Thank you for your excellent series of articles (“Valley Power Brokers,” Oct. 11). One exception: in your article (“Valley’s Most Influentials: Limits to Power”), you say “the idea of an arts center, for instance, has been floating around the Valley for a decade…” Actually, we have been working for THREE decades, actually since 1971, to build an arts center in the Valley. That year, Dodo Meyer and Jane Boeckmann founded the SFV Arts Council, which ultimately led to the creation of the Cultural Foundation. From 1981-1996, Bert Boeckmann, Dodo Meyer (Mayor Bradley’s Valley chief deputy), and I led the Cultural Foundation in an effort to build a major performing arts center, called ARTSPARK LA in the Sepulveda Basin. I spent five years writing and rewriting the EIR for the project. The project ultimately failed because the downtown bureaucracy refused to let the project happen by refusing to approve the EIR, because the community opposed building major facilities in the mid-Valley, and because nobody was willing to put up sufficient money or political clout to overcome these obstacles. The downtown establishment and their bureaucracy’s refusal to support a performing arts center in the Valley was indicative of the grievances that led to the secession movement. If you really want to know if the Valley is to this day getting any respect from downtown, ask Eli Broad if he is willing to put big money into a Valley performing arts center. Thanks to Bob Voit, Lou Bredlow, the Valley Cultural Center, and the Cultural Foundation we do have a very nice venue in Warner Center, and I think that should also be noted. A personal opinion: it may be great that we have two efforts in the Valley to build a major performing arts center, but based on the history of the last thirty years and my knowledge of the Valley and the points you raised in your articles, there is no way the Valley will support building two centers. Again, thanks for some great articles on the Valley. Ross Hopkins, Ph.D. Sherman Oaks
