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Redistricting & CD10 The Shape of Things to Come

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Category: Community News

Published on Tuesday, 07 February 2012 21:50

Written by Dianne Lawrence

The Current CD10 Boundaries

The Proposed 1st Draft.

In an effort to obtain fair and equitable representation for the residents of Los Angeles, the City Charter requires that each council district contain the same number of residents. Every 10 years the city uses the Census Bureau’s count of the total population of Los Angeles, and divides it by 15, the number of council districts in the City. The resulting number will determine the changes in the shape of districts as they shift borders to accommodate the new numbers.

The current total number of residents in the city of Los Angeles is 3,792,621 which means each district must now contain 252,841 residents. Our Council District 10 currently falls below this number with only 240,450 residents (interestingly this is less than the 243,989 residents who lived here in 2000) so the boundaries that define our district are up for change as we shape shift to add another 12,391 residents.

The process starts with the creation of a 21 member Redistricting Commission who spent January travelling around the city to listen to the voice of the people.  January 25 they released the first draft to the community (inspiring shock and awe among several Councilpeople and residents) and will hold a series of meetings in February for feedback. By March 1st, the commission must submit their final recommendation to the City Council for consideration.  But there are some flies in the ointment. One is the way in which members are appointed. Unlike the State’s voter created Redistricting Commission, the Los Angeles Redistricting Commission members are assigned by city council members. It is not a stretch to imagine that the interests of the councilpeople who appointed them are not far from the minds of the commission members as they listen to the earnest pleas of residents stepping up to the mike at community meetings.  The next fly? Once the commission has presented their final draft to the City at the beginning of March, the City Council will then debate for 4 months and vote on a decision by July 1st. The City Council can in fact, disregard the recommendations altogether as they try to maneuver their own agendas into place over the 4 month debate period potentially reducing the work of the Commission and the input of concerned citizens to mere window dressing.  One of the several reasons Councilwoman Jan Perry gave for resigning her post as the City Council president pro tempore, was her displeasure at discovering backroom efforts by Council members to begin redrawing the maps before the Redistricting Commission had even been set up.

“There are allegations that maps have already been drawn and seen before the executive director position was even filled” and  “In recent months, I have felt that we have drifted away from the kind of openness and frank discussion that has characterized this council, especially as it pertains to the future of council leadership, [there was concern about closed door jockeying for the Council President leadership.  CD 10’s Councilman Herb Wesson was eventually voted into the spot]  the council as an institution, and the future design for council districts.” and  “These important issues should be discussed in the public record,” she insisted. She may have reason to be concerned. When the first draft was recently released to the public, downtown area District 9, which she represented, had been stripped of much of the primary economic wealth and commercial property and growth which she had helped shepherd during her term and the district was restricted to a primarily low income area. “That’s old school patronage politics,” Perry said, “which is ‘I’m going to punish you and take away your assets and then nobody will pay any attention to you or you wont be able to get anything done.’” Perry believes that the punishment comes from the new President of the City Council, Herb Wesson, whom she didn’t support for the position of President and feels convinced that he cut a backroom deal with the commission. Wesson also removed Perry from her post as Chairwoman of the Energy and Environment committee where she has opposed the Mayors efforts to raise utility rates and hasbeen replaced with someone more favorable. His spokesperson denies the accusation and the Vice Chair of the commission, Jackie Dupont-Walker insisted that no pre-existing maps were involved. “We have kept this process as transparent as possible.”  But Commissioner Helen Kim complained that Board agreements to table the valley discussions were ignored by members who went ahead and held private meetings closed to other members, and created the Valley borders that shaped the rest of the map.

There are also other considerations that are supposed to be taken into account when boundaries are redrawn. According to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Los Angeles City Charter, “communities of interest” must be kept intact as much as possible in the City Council Districts. The City Attorney defines a community of interest as one that “may share a common culture or language”.  Right now about half of the 15 districts in Los Angeles have an Hispanic majority yet only four city council members are Hispanic and although 15% of the population is Asian or Pacific Islander there are none representing any district on the City Council. So when the first draft was released January 25 there was loud cry of foul from the Korean community.

At the January 3rd community meeting for Council District 10, 10 members of the 21 member Commission met with residents at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center to hear their concerns. The house was full and approximately 50 people got up to speak. What stood out immediately was the strong Korean presence, providing at least half of the speakers who, along with members of the Korean community holding signs, encouraged the panel to consider unifying the Korean/Asian community which is now divided among council districts, 1, 4, 10, and 13. They felt this diluted their voice and effectiveness. Interestingly, Koreatown residency is actually 54% latin and 32% Asian, so Asians still represent a large voting block and of course Asian businesses predominate.

