During a lengthy and very detailed mapping meeting on Monday, September 27, the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission focused largely on adjustments to its latest set of draft maps, known as Draft Plan K Corrected. During the session, the group heard from large number of constituents, some of whom (including several from our own Greater Wilshire area) spoke strongly in favor of Draft Plan K Corrected as the best option presented so far…and even more who spoke in opposition to specific aspects of the Plan K maps. After those comments, the commissioners spent several hours trying to address the specific points of contention, and the result is the new Draft Plan K2, which was issued by the commission yesterday, and which will be in the spotlight at the commission’s next meeting tomorrow (Thursday, September 30, starting at 5 p.m.).
In addition to the new Draft Plan K2, the city also yesterday issued a new Draft Plan L, which presents a new version of a publicly submitted map, Map #54277, which Redistricting Commissioner Alexandra Suh recommended at Monday’s meeting. Suh, who has advocated at the last couple of meetings for the inclusion of both the Greater Wilshire and Koreatown neighborhoods in a single city council district, as well as for a more traditional formation for City Council District 4 – including parts of Miracle Mile, Hollywood, Los Feliz and Silverlake – has expressed her dissatisfaction with Draft Plan K Corrected, because it moves Miracle Mile and Greater Wilshire into what would likely be CD 5, moves Koreatown into what would likely be CD 10, and separates Los Feliz and Silverlake from Griffith Park. Suh has contended that these divisions will separate and disenfranchise the large number of renters who live in these key parts of the city.
Draft Plan K2
Draft Plan K2 is a revision of the Draft Plan K Corrected map that was reviewed in great detail at the most recent redistriction commission meeting on Monday. At first glance, the two Draft Plan K maps look fairly similar, but a number of specific details have changed, at the request of both the redistricting commissioners and members of the public who testified at Monday’s meeting. For example, as shown in the shaded circle areas above, Draft Plan K2 moves the Palms and Beverlywood borders along the southern part of the District K/J border to reunite a piece Beverlywood with the rest of that community. It also moves Bel Air and parts of Beverly Crest from District O to District J. Further east, it moves and reunites Eagle Rock in District B. It adjusts the border between Districts G and L to keep Thai Town and Historic Filipinotown together…and it brings Echo Park into District G.
For the Greater Wilshire area, the change is subtle, but the small change makes the difference between a mostly united neighborhood council area in Draft Plan K Corrected, and a fully united neighborhood council area in Draft Plan K2, as shown below.
Draft Plan L
Draft Plan L is a slightly smoother version of publicly submitted Map #54277, which was recommended at Monday’s meeting by Redistricting Commissioner Alexandra Suh, who had asked to see a map plan that unites the Greater Wilshire and Koreatown areas in a single district, but wasn’t satisfied with other details of Draft Plans I and J, which were the city’s first response to her request. Suh said she was disappointed that Draft Plans I and J would split up the Los Feliz, Silverlake, and Koreatown neighborhoods into different districts, effectively disenfranchising the large community of renters in those and adjacent areas.
So the new Draft Plan L keeps most of Greater Wilshire and all of Koreatown in District O, along with longtime CD 4 areas Griffith Park, Los Feliz and Silverlake. And – unlike Draft Plan K2 – Draft Plan L’s new district O would not include any San Fernando Valley neighborhoods.
Draft Plan L will also be reviewed in detail at Monday’s redistricting meeting, but although it was released just yesterday, there has already been some public outcry against it.
For example, the Hancock Park Homeowners Association, which endorsed the Draft Plan K Corrected map at Monday’s meeting and has campaigned hard in the last week to unite the full Greater Wilshire area with other communities of interest to the west in district J, sent out an e-mail to the community this morning, saying “Plan L cynically keeps Greater Wilshire (50K population) together, but pairs us with Park La Brea, a massive reconfigured Koreatown (120K population), Los Feliz and Silver Lake, to form a Council district of renters.” The email urges neighbors to attend Thursday’s meeting to speak in favor of Draft Plan K2, and in opposition to Plan L.
Another group called Laurel Canyon United is also objecting to Draft Plan L in a big way, because it splits hillside neighborhoods between two districts (which Draft Plan K2 does not). That group is planning a peaceful, COVID-safe protest this evening at 5 p.m. at the Laurel Canyon Country Store.
And we’ve heard complaints from folks in the United Neighborhood Neighborhood Council area that Draft Plan L, unlike Draft Plan K2, would move the eastern boundary of District H (likely CD 10) from its longtime location at Normandie Ave. west to Gramercy Ave., dividing both the UNNC and Harvard Heights-Western Heights HPOZ areas into two different city council districts, bisecting the Western Heights, Angelus Vista, and Country Club Park neighborhoods in UNNC territory, and separating all of the the Harvard Heights and West Adams Heights-Sugar Hill neighborhoods from the rest of UNNC territory and their longtime home in CD 10
Finally, instead of uniting the Greater Wilshire area in a single city council district, as Draft Plan K would (and as the GWNC has requested), the GWNC area, under Plan L, would be divided among three different city council districts (H, O, and G), as shown below.
Tomorrow’s Meeting
The next meeting of the City Council Redistricting Commission will take place tomorrow, Thursday, September 30, at 5 p.m. via Zoom.
Public comments will be taken at the meeting, but only for a limited time, so if you wish to speak, be sure to log in and raise your hand early. Also, written comments can still be emailed to the commission at [email protected].
Finally, if you would like to watch the last meeting in this series, during which the Plan K changes were discussed, the video is now available here.
Break off Larchmont from Hancock Park and Windsor Square and that will be the death of our lovely village. There should be no balance in opposing the clandestine motives by the usual suspects including likely the paused recall council person that came from the clouds. The publications of Larchmont including the Buzz and the Chronicle are in denial. Your hedges overwatered lawns and pedestrian way of life are under siege too. WAKE UP. The fact that you don’t call out foul redistricting play in the 11th hour is egregious. PRINT IT!