing of Los Angeles’ new ists want their own city, while remaining part city charter in 1999. But beyond this, too, of the regional global city. Success is con- secessionism has offered the real possibility sidered to depend on flourishing communi- of creating significant new global– local and ties with their own identity. Regionalism, nation/state/region– local relationships in therefore, is not considered as a means southern California. While still in the realm for the well-being of the region as a whole of imagination, a new city of more than 1 (particularly through redistribution), but million people in the San Fernando Valley or more as a tool to position their little a feisty harbour municipality whose political community within the global economy by class dreams of turning the sleepy coastal developing particular identity, offering an communities into a bustling California Hong excellent quality of life and governing Kong, might have a tremendous effect on the efficiently. regulation of capital, land, the environment, This articulation between fragmentation etc. in the urban area. and regionalism is located on the opposite The charter reform campaign did not ad- side of the political spectrum than usually dress questions of regional governance, nor more leftist regional activism. While Los do secession movements. Nevertheless, the Angeles is rarely recognised for being a par- latter are more successful in populist mobil- ticularly regionally inclined system of gover- isation because they frame their argument nance, Bollens (1997) holds that it has with the rhetoric of efficiency and booster- developed, in articulation with its well- ism. Harbor VOTE activists’ insistence on known fragmented system, a sort of ‘shadow the necessity to clean-up their city and en- regionalism’. Alongside this weak form of gage in massive up-scaling (see Littlejohn regional governance, a critical regionalism and Brady, 1999 on these many pending from below is springing up. ‘Insurgent re- projects, which they claim are currently gionalism’ is developing, particularly in the stalled by the City of Los Angeles) capture areas of environmental activism, labour and the imagination of a significant number of community planning and regional transport middle-class voters to make secession a force rights. But this kind of regionalism is miles to reckon with. Similarly, Valley VOTE ac- away from the regional vision of Valley tivists hope to recuperate LA’s entertainment VOTE and Harbor VOTE.29 reputation in their ‘Valley of the Stars’.28 Positioning of the LA region in the global economy, according to this logic, passes by 3. In this sense, secession movements in Los the creation of boosterist reputable niches Angeles are now a social project of the offering an excellent quality of life and flour- Right. In contrast with the use of fragmen- ishing, as they will be liberated from the tation for more leftist purposes in the 1980s weight of a ‘Big Brother’ political machine. with the incorporation of West Hollywood Downtown business interests respond, how- (1984) by middle-class radicals and the vic- ever, that secessionists are much less con- tory of progressives in the Santa Monica cerned about Los Angeles as a global city; Council (1979), the current wave of seces- they are isolationist and parochial (interview sionism takes full advantage of the oppor- 1724 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL tunity structures offered by a neo-liberal Tom Bradley in 1993 and changes in global- globalising economy.30 As Beauregard isation dynamics (Keil, 1998) can be counted (1999, p. 45) explains, in the struggle over as the structural conditions for political op- who would represent the city, neo-conserva- portunity structures of Los Angeles seces- tives currently hold the momentum sionism. Yet, these ‘grievances’ are not enough to explain the mobilising success of Although the euphoria surrounding the cit- the secessionist groups—at least at this pre- ies in the 1990s might well be short-lived, liminary stage. it is defining a new politics of urbanism Diani’s theoretical framework helped to whose momentum belongs to neo-conser- understand why, even after the new charter vatives. All others are critics or spectators. was voted in Los Angeles, secession move- The rescaling and spatial selectivity of the ments have continued to dominate the politi- state is not an anonymous process occurring cal momentum. The charter reform campaign strategically behind local actors’ backs. It is largely failed to mobilise citizens in Los rather driven by a group of middle-class Angeles and remained an internal debate conservatives who act and operate like a amongst the political class of the