With the Los Angeles City Council redistricting process in high gear, another city-generated draft map to be released later today, and another Redistricting Commission meeting scheduled for Monday afternoon, the Hancock Park Homeowners Association entered the mapping debate yesterday with the submission of a new draft map that, unlike others considered so far, would place a united Greater Wilshire Council area in what would likely become a new version of CD 5, with other “communities of interest” to the west, rather than denser and more urban areas to the east as has been suggested in several draft maps previously reviewed by the Redistricting Commission.
HPHOA president Cindy Chvatal-Keane, who first suggested the CD 5 placement in a letter to the commission just before last Tuesday’s redistricting meeting, decided to make the suggestion more visual, collected input from neighborhoods in both the Greater Wilshire and other communities, and yesterday submitted to the commission a draft map she created illustrating the CD 5 proposal. And since then, several neighbors and neighborhoods have signed on to endorse the plan.
In a conversation with the Buzz this morning, Chvatal said her goal in creating the new map, and the proposal to move the Greater Wilshire area into CD 5 instead of CD 4 or 13, as has previously been discussed, was to unite the area with other communities that share similar characteristics (such as large Jewish communities, single family zoning, etc.), as well as to create a plan that follows the city’s population goals for city council districts, keeps neighborhood council areas across the city united as much as possible, and – as requested by both the Koreatown community and the redistricting commission in previous conversations – unites the Koreatown area within a single city council district.
Chvatal-Keane said that while working on the map, she sought input from various neighborhood and community of interest leaders, and that since she began circulating the submitted map last night, the response has been “very positive.” Chvatal-Keane said that in addition to submitting it to the redistricting commission via the Districtr public mapping tool, she has also begun circulating it via email to various neighborhoods and neighborhood leaders to drum up even more support, and urges anyone else who supports the plan to also contact the redistricting commission at [email protected], and/or to speak up in favor of it during the public comment period at the next redistricting meeting on Monday. (Note: because Monday’s meeting is officially a continuation of the meeting begun on Monday and Tuesday of last week, only people who did not speak during public comments at those sessions will be allowed to comment at this coming Monday’s meeting.)
So far, Chvatal-Keane says, although the map has only been circulating since last night, leaders from the Hancock Park Homeowners Association, Windsor Square Association, and Larchmont Village Neighborhood Association have endorsed the map, as have leaders from Upper Nichols Canyon, Laurel Canyon, the Hollywood Hills West area, and leadership of local Orthodox Jewish communities…and she expects more to sign on today.
Chvatal-Keane noted that she did have some technical trouble with the Districtr mapping tool while creating the map, so there are some imperfections, such as small spots here and there that didn’t get colored in completely within the larger districts they should be part of, and some areas at the edges of certain neighborhood council areas that may appear a bit more ragged than they should be (the goal was to follow neighborhood council boundaries in most places).
Chvatal-Keane said she also had trouble saving the base map, but that she submitted it manually to the redistricting commissioners, as well as through Districtr, so they will all be aware of it. And she said she invites people who would like to make their own version of the map, or to smooth out or adjust border lines in her map, to do so in Districtr, and to submit those maps to the city as well. To make adjustments and save and submit a new version of the map (officially map #53505 on Districtr), just go to http://districtr.org/plan/53505 , use the coloring tools in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and then click “Save” in the upper right hand corner of the page. You can also create tags and/or a title for your map, which can include a reference to the previous map that it’s based on. Each map submitted will receive a unique map number that can be shared and referenced.
And you can also still, of course, try your hand at creating a whole new map on Districtr, if you would like to test out any new mapping ideas you haven’t seen mentioned yet.
Meanwhile, yet another new draft redistricting map – based on a suggestion to unite the Greater Wilshire and Koreatown areas in a single city council district, which was made by redistricting commissioner Alexandra Suh at last Tuesday’s meeting – is scheduled to be released later today. We’ll provide more information about that plan on Monday.
The next meeting of the redistricting commission will be held on Monday, September 27, at 4 p.m., via Zoom.
