Perry: New District Lines “Flat Out Politics”*

Today is the day many in City Hall have been waiting for — the Redistricting Commission released a draft of the new Los Angeles City Council districts boundaries, and of course there are winners and losers.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, who warned the public months ago that the redistricting process had been politicized, was drawn out of her own district. The Ninth District also lost most of downtown, Little Tokyo and Skid Row, while hanging onto the Staples Center/L.A. Live complex and picking up Watts, which had been in the Fifteenth District.

“We promised an open process — this hasn’t been an open process,” Perry said in an interview with The City Maven. “It’s flat out politics.”

Because the Ninth District was overpopulated, it was necessary to reduce its size. Perry said she had a deal with the Eighth District to return part of South Los Angeles to that district. Instead, the First and Fourteenth districts are picking up parts of the Ninth.

“It looks like the commission’s draft splits downtown into three, not two, districts,” Perry said. “It’s entirely inconsistent with a commitment to respect Latino majority districts and it certainly disregards what stakeholders said they wanted.”

The map will be discussed by commissioners at a 4 p.m. meeting at Van Nuys City Hall. Follow @TheCityMaven on Twitter for updates. In the meantime, here’s the quick and dirty rundown:

• West Hills will move from the Third District to the Twelfth
• Sunland-Tujunga will move from the Second District to the Seventh
• The Sixth District picks up Foothill Trails and Shadow Hills
• The Second District will pick up all of Studio City and Toluca Lake, which were previously part of the Fourth District
• Lake Baloba, Encino, Sherman Oaks, Bel-Air and the Hollywood/Highland complex move into the Fourth District
• The Fifth District loses its Valley neighborhoods, picking up Mid-City West, South Robertson and Greater Wilshire
• LAX will remain in the Eleventh District but part of Westchester moves to the Eighth District
• Koreatown will remain in the Tenth District
• Atwater Village, Glassesll Park, Rampart, Hollywood and Rampart remain in the Thirteenth District
• The First District picks up most of Highland Park

*Update 4:28 p.m.

Here is reaction from members of the Los Angeles City Council:

Councilman Dennis Zine, whose residence was drawn outside the new district lines:

This is the beginning of the review process and changes are sure to come. I am listening to the community and stakeholders before I take any position on the proposed maps. I care about keeping communities of interest intact, keeping neighborhood councils whole (to the greatest extent possible), and making sure that the Valley has as many whole districts as possible. I want the commission and the council to make common sense decisions that take the politics out of the process.

Councilman Tom LaBonge:

In the interest of the city as a whole, I’m very disappointed in the draft map released by the Redistricting Commission. The people of the Fourth District participated in the public hearings on redistricting, stating loud and clear the importance of neighborhood integrity, the balance of diversity and the political representation of communities of interest in Council District 4.  This draft redistricting map weakens the political representation of the Santa Monica Mountains, fractures the community of Hollywood among three council districts and dissolves the historic core of Council District 4 – the greater Wilshire area, including the Miracle Mile, Larchmont Village, Windsor Square, Pan Pacific Park and Park La Brea.  What disappoints me most is that the will of the people of the Fourth District was seemingly ignored by this important process.

I therefore encourage all interested residents and community leaders of the Fourth District to attend the upcoming public meetings on redistricting and make their voices heard unequivocally on keeping their neighborhoods and communities of interest together.

Draft of the new city council boundaries