city (Keil social movement. As a social movement, and Boudreau, forthcoming). On the other these actors have articulated secessionism as hand, both Harbor VOTE and Valley VOTE a right-wing political project based on the are much more successful in mobilising citi- political ‘opportunity structures’ (Diani, zens to their cause, perhaps because their 1996) afforded to them by the changing situ- message is more consistent with the preva- ation of a globalised Los Angeles region. lent anti-system rhetoric. In other words, the These ‘political opportunity structures’ of the general perception of politics in Los Angeles global restructuring processes have provided is that the governance system is too big, too the necessary conditions for the success of corrupt and too inefficient to adequately pos- such mobilisation efforts. Although we have ition the region in the global economy as not discussed these other cases in detail in well as to satisfy community needs. As Har- this paper, similar projects (although within bor VOTE maintained, in their eyes, the very different political systems) are emerg- charter cannot be rewritten. The system ing, for example, with the Montreal partition- needs to be completely revamped and this ist movements (Boudreau, 1999), the citizen means, for many, redrawing municipal movements in the north of Frankfurt in the boundaries (interviews with Frank Fasullo, early 1990s (Keil and Ronneberger, 1994) Howard Bennett and Frank Broidy, 26 May and most importantly the Italian Northern 1999). League (Diani, 1996). Secession, in all of In sum, secession movements in Los An- these cases, is about populism and/or individ- geles are not cases of nationalist secession ual interests. normally explained by normative theories of In Los Angeles, the political opportunity secession. Their understanding necessitates structures for secession were defined in the another theoretical framework focusing on 1990s by a series of shifts in the material shifting municipal boundaries within the con- conditions of life in the city. On a macro text of globalisation-induced restructuring. scale, it seems evident that the general crisis We used the concept of political opportunity of the Fordist-Keynesian post-war mode of structures to understand this new context. We regulation provided the cleavages—of also introduced the idea of dialectics between Fordist defensiveness versus neo-liberal ag- fragmentation and regional governance to gression—where urban secessionism could highlight the right-wing aspects of these take hold. More specifically, the economic secessionist social projects, with their em- crisis of the early 1990s, the urban rebellion phasis on the insertion of little exclusive of 1992, rising tax burdens, political regime niches within the global economy rather change after the end of the mayoral tenure of than seeing regional governance as a means SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1725 for redistribution. In fact, to take up Pulido’s typical of the kind of right-wing populism (2000) argument about the systemic relation- that we have argued here drives their politics. ship between the use of space and racism in In the end, regardless of their momentum, Los Angeles, it can now be argued that se- secession movements do not seem to under- cession is a piece in the puzzle of the cre- stand that the articulation of the city with the ation of white privilege in the area. Despite global economy cannot be restricted to gen- traces of ‘remedial’ arguments such as the trification and local boosterism for the ‘Val- feeling of neglect, the focus of these seces- ley of the Stars’ or a Hong-Kong-type of sion movements is primarily individualist. Harbor glory. As Margaret Crawford ex- We traced this back to individualist theories plains of territorial claims (as the aggregation of private property) and theories based on per- now the larger concept of Los Angeles is sonal autonomy and the right to create new the concept of diversity. This is what Los voluntary political associations. Both theo- Angeles stands for now, not freeways and ries, at the urban scale, are translated into the beaches and sunshine (Crawford, quoted Tiebout hypothesis, which is explicitly used in Gordon, 1997, p. A19). to support secession by Husock (1998) who is widely quoted by Valley VOTE and Har- Valley VOTE has been accused of advocat- bor VOTE. ing a hidden form of white flight (Hutchin- Still, the Port and Valley communities dif- son, 1999; Starr, 1999).31 Secessionists fer in expressing their political projects. Lit- respond by insisting on the rationality of tle in the Valley’s proposed new urban their application for a feasibility study. They identity has any