The persistent power of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, August 19 and it will be too hot out today.

Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman will face off against each other on a debate stage tonight for the third time — but it won’t be much of a stage. They’ll be sitting in a nondescript senior center on Van Nuys Boulevard, likely in front of a large sign bearing the words: Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. 

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The first mayoral debate this year, back in May, was also hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. Meaning that after tonight, a single homeowners group from one Valley neighborhood will have hosted two-thirds of the mayoral debates in the nation’s second-largest city.

The Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association — or SOHA, as it’s frequently abbreviated — has long wielded outsize influence in Los Angeles politics, advocating for single-family neighborhoods, local control over land use and quality of life issues. 

SOHA and its late leader Richard Close played a pivotal role in the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, the ballot-measure-cum-political-earthquake that limited property tax increases. Close, who died in 2022, also led the unsuccessful 2002 effort to convince San Fernando Valley voters to secede from Los Angeles and form their own city.  

The San Fernando Valley is “bigger than Philadelphia. We’re bigger than so many other cities around the country. And yet institutionally, politically, it’s shocking how few organizations there are,” said Bob Hertzberg, a lawyer and former Speaker of the California State Assembly who represented the Valley for more than a decade. 

That leaves SOHA with a lot of clout, and its well-attended meetings draw the most powerful politicians in the city. Its newsletter, meanwhile, can reverberate around City Hall, despite the fact that it looks like it was laid out using Microsoft Word. This is not your average HOA.

Of course, the San Fernando Valley is vast and its demographics have grown more diverse and renter-heavy in recent decades. The version of the region SOHA embodies tends to look more like the suburban vision long associated with the Valley in pop culture. 

“They tend to be older, whiter, and wealthier than the rest of the city. But then again, so does Sherman Oaks,” said Stuart Waldman, who now leads the Los Angeles County Business Federation. 

“They do tend to be NIMBYs, but that’s their job, right? Their job is to benefit the homeowners of Sherman Oaks,” Waldman continued. (Matt Epstein, who took over as SOHA’s president after Close’s death, pushed back on the NIMBY characterization, saying his organization merely wanted the right types of affordable housing and arguing that no one wants “overdevelopment in their backyard.”)

As one savvy political insider put it, SOHA’s power is its platform: More than a hundred people typically show up in person to their monthly meetings, with far more attending on Zoom. And those people tend to be highly engaged voters. 

“When SOHA makes a statement, people pay attention,” the political insider said. Still, he questioned how much the organization can turn that voice into action, saying it was unclear how much they move the needle on policy, particularly as the City Council has moved left and renters have built political power. 

And some say the group’s clout may be waning. For much of recent history, L.A. local elections were held in odd years, with a small but passionate electorate that was older, whiter and more likely to own homes than the city at large. The election cycle was moved to even years in 2020, aligning it with national races. That has meant greater turnout, and a more diverse electorate, which has diminished homeowners’ outsize influence, though hardly eliminated it.

The group doesn’t endorse candidates, but its leaders make their feelings known. 

Both Bass and Raman will, to some degree, be walking into the lion’s den tonight. Epstein, the current president of SOHA, said the organization strives to work well with its elected leaders. But he spoke critically of Raman, who represents the area, saying the relationship had been like “knocking our heads into the wall.” He was also “not a huge fan” of Bass, he added, but described a more fruitful working relationship. 

Tonight’s debate, which is also co-sponsored by the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council and Sherman Oaks/Encino Chamber of Commerce, will begin at 7 p.m. You can stream live or listen on LAist 89.3.

After the debate ends, L.A. Material members can virtually join my colleagues Jessica Garrison and Matt Hamilton for a live discussion and post-debate analysis at 8:45 p.m. Matt will be in the debate room tonight, joining the Zoom after from our state-of-the-art mobile office (his parked car).

ABC VS THE FCC: ABC sued the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday, arguing — as the Associated Press reports —  that the agency’s demand for early review of its broadcast licenses years before they are set to expire poses an “existential threat” to the TV network.

THE AMMONIA QUESTION: Lineage and the fire department said there was no ammonia leak as a cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights burned earlier this summer. But new information raises questions about that account, Capital & Main reports. 

READY, SET, GOOGIE: From Pann’s diner to the LAX Theme Building, Wallpaper put together a driving tour of L.A.’s remaining Googie landmarks. 

IT’S L.A. RESTAURANT WEEK. And these are the Dine LA deals that are actually worth it, according to The Infatuation.

For today’s peek inside our subscriber-only Discord server, @Nicole has a great snap in the #vanityplates channel. 

AND FINALLY… A poem to pair with your morning coffee: “Home Is so Sad” by Philip Larkin.

Enjoying this newsletter? Forward it to a friend. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.