Morning Briefs on a "Divided Los Angeles Political Machine" for Thursday

The convoluted political boundaries in a divided community.

Welcome to the morning after the unveiling of the first proposed redistricting map for the City of Los Angeles and the reaction? Where do we start? Lets spin the political bottle and it points at Downtown LA.

Downtown Developer Tom Gilmore.

One of the major redistricting battlegrounds in the weeks ahead will be Downtown LA where CD 14 Councilman Jose Huizar may expand his downtown territory at a cost to CD 9's Councilwoman Jan Perry. But not if Developer Tom Gilmore has is way, from the LA Times, "In downtown, developer Tom Gilmore said he was shocked that the redistricting panel proposed shifting Councilwoman Jan Perry’s district south, causing her to lose much of the city's central core.

“It’s so counter-intuitive,” said Gilmore, who praised Perry for her role in bringing redevelopment to the area and who said "downtown unity" is key to future growth. “You finally have a downtown that after 30 years is moving ahead. I really have to question why all this incredible gerrymandering is going on to fix something that isn’t broken."

Gilmore and other downtown leaders will appear with Perry at a rally Thursday to protest the changes, which would give Eastside Councilman Jose Huizar large parts of downtown". We should note that Gilmore and Councilman Huizar have had some differences in the past but Gilmore knows Councilman Huizar's "S.O.P." which should cause pause among other downtown leaders.

CD 11 City Councilman Bill Rosendahl.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl CLAERLY let everyone know how he felt about parts of Westchester being added to CD 8 of Councilman Bernard Parks. An "outrageous case of gerrymandering." 

Sunland-Tujunga Alliance Founder and former Mayor Sam Blogger Joe Barrett.

In the northern hinterlands of the City of Los Angeles, don't expect many in Lake View Terrace and Sunland-Tujunga to welcome CD 7 Councilman Richard AlarCON with open arms. Joe Barrett said members of his Sunland-Tujunga community would "flip out" over a plan to take it out of Councilman Paul Krekorian's district.

Koreatown Sign.

But by far yesterday, the most vocal group were the hundreds of Korean-Americans who attended the Redistricting Committee meeting yesterday in Van Nuys. They all spoke on being united in one council district, especially one that does not have a " number 10 designation".

“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. But more interesting is why the Korean Community wants nothing to do with City Council President Herb Wesson's CD 10.

But then it may be the same reason why some Downtown want nothing to do with CD 14. After all, the "real cost" of doing business in the City of Los Angeles is predicated on what council person controls the services of government.

Your thoughts ..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14.