utopian or emphatic ring to ask who could possibly be against infor- it. Valley secession really comes across as mation. But it is clear that the feasibility the ‘liberation’ of tax-paying subjects from study’s main goal is to provide a framework burdens they think they do not deserve. The for breaking up the city peacefully and with Valley project carries with it the anti-social, revenue neutrality. Therefore, the application even anti-communitarian, aspects of previous to LAFCO is itself a political move that California anti-tax revolts (Schrag, 1998). cannot be disguised as a simple neutral This time it has retreated from the political search for information. Redefining urban arena of the state to a specifically urban governance is a political debate, not a mere scale. In contrast, the ‘good people’ of San exercise of boundary shifting. It may not be Pedro make no small plans. They speak tinged with overt ethno-nationalist motives, enthusiastically about visions for their com- but it nevertheless remains grounded in ques- munity that extend beyond individual back- tions of civic, class and political identity. yards (yet not necessarily beyond With the neo-conservative and populist mo- property-owning individualism as an organ- mentum, could it be that Valley VOTE and ising principle). These visions can range Harbor VOTE are in fact seceding from re- from the Orwellian (being a Californian sponsibility? Hong Kong) to the Rockwellian (the ever- present image of the small town community). In San Pedro, no one bowls alone. Yet not Notes everyone is given access to the bowling al- 1. This real or displayed concern by the politi- ley. Both the emphatic vision in a small town cal opinion and decision-makers contrasts world and the playful insertion of a specific often with the cynicism of public opinion local community into the whole of a global regarding the question of urban reform. By city (including its exclusionary politics) are urban governance, we mean to signify the shift from government to governance, where characteristics we have also identified for the governance means the elaboration of a good Italian Legas and the movement fragments of system to ‘conduct government’ as well as the Frankfurt North above. They tend to be the opening of governmental institutions to 1726 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL

more participation and civil-society-based Los Angeles and the independent cities of forms of regulating daily affairs (see Keil, Glendale, Burbank, San Fernando and Hid- 2000). den Hills) had the following economic indi- 2. The Mayor’s office claims, however, that the cators: population 1.71 million people; Valley secessionist movement did not start private-sector employment of 589 922; a to- the charter reform initiative, although it in- tal payroll of $4.55 billion; a commercial fluenced the debate. Chief of Staff Kelly vacancy rate of 6.7 per cent; 43 002 private Martin explained to us in an interview that it establishments; and 143 272 people receiv- all started after the 1992 riots, when Riordan ing aid including AFDC, general relief and looked into the functioning of the city to find local stamp recipients (quoted in Flanigan, out that the system was not only dysfunc- 1997). tional, but ‘broken’ (interview with Kelly 9. The Bill was signed into law on 12 October Martin, 19 May 1999). 1997 as Chapter 943, Statutes of 1997 and 3. State Librarian of California Kevin Starr amended by AB 2621 (Chapter 1038, (1999) also entitled his article in the Los Statutes of 1998). Angeles Times ‘LA is refounded, and seces- 10. This latter move has been strongly influ- sionism lives’. enced by Peter Schrag’s (1998) popular criti- 4. This seems to be true for many US cities cal analysis of the effects of Prop. 13 for the (Husock, 1998), but certainly Los Angeles state’s service delivery (Rohrlich, 1999). can be considered a strong prototype. 11. It was ultimately decided after much lobby- 5. Interestingly enough, an old booklet on the ing that the State of California would pay 80 history of the San Fernando valley published per cent of the cost ($1.8 million), Los Ange- by the Title Insurance and Trust Company les County 10 per cent ($225 000) contingent focuses exclusively on this real-estate ident- on matching funds by the City of Los Ange- ity of the valley and offers “the ownership les. LA City Council lagged behind in voting story of every Valley lot and parcel through these funds before ultimately deciding to Spanish, Mexican, and American periods” give $265 000 (Bustillo, 1999b; McGreevy, (Robinson, 1961, foreword). 1999a). 