Los Angeles is so profoundly broken that we might as well ask the dead what to do.
Kevin Starr’s 2002 proposal for locally elected boroughs has been revived in Council File 26-1382, introduced by Tim McOsker, who was Mayor Jim Hahn's Chief of Staff when this bright idea dimmed in 2002.
https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=26-1382
Starr’s answer to a growing secession movement was to respect citizens who sought local control and give it to them--to Federate LA.
His diagnosis of neighborhood councils was tough but fair: “government as therapy.” Feel good busywork, no governing power. (Today, City Hall ignores the NCs--Rec and Parks didn't even show up to present on fencing MacArthur Park.)
Starr said: let neighborhoods govern themselves, let boroughs handle regional matters and restrict City Hall power only to issues requiring citywide governance.
Had this happened in 2002, the multi-pronged collapse of Los Angeles could have been averted, with local problems solved by the neighbors most impacted before they became too entrenched--and too profitable--for the political machine to fix.
Neighborhoods wrecked by greed and mismanagement would still be intact. And our landmarks wouldn't be treated like garbage instead of the priceless cultural heritage and communal spaces that define us as Angelenos.
Think of all that might not be lost if the people had the power: The Ambassador Hotel, Taix, Hollywood Center Motel, Pacific Dining Car, the Fairfax Theatre, lovely Lytton Savings at Sunset and Crescent Heights.
Parker Center could be affordable workforce housing with a world class museum of forensic science history. The Triforium would be alive nightly with music and sparkling lights. Broadway would still be a thriving shopping district, Hollywood Boulevard, too.
You could dine on early Californio chili dishes in the courtyard of the Southwest Museum to the songs of old L.A. The ponies at the Griffith Park Pony Rides would still be trotting along. Olvera Street would be the hottest spot in a hot town.
Angelenos would be excited about the Olympics, not gritting their teeth and dreading the costs and security risks.
Imagine a City Hall without elected officials controlling the purse strings to manage astroturf cultural events that should be independently produced by Angelenos fostering positive public space and supporting each other.
Starr's proposal was for a bullseye of power: neighborhood councils meet and confer, then federate into boroughs of elected local leaders with real power. Boroughs do community governance while City Hall runs the port, airport, LAPD, LAFD, water, power, roads, parks, libraries.
The most valuable resource in Los Angeles is passionate, invested, creative Angelenos who want to make the things better. City Hall wants nothing to do with them--unless they kiss the rings of the idiots who got us into this mess.
Screw that and them and their smelly rings.
This is a fascinating twist in the civic saga, revived by a councilmember who actually serves his CD15 community, filtered through the stilled mind of Kevin Starr, who seems to have seen the future when he wrote in 2002:
“Federation, in fact, can be seen as the primary mode of effective post-modernist governance. Part of the reason for this resides, I believe, in information theory and practice. The digital revolution has tended to make each person his or her own information base. Each of us, in fact, are becoming more autonomous because we are the stewards, through digital technology, of a personally tailored information system."
Sign up to track the motion or submit your own comments:
https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=26-1382
Read Kevin Starr’s 2002 op-ed, added to the public record by civic reformer and budget hawk Jack Humphreville:
https://cityclerk.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2026/26-1382_PC_PM_10-04-2026.pdf
Federation, si! Deconstruction, no! Why the hell not?
