That s an hour s drive to start. Then we have to convince council members from all over the city. Then you reach an impasse. Such frustration drove Brain to mount a successful campaign this past fall to persuade Governor Wilson to sign legislation allowing city neighborhoods to detach, without first getting the permission of their existing city councils. Next he ll try to get the more than 100,000 petition signatures necessary to get a regional advisory board to examine the issue, as required by law.
Brain expects the petition drive and then the secession vote to succeed.
And he believes that large parts of Los Angeles will follow suit, seeking to detach and incorporate on their own. The reason to believe that Brain and other incorporation and secession leaders are right begins with history even though the metropolitanists assert that history is on their side. Americans historically have supported the creation of more local governments, not fewer. Distinct ethnic and cultural groups established their own niches, as in the once dry towns of Pasadena and Compton, California, where Methodists for many years used local control to keep out alcohol. From 1952 to 1992, the number of municipalities grew from 16,807 to 19,279.