6. Tarrow defines the concept of political op- 12. See also Davis (1990, pp. 151– 219) for an portunity structures as follows account of home-owner activism in the 1970s drive for secession. dimensions of the political environment 13. It was later revealed that some of Riordan’s that provide incentives for people to supporters also gave financial loans to Val- undertake collective action by affecting ley VOTE (McGreevy, 1999b). their expectations for success or failure 14. The Valley Study Foundation, Inc. is, by its (Tarrow 1994, p. 85, quoted in Diani, own definition, “a Non-Profit California 1996). Corporation, by and on behalf of 132 490 qualified petitioners of the San Fernando These dimensions are the stability of politi- Valley”. cal alignments, the formal channels of access 15. The Valley was annexed to the City of Los to the political system, the availability of Angeles in 1915 specifically to obtain water allies within the polity and intra-e´lite con- from Los Angeles. But because the water flict. crosses the Valley from north to south, Val- 7. On this concept, see Jones (1997). Following leyites receive the premium water. And be- Jessop, he writes cause the City of Los Angeles is obligated to provide water to its own citizens first, if a the state is required to restructure its forms new city in the Valley would succeed and and functions (strategic capacity) to secure still receive this premium water, this could global capital, and restructuring requires be seen as discrimination and result in a different forms of representation, possibily massive class action suit against the city reflected at the local level, to legitimise (Furgatch, 1998). and govern new structures (Jones 1997, 16. In a letter to the Los Angeles Times, an p. 847). Executive Committee member of Valley VOTE wrote 8. The 1990 Census sub-divides the Valley population (excluding the cities of Burbank, We are not acting as secessionists, we are Glendale, San Fernando and Hidden Hills) as only seeking greater participation by the follows: 57 per cent White, 32 per cent His- people in this government and demanding panic, 8 per cent Asian-American and 4 per a study by the L.A. Local Agency Forma- cent African-American (Dixon et al., 1993, tion Commission … We all have one goal: p. 9). In the spring of 1997, the San Fer- to better the quality of life in Los Angeles nando Valley (including the northern parts of (Leyner, 1999). SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1727

17. Richard Close, Chairman of Valley VOTE, to use the results of his study in this paper also said “The history of the Valley is about and to be able to disclose the identity of San power and politics and money. We now have Pedro for the purposes of our analysis. the chance to find out what the true facts are” 25. During our tour with secessionist community (reported in Coit, 1999b). activists in San Pedro, we were taken to a 18. The 1990 Census found that Wilmington is house in a well-to-do San Pedro residential 62 per cent Hispanic, 24 per cent White, 8 neighbourhood which allegedly was operated per cent Asian-American, 5 per cent African- without a license by a private operator who American, 0.4 per cent American-Indian and provided services to recovering drug and/or 0.6 per cent Other (Cultural Affairs Depart- alcohol addicts. While we could not verify ment, 1995, p. 74). this story, it was indicative of the kinds of 19. The 1990 Census showed that the population issue that fuel the secession drive in San of San Pedro was 54 per cent White, 35 per Pedro. cent Hispanic, 5 per cent African-American, 26. Rob Wilton pointed out to us in a personal 5 per cent Asian-American, 0.5 per cent communication that particularly the restruc- American-Indian, and 0.5 per cent Other turing of the economic base of the port com- (Cultural Affairs Department, 1995, p. 76). munities must not be forgotten as an 20. The landscape of Wilmington is dominated important impact on the mood in the com- by giant shipping containers, auto wreck munity. As the industries that had helped to yards, junk yards and very precarious hous- define this community disappeared, the vul- ing hidden among these giant containers and nerability of the people there was on the rise. this industrial and byproducts landscape. At the same time, however, some of the 21. In describing how Valley VOTE successfully activists we spoke with were not personally lobbied the state legislature for changing the affected by economic change or had rather legislation in 1997/98, San Pedro Harbor benefited by it. VOTE Co-chair Frank Fasullo explained 27. Similarly, in signing on the state funding for how they were the “people-power engage- the feasibility study, California Governor ment” behind Valley VOTE success, flood- Davis said ing the State Legislature with last-minute