CD 4 Announces New “Conversations” Series and More Informal Neighborhood Meetups

Yesterday, City Council Member Nithya Raman announced a new series of district-wide “Conversations,” conceived as “monthly discussions on a pressing issue facing our district,” in which she’ll be joined by an expert in the field for a brief talk, followed by a Q&A session open to the community. The first of these events will be held this coming Tuesday, May 6, at 6 p.m., and will feature John Maceri, CEO of the People Concern, speaking about homelessness.  (Sign up for the event here if you’d like to participate.)

In addition to the Conversation events, Raman’s note also invited CD4 residents to participate in a new series of more informal bimonthly neighborhood-based discussions, hosted by her office’s Field Managers.  The announcement provided the schedule for the first round of these events, and said more will be scheduled soon.

Almost as soon as the announcement was sent out, however, the Buzz received several queries from area readers who noted that Koreatown was included in the event list, but our local Greater-Wilshire-area neighborhoods (Hancock Park, Larchmont Village, Windsor Square, etc.) were not.  And the city’s official boundaries for Koreatown are 3rd Street, Vermont Ave., Olympic Blvd., and Western Ave., with a small jog west to Wilton along Wilshire Blvd…so it lies almost entirely in CD 10, not CD4.

We passed the comments on to Raman’s communications director, Jesse Zwick, who responded that, “As Koreatown has continued to grow, many Korean-American (and non-Korean American) inhabitants of Koreatown have spilled out beyond its traditionally defined borders. Anyone in CD4 who identifies as an inhabitant of Koreatown or a stakeholder in issues concerning that general geographic region, or who lives in the vicinity, would be most welcome to attend.”

Zwick also noted that Raman’s invitation did clarify that the meetups listed are just the first group in a larger series, so “if you don’t see your neighborhood listed, don’t panic! In order to keep the conversations local, we’ll be rotating locations over a period of 2 months before starting the cycle over again.”  And he assured local residents that “Greater Wilshire, along with many parts of Hollywood, will be the focus of meetings in June!”