City Council Set to Redraw L.A.'s Maps

The Los Angeles City Council's Rules, Elections, and Intergovernmental Relations Committee on Friday will vote on a final redistricting plan, which faces a possible lawsuit by Council Members Jan Perry and Bernard Parks, who argue that any significant redrawing of the borders segregates voters into districts on a racial basis.

The redistricting plan includes two key changes to district boundaries in Northeast Los Angeles. This latest plan—created by the city's Chief Legal Analyst Office in conjunction with the City Attorney's Office—comprises 18 adjustments to the map .

Two of those alterations—D and F—would have a direct impact on Northeast Los Angeles.

Through Amendment D, the northern portion of Highland Park, including the economically resurgent portion of , would remain in Council District 14. Previously proposed maps had moved that portion of the neighborhood into CD 1.

Glassell Park’s Future

Amendment F would split the hillside neighborhood of Glassell Park between CD 13, 14 and 1.

The district is currently split between council Districts 13 and 1, and many residents were hoping they would be united in Council District 1 through the passage of Amendment G, which had critical population data errors.

Bill Rumble, a Mount Washington resident and member of the Mount Washington Association, also spoke in favor of Amendment G at previous meeting of the redistricting commission—specifically because it would unite the neighborhoods of Cypress Park, Glassell Park and Mount Washington.

"Mount Washington and Glassell Park are united in the Mount Washington-Glassell Park Specific Plan. Cypress Park and Glassell Park are united in the community design overlay plan," Rumble said. "This is a river-oriented community and all three communities should be kept together in one."

Bradley, the chairman of the Glassell Park Neighborhood Council who uses one name, told Patch that Amendment F would "fracture" the neighborhood, causing it to be marginalized by three separate council districts.

"The policy of council districts is to funnel discretionary funds into communities that are visible, vocal and viable," he said. "It's hard to create a unified community when you're split between so many council districts. How can you guide your future when you're not unified?"

Legal Battle Expected

Meanwhile, Council Members Perry and Parks, who represent CD 9 and CD 8 respectively, are expected to file a lawsuit in the L.A. Superior Court as well as the federal court, challenging the city’s new borders.

Earlier this month, Nathan Lowenstein, an attorney for Perry and Parks, informed City Attorney Carmen Trutanich that in his clients’ view, the redrawn borders are illegal because they violate the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

“Should the City Council adopt the Redistricting Commission’s plan, or one that is substantially similar to it, the end result will almost certainly be needless litigation,” Lowenstein wrote in a March 5 email to Trutanich, according to Perry’s office. (See the attached PDF for details of Perry’s and Park’s notice to the City attorney about possible litigation.)

The letter came a day before Perry's and Park's assistant chief of staff, Mike Hernandez, failed to get the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council to pass a resolution supporting the two Council members' demand to delay the Redistricting vote.

According to the latest maps, all of Downtown except for the Convention Center and L.A. Live would move from Perry’s district to ’s CD 14, which already stretches from Downtown all the way to Boyle Heights and Eagle Rock.

Huizar has repeatedly pointed out during the Redistricting debate that Downtown stakeholders have long expressed a desire to come under a single district, which would be both economically and politically beneficial to the area.