Plan Would Erase All-Business Town

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
NYT

VERNON, Calif. — Vernon is a bleak, 5.2-square-mile sprawl of warehouses, factories, toxic chemical plants and meat processors that looks like the backdrop for “Eraserhead,” the David Lynch movie set in an industrial wasteland. It has a population of 95 — and 1,800 businesses, drawn by low taxes, lax regulations and cheap municipal power.

It also has a history of corruption and public malfeasance going back nearly 50 years.

But now, this industrial city two miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles is fighting for its very survival.

Vernon has become the center of a vast and costly power struggle, as state officials have embarked on an extraordinary campaign to legally abolish the city and make it part of Los Angeles County. John A. Pérez, the Democratic speaker of the State Assembly, is the chief sponsor of legislation to disincorporate Vernon. He described it as a shell city created to enrich municipal officials and businesses at the expense of the struggling, lower-middle-class communities that surround it.

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