In the sprawling Los Angeles City Council district that stretches from Sherman Oaks and Studio City to the horse country of Sunland-Tujunga, there is little admiration for the policymakers at City Hall.
So it is no surprise that the 10 candidates running to replace Wendy Greuel in Tuesday's special election have spent the last few months distancing themselves from "downtown interests" while striving to persuade voters they are best positioned to fight development that threatens the character of their neighborhoods and for the San Fernando Valley's "fair share" of services like street repairs and graffiti removal.
That has placed a premium on the candidates' roots in the 2nd Council District -- which has kept the two best-funded contenders, former Paramount Pictures Corp. executive Christine Essel and Assemblyman Paul Krekorian (D-Los Angeles), on the defensive.
Both moved into the district in May after Greuel won her race for city controller. Former mayoral candidate David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg also recently moved into North Hollywood, but he has been less of a target.
Essel, according to paperwork filed with the city, left what was listed in city zoning records as a four-bedroom home in the Sunset-Doheny hills for an apartment on a busy stretch of Laurel Canyon Boulevard where a school and a shopping plaza with a McDonald's are some of her closest neighbors.
The move by Krekorian, a former Burbank school board member, is so recent that his biography on his Assembly website still says he lives with his family in Burbank.
Both candidates grew up in the Valley and dismiss the criticism as irrelevant.
Essel has argued that her business experience over three decades at Paramount would help her lead efforts to expand the job base in the San Fernando Valley.
Krekorian, a lawyer who sent voters a mailer bearing his Northridge Junior High school identification card as evidence of his bona fides, said at a recent Valley Village forum that he was running to provide better representation for residents at "a city hall that doesn't know the Valley exists."
But in a race with visible neighborhood advocates including Mary Benson of Sun Valley, Michael McCue of Studio City and Pete Sanchez of Valley Village, their rivals have continually returned to the residency issue.
