Redistricting: Unite Hollywood in a Single District? Or Continue to Divide it?

Tomorrow, Monday, January 9th, the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission will hold its third, and final, public hearing in the Hollywood area to gather input regarding the formation of the new City Council district boundaries. The public hearing will be held at Los Angeles Community College (855 N. Vermont Avenue), in the Theater, from 6:30PM-9:30PM. See this flyer (.pdf) for more info.

This public hearing is the 14th of 15 public hearings scheduled by the Redistricting Commission. Following the completion of this “first round” of public hearings, the Redistricting Commission is scheduled to “tour the City” on January 14th; hold more hearings on January 17th and 18th for “organized groups” to present any maps they have prepared; and, unveil its first draft Council District map on January 25. Once the Redistricting Commission issues its first draft Council District map, it is tentatively scheduled to hold a second round of public hearings starting February 1st. The Redistricting Commission is required develop a redistricting plan and submit its plan to the City Council by no later than March 1, 2012. The City Council is required to adopt a final redistricting plan no later than July 1, 2012.

Hollywood Patch filed a report on last Wednesday’s public hearing, which was held at Friendship Auditorium, and noted that a number of Hollywood residents spoke in favor of uniting Hollywood in one Council District:

Most of the speakers at Wednesday's hearing had ties to the Armenian community or were connected to Koreatown. About a half-dozen were Hollywood residents who spoke about uniting Hollywood under one council