support phone calls (interviews with Frank I believe in democracy and if the people of Fasullo and with Howard Bennett, Co-chair, San Fernando Valley and the people of the Wilmington Harbor VOTE and Frank remaining parts of Los Angeles vote to Broidy, Advisory Committee, Harbour allow the Valley to secede, they’re entitled VOTE, also on 26 May 1999). to. It’s important that a study be done to 22. Chairman of Harbor VOTE Advisory Com- determine if the Valley can be financially mittee, Xavier Hermosillo said: “We are se- independent and can support itself should cessionists and proud of it. Our message here it ultimately become a separate city (re- is who do you want planning your future” ported in Orlov, 1999). (reported in Coit, 1999c). Three days after 28. This image of the Valley is contested by the the completion of the petition drive, three film director Paul T. Anderson who gave us former Harbor VOTE volunteers founded a Boogie Nights, a movie about pornography new organisation called Harbor Study Foun- in the Valley. He writes dation and filed the signatures with LAFCO, in the name of Harbor VOTE, causing great I grew up in Studio City. It is not as lush rift in the Harbor area. Similar disputes also as it sounds. There is no ‘studio’ in Studio occurred within Valley VOTE, when Bobbi City. It is a suburban area with houses and Fiedler left the organisation to form the San trees and all the rest. The only sort of film Fernando Valley Secession Board, a more production there is pornography (Ander- openly secessionist organisation. son, 1999). 23. They write: “We will see our hard-earned tax dollars spent on the kinds of projects we 29. For instance, local officials in the San Fer- prefer and will have a greater assurance that nando Valley proposed to break away from interest groups will not usurp local govern- the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) ment for their own benefit” (Harbor VOTE, and to run their bus lines themselves in order FAQs). See also Littlejohn and Brady (1999) to get rid of what they see as the monopoly for a discussion of the many ‘unfulfilled of unions on their big bureaucracy labour promises’ of development projects in San contracts. A state legislation was neverthe- Pedro. less pushed through the Assembly by 24. In Wilton’s detailed study, San Pedro is Democrats to protect bus workers in case given the fictitious name ‘Milford’. We are regional transit districts are divided from the grateful to the author to grant us permission MTA (Bustillo, 1999c). 1728 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL

30. For more details on the incorporation of the limits of southern California governance, these progressive cities, please refer to Keil Journal of Urban Affairs, 19, pp. 105– 122. (1998). BOUDREAU, J. A. (1999) IdentiŽ cation socio- 31. Starr holds that spatiale en marge de l’Ame´rique du Nord: … auche d’un cadre conceptuel sur les Los Angeles, meaning the entire city, can cas de Montre´al et Tijuana. Cahiers de thank its lucky stars that a new generation Recherche, Institut national de la recherche sci- of Latino elected officials is entering cen- entiŽ que—INRS—Urbanisation, Poˆle Culture ter stage. One suspects that it is not the et Ville, Montre´al. leading item on their agenda to deconstruct BRENNER, N. (1998) Global cities, glocal states: the city. Why should they assent to the global city formation and state territorial re- breakup of Los Angeles just as they are structuring in contemporary Europe, Review of coming into political possession of a city International Political Economy, 5, pp. 1– 37. that has, for more than 150 years, spoken BRENNER, N. (1999) Globalisation as reterritoriali- English with a Spanish accent? (Starr, sation: the rescaling of urban governance in the 1999). European Union, Urban Studies, 36, pp. 431– 451. References BROWN, J. (1998) Race, class, gender and public transportation: lessons from the Bus Riders ABBOTT, P. (1998) The lincoln propositions and Union lawsuit, Critical Planning, 5(Spring), the spirit of secession, in: P. B. LEHNING (Ed.) pp. 3– 20. Theories of Secession, pp. 182– 207. London: BUCHANAN, A. (1998) The international institu- Routledge. tional dimension of secession, in: P. B. LEHN- ABU-LUGHOD, J. L. (1999) New York, Chicago, ING (Ed.) Theories of Secession, pp. 227–256. Los Angeles: America’s Global Cities. London: Routledge. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota BURGOS, R. and PULIDO, L. (1998) The politics of Press. gender in the Los Angeles Bus Riders’ Union/ AGNEW, J. (1997). The dramaturgy of horizons: Sindicato de Pasajeros, Capital, Nature, Social- geographical scale in the ‘Reconstruction of ism, 9(3), pp. 75– 82. Italy’ by the new Italian political parties, 1992– BUSTILLO, M. (1999a) ‘Alimony’ law could 95, Political Geography, 16, pp. 199–212. handicap a  edging Valley city, Los Angeles AGNEW, J. (1999). New rules for national ident- Times, 10 January pp. B1– B8. ity? The Northern League and political identity BUSTILLO, M. (1999b) Mayor, two council mem- in contemporary northern Italy, National Iden- bers protest secessionists’ plan, Los Angeles tities, 1, pp. 117– 133. Times, 25 August. ANDERSON, P. T. (1999) A valley boy who found BUSTILLO, M. (1999c) Demos succeed on MTA a home not far from home, New York Times, 14 workers’ behalf, Los Angeles Times, 9 Septem- November, p. MT3. ber. ASCHER, F. and GODARD, F. (1999). Vers une BUSTILLO, M., MCGREEVY, P. and FOX, S. (1999) troisie`me solidarite´, Esprit, November, Valley vote miffed at cost estimate of secession pp. 168–189. study, Los Angeles Times, 28 January. BANHAM, R. (1971) Los Angeles: The Architec- BUSTILLO, M., MCGREEVY, P. and RICCARDI, N. ture of Four Ecologies. Harmondsworth: Peli- (1999) Petitions qualify valley secession for can. ofŽ cial study, Los Angeles Times, 16 March BEAUREGARD, R. (1999) The Politics of urbanism: p. A1. Mike Davis and the neo-conservatives, Capital- CARROLL, W. K. (1997) Social movements and ism, Nature, Socialism, 10(3), Issue 39 (Sep- counterhegemony: Canadian contexts and so- tember), pp. 40–45. cial theories, in: W. K. CARROLL (Ed.) Organiz- BERAN, H. (1998) A democratic theory of political ing Dissent: Contemporary Social Movements self-determination for a new world order, in: P. in Theory and Practice, 2nd edn, pp. 3– 38. B. LEHNING (Ed.) Theories of Secession, Toronto: Garamond Press. pp. 32– 59. London: Routledge. CHU, H. (1997) Valley emerges from ’97 with a BERNSTEIN, S. (1998) Secession trend a natural new sense of self, Los Angeles Times (Valley evolution, Los Angeles Times (Valley edn), 24 edn), 28 December, p. A1. February p. B1. CLARKE, S. E. and GAILE, G. L. (1998) The Work BLANKSTEIN, A. and ROBINSON-JACOBS, K. (1999) of Cities. Minneapolis, MN: University of Min- Disney ‘campus’ plan boosts Valley as enter- nesota Press. tainment epicenter, Los Angeles Times, 3 COIT, M. (1999a) Charter win fuels drive to se- September pp. B1–B4. cede, Daily News, 14 June (dailynews.com/ BOLLENS, S. A. (1997) Fragments of regionalism: search/news/june99/0614/secede.html). SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1729

COIT, M. (1999b) Valley’s leaders urge unity, FRUG, G. E. (1999). City Making: Building Com- Daily News, 2 July (dailynews.com/search/ munities without Building Walls. Princeton, NJ: news/july99/0710/no1rally.html). Princeton University Press. COIT, M. (1999c) Rift splits secession drive, Daily FURGATCH, L. (1998) Could Valley be a city News, 16 July (dailynews.com/search/news/ without water?, Los Angeles Times, 6 Decem- july99/0716/harbor.html). ber, p. M5. COX, K. (Ed.) (1997) Spaces of Globalization: GARVEY, M. (1998) Issue of racial motivation Reasserting the Power of the Local. New York: raised in secession forum, Los Angeles Times, Guilford Press. April, p. B3. CROUCH, W. W. and DINERMAN, B. (1963) GIBBS, D. and JONAS, A.E.G. (2000) Governance Southern California Metropolis: A Study in and regulation in local environmental policy: Development of Government for a Metropolitan the utility of a regime approach, Geoforum, 31, Area. Berkeley, CA: University of California pp. 299– 313. Press. GORDON, L. (1997) Secession law touches off an CULTURAL AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT (1995) The Com- identity crisis for L.A., Los Angeles Times, 14 munity Cultural Atlas. City of Los Angeles. October, pp. A1– A19. Daily News (1999a) Wake up and smell the HARBOR VOTE (n.d.) Creed. (www.Harborvote. shenanigans, 2 July (dailynewslosangeles.com/ com). search/opinions/july99/0702/edit2.html). HARBOR VOTE (n.d.) FAQs. (www.Harborvote. Daily News (1999b) ‘What’s the harm?’, 27 com). August (dailynews.com/search/news/june99/ HAYNES, K. (1998) Communities get a lesson on 0614/seced.html). separating from L.A., Los Angeles Times, 30 DAVIS, M. (1990) City of Quartz: Excavating the August, p. B3. Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage HILL-HOLTZMAN, N. (1997a) Wilson Signs Bill Books. That Could Ease Valley Secession, Los Angeles DAVIS, M. (1998) Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles Times, 13 October, p. A1. and the Imagination of Disaster. New York: HILL-HOLTZMAN, N. (1997b) Valley Perspective Henry Holt. Interview: Bobbi Fiedler; With First Battle DIAMANTI, I. (1997) The Lega Nord: from federal- Won, Strategist Sizes Up Hurdles on Path to ism to secession, in: R. D’ALIMONTE and D. Secession, Los Angeles Times, 9 November, NELKEN (Eds) Italian Politics: The Center-Left p. B11. in Power, pp. 65– 81. Boulder, CO: Westview HOCH, C. (1985) Municipal contracting in Califor- Press. nia: privatizing with class, Urban Affairs Quar- DIANI, M. (1996) Linking mobilization frames terly, 20, pp. 303– 323. and political opportunities: insights from re- HUSOCK, H. (1998) Let’s break up the big gional populism in Italy, American Sociologi- cities, City Journal, 8(Winter), pp. 71– 87. cal Review, 61, pp. 1053– 1069. (www.city-journal.org/html/8 1 a2.html). DIXON, K., FORAY, D., GILBERT, J. and SIMON, C. HUTCHINSON, E. O. (1999) Minorities could lose (1993) Beyond Suburbia: The Changing Face out in secession, Los Angeles Times, 6 April, of the San Fernando Valley. Comprehensive p. B7. project, MA in Urban Planning, University of JACOBS, J. (1961) The Death and Life of Great California, Los Angeles. American Cities. New York: Vintage Books. DONZELOT, J. (1999). La nouvelle question ur- JESSOP, B., PECK, J. and TICKELL, A. (1999) Re- baine, Esprit, November, pp. 87– 114. tooling the machine: economic crisis, state re- The Economist (1999) Richard Riordan’s conjur- structuring, and urban politics, in: A. E. G. ing trick, 5 June, p. 32. JONAS and D. WILSON (Eds) The Urban Growth EISINGER, P. K. (1973) The conditions of protest Machine: Critical Perspectives Two Decades behavior in American cities, American Political Later, pp. 141– 159. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Science Review, 67, pp. 11–28. JONAS, A. E. G. and WILSON, D. (Eds) (1999) The FLANIGAN, J. (1997) Uplifting view for the Val- Urban Growth Machine: Critical Perspectives ley: secessionists should look to regional coop- Two Decades Later. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. eration, Los Angeles Times, 24 September, JONES, M. R. (1997) Spatial selectivity of the p. D1. state? The regulationist enigma and local strug- FOGELSON, R. (1997) The Fragmented Metrop- gles over economic governance, Environment olis: Los Angeles, 1850– 1930. Cambridge, and Planning A, 29, pp. 831– 864. MA: Harvard University Press. JONES, R. A. (1999) Taking the silverware, Los FREEMAN, M. (1998) The priority of function over Angeles Times, 21 March, pp. B1– B6. structure: a new approach to secession, in: P. B. KEIL, R. (1998) Los Angeles: Globalization, Ur- LEHNING (Ed.) Theories of Secession, pp. 12– banization and Social Struggles. Chichester: 31. London: Routledge. John Wiley & Sons. 1730 JULIE-ANNE BOUDREAU AND ROGER KEIL

KEIL, R. (1999) Consolidation and secession in ture of Los Angeles—has already begun, Los Los Angeles: trajectories of urban governance Angeles Weekly, 20– 26 August, p. 32. in the 20th century. Paper presented at the New MILLER, G. J. (1981) Cities by Contract: The York, Chicago, Los Angeles: Cultures and Rep- Politics of Municipal Incorporation. Cam- resentations Conference, University of Birm- bridge, MA: The MIT Press. ingham, UK, September. NEWTON, J. (1998a) Secession bid churns along KEIL, R. (2000) Governance restructuring in Los but has a way to go, Los Angeles Times, 23 Angeles and Toronto: amalgamation or seces- August, p. A1. sion?, International Journal of Urban and Re- NEWTON, J. (1999) Riordan emerges as election’s gional Research, 24(4), pp. 758– 781. big victor, Los Angeles Times, 10 June, pp. A1– KEIL, R. and BOUDREAU, J. A. (forthcoming) A34. Missed Opportunities: Charter Reform and Ur- NEWTON, J. and BUSTILLO, M. (1999a) 60% of ban Change in Los Angeles. Valley voters favor city secession, Los Angeles KEIL, R. and RONNEBERGER, K. (1994) Going Times, 31 March, pp. A1– A16. up the country: internationalization and NEWTON, J. and BUSTILLO, M. (1999b) Valley urbanization on Frankfurt’s northern fringe, secession backers urge defeat of bond issue, Environment and Planning D, 12, pp. 137– Los Angeles Times, 9 April, pp. B1–B8. 166. ORLOV, R. (1999) Secession study funding hailed, KLEIN, N. M. (1997) The new Byzantium faces Daily News, 30 June (dailynews.com/search/ age-old issues, Los Angeles Times, 22 October, news/june99/0630/secede.html). p. B7. Press-Telegram (1998) Seceding from Los Ange- KRIM, A. (1992) Los Angeles and the anti-tra- les, 23 November, p. A8. dition of the suburban city, Journal of Histori- PULIDO, L. (2000) Rethinking environmental cal Geography, 18, pp. 121– 138. racism: white privilege and urban development LEHNING, P. B. (Ed.) (1998) Theories of Seces- in southern California, Annals of the Associ- sion. London: Routledge. ation of American Geographers, 90, pp. 12– 40. LEYNER, J. R. (1999) Letter to the Editor, Los ROBINSON, W. W. (1961) The Story of San Fer- Angeles Times, 20 June. nando Valley. Los Angeles, CA: Title In- LITTLEJOHN, D. and