🚀 go-pugleaf

terrier@hydrant.gov (Mikhail Dubrofkin) wrote:

>>>>One of the most striking differences between New York and LA is that
>>>>here is very much a sense of shared destiny: Good, bad or indifferent,
>>
>Er, um wasn't there a proposal by people in Staten Island to secede? I doubt 
>that there are any cities where there aren't NIMBY's and people who feel that 
>the problems of their outer or unfashionable neighborhoods in favor of the more 
>visible areas, such as the places with the bank skyscrapers. Even in relatively 
>small San Francisco, you will find the neighborhood versus downtown issues, 
>with people in Chinatown complaining that they have been cut off from tourist 
>traffic by the tearing down of freeways damaged in the Loma Prieta Earthquake.

You're quite right, Mikhail. Staten Islanders have made succesh noises
from time to time. But Staten Island is New York's least populous
borough. I think, if anything, the Valley compares reasonably well to
Queens (I guess that leaves Hollywood to compare with Brooklyn, as
both have cultural histories and identities separate from the 'main
city'). Interestingly, much of SI's succesh fever heightened in the
80s, when crime and urban decay seemed likely to overwhelm New York.
Now, with crime dramatically reduced, the city clean and even the
subways safe, we hear little about SI succeeding.

LA's been through some hard times lately. While I'm no expert on
Valley history, I believe the last time successionism was seriously
proposed was in the late 50s, early 60s, and became part of what
propelled Sam Yorty into City Hall. The late 50s and early 60s also
witnessed depression and flight from Downtown and the decay of the
studio system in Hollywood. Succesh, in other words, seems to follow
the fortunes of the city at large, and it seems to be a tragically
short-sighted solution for those who would distance themselves from
the social and economic vissicitudes any large metropolis must
periodically undergo.

Andy Katz


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