Although Redistricting Commissioner Helen B. Kim, a respected attorney, leader of L.A.’s Korean American community and the commission’s controller, did not attend this particular meeting, she has been quoted as saying  “One of the most affected areas during the 1992 riots was Koreatown and the area was being represented by four different council members. How can you assign responsibility when you have four people pointing fingers at each other? When a community is divided, like Koreatown is into four districts, they feel that their vote is being diluted.” This position was repeated over and over by speakers at the CD10 community meeting.

Just as Google searches bring up a variety of  Koreatown boundaries, there were a variety of suggested  new boundaries.  Joanna Lee, a research analyst at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center submitted several maps showing different borders defined by the LAPD Olympic Division, the Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council (WCKNC) and the official City boundary designations, which contained the smallest area.  She encouraged the Commission to use the WCKNC borders. Although the borders presented in the first draft extended the old boundary at 6th up to 3rd, encompassing more of Koreatown within CD10 , many in the community felt it still left Koreatown divided. Others were hoping to be moved out of CD10.  “When you neglect the Asian community, when you talk about every other ethnic group and yet you forget a population that is 15 percent of this community, it’s hurtful,” said Grace Yoo, executive director of the Korean American Coalition. “We are going to continue to bring our people out, and don’t think that we’re going to be as kind in the process. We’re playing not with just moving parts here, but you’re really moving people’s lives.” During the commision meetng Jan. 25, where a vote to present the first draft to the public took place, Commissioner David Roberts chastised the commission. He reminded them that Koreans typically do not stick their necks out, so to have 100’s rally and show up at the meetings, seniors, business owners, mothers, meant the issue was very important to them. To have their concerns dismissed as the new boundaries have done was hurtful and damaging to the credibility of the Commission.

Neighborhood Councils and associations are also identified as “communities of interest” with an encouragement to keep them intact.  John Gresham and Owen Smith from the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council (GWNC), expressed concern, at the Nate Holden meeting, about the area the GWNC currently represents, which is divided among districts 4, 5 & 10.  They also felt that some in Koreatown may be overreaching by asking for a western border that pushes into GWNC territory. They were pleased to discover the new draft accomodated their wish to be unified and they ended up in CD 5. Steve Wallis from Harvard Heights told the commission that in the last redistricting effort the Harvard Heights Neighborhood Association had been divided into 2 council districts. He asked that they be reunited, and in the draft they are fully in CD10.

Berham Astan from Little Ethiopia commented that although her community is only four blocks long they are also divided in two with the east side of Fairfax in one district and the west side in another. Their northern border is Olympic.  The simple act of moving the borderline west to the alley behind the businesses would have allowed for a unified Little Ethiopia, giving business owners a voice in one Council District. This didn’t happen in the first draft and the border remains the same.

Armen Ross from Lafayette Square and Melinda Abdullah from Wellington Square encouraged the commissioners to keep Lafayette Square, Wellington Square and Victoria Circle intact citing their historic value and multi-ethnic makeup. They have remained well within the CD10  borders.

Damien Goodman, the elected co-chair of the Empowerment Congress West Area Neighborhood Development Council, which includes the communities of Baldwin Village, Baldwin Vista, Baldwin Village Green, Baldwin Hills, Crenshaw Manor, and Leimert Park and Clint Simmons from the West Adams Neighborhood Council also requested that divisions within their communities be eliminated.  After viewing the 1st draft Damien felt the effort had failed. He commented “The current district lines make no sense. They divide communities. The West Adams - Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw community belongs in one Council District. Any attempt to divide us is an attempt to dilute our ability to pick candidates of choice and hold our politicians accountable once in office.”

It’s been said that redistricting is politics at its ugliest. The howl that arose from residents and some councilpeople alike at this first rough draft contained accusations of back room politicking, land grabbing and the lack of a genuine response to community concerns.   Commission President Arturo Vargas, an appointee of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, told audience members in Van Nuys that the proposal was “a very rough draft” that would be vetted during seven upcoming hearings.

“This is definitely a work in progress, and I can assure everybody in the city that the final product of this commission will not be the same product,”

for more information go to:   www.redistricting2011.lacity.org

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