BRADY, C. (1999) Best-laid surance and Trust Company. plans going nowhere in San Pedro, Daily ROHRLICH, T. (1999) Calls for Prop. 13 revisions Breeze, 8 August. gain momentum, Los Angeles Times, 14 LIVINGSTON, D. W. (1998) The secession tradition March, p. A1. in America, in: D. GORDON (Ed.) Secession, SASSEN, S. (1991) The Global City: New York, State and Liberty, pp. 1–34. New Brunswick, London, Tokyo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni- NJ: Transaction Publishers. versity Press. Los Angeles Times (1999) Secession’s impact on SCHMIDTKE, O. (1996) Politics of Identity: Ethnic- minorities debated, Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan- ity, Territories, and the Political Opportunity uary, p. B4. Structure in Modern Italian Society. Sinzheim: MARTIN, H. (1997) Secession group may Ž nd Pro Universitate Verlag. breaking up is hard to do, Los Angeles Times SCHOCKMAN, H. E. (1996) Is Los Angeles govern- (Valley edn), 13 October, p. A1. able? Revisiting the city charter, in: M. DEAR, MARTIN, H. (1998a) More time sought for seces- H. E. SCHOCKMAN and G. HISE (Eds) Rethink- sion study effort, Los Angeles Times, 5 Febru- ing Los Angeles, pp. 57– 75. Thousand Oaks, ary, p. B3. CA: Sage Publications. MARTIN, H. (1998b) Valley survey indicates sup- SCHOCKMAN, H. E. (1997) Perspective on valley port for secession, Los Angeles Times, 17 secession: will law’s diverse backing stay in- March, pp. B1– B8. tact?, Los Angeles Times, 2 November, p. B19. MCGREEVY, P. (1999a) Council OKs $265 000 to SCHRAG, P. (1998) Paradise Lost: California’s study effects of breakup, Los Angeles Times, 18 Experience, America’s Future. Berkeley, CA: November, p. B3. University of California Press. MCGREEVY, P. (1999b) Riordan’s friends aided SCIORTINO, G. (1999) Just before the fall: the secession bid, Los Angeles Times, 18 Novem- Northern League and the cultural construction ber, p. B3. of a secessionist claim, International Sociology, MERL, J. (1999a) The power of occasional—or 14, pp. 321– 336. new—voters, Los Angeles Times, 4 April, SCOTT, A. (1988) Metropolis: From the Division pp. B1–B8. of Labor to Urban Form. Berkeley, CA: Uni- MERL, J. (1999b) Harbor’s high-stakes secession versity of California Press. bid, Los Angeles Times, 31 May, pp. B1–B3. SIEGEL, M. (1999) Council committee recom- MEYERSON, H. (1999) Cattle call: the race to mends funding secession study, City Watch, replace Richard Riordan—and to shape the fu- 1(4), 30 July. SECEDING FROM RESPONSIBILITY? 1731

SMITH, S. C. (1999) LAFCO appoints panel to TILLY, C. (1998) Social movements and (all sorts winnow consultants for secession study, Metro- of) other political interactions—local, national, politan News-Enterprise, 29 July, p. 8. and international—including identities. Several SOJA, E. W. (1989) Postmodern Geographies: divagations from a common path, beginning The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social with British struggles over Catholic Emanci- Theory. London: Verso. pation, 1780– 1829, and ending with contem- SOJA, E. W. (1996) Thirdspace: Journeys to Los porary nationalism, Theory and Society, 27, Angeles and other Real-and-imagined Places. pp. 453– 480. Cambridge: Blackwell. VALLEY STUDY FOUNDATION (1999) Applicant’s STARR, K. (1999) L.A. is refounded, and seces- Initial IdentiŽ cation of Needs for Data Collec- sionism lives, Los Angeles Times, 13 June tion, Ž led with the Los Angeles County Local (www.latimes.com/home/commun/reports/se- Area Formation Commission, 1 June. cede/T000000076.html). WAGNER, A. (1935) Los Angeles: Werden, Leben STEINER, H. (1998) Territorial justice, in: P. B. und Gestalt der Zweimillionenstadt in Suedkali- LeHning (Ed.) Theories of Secession, pp. 60– fornien. Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut. 70. London: Routledge. WALDIE, D. J. (1996) Holy Land: A Suburban STORPER, M. (1997) The Regional World: Terri- Memoir. New York: St Martin’s Press. torial Development in a Global Economy. New WALDIE, D. J. (1999) Forget earthquake, think York: Guilford Press.  ood: why Los Angeles is hostage to an ecol- TARROW, S. (1994) Power in Movement: Social ogy of denial, Los Angeles Times, 15 August, Movements and Contentious Politics. Cam- Book Review section, p. 3. bridge: Cambridge University Press. WILLON, P. (1998) Secession bid rooted in the TIEBOUT, C. (1956) A pure theory of local expen- ’70s, Los Angeles Times, 16 August, pp. B1– ditures, Journal of Political Economy, 64, B6. pp. 416– 424. WILTON, R. (1999) The social and spatial con- TILLY, C. (1978) From Mobilization to Revol- struction of disability. Unpublished PhD thesis. ution. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. University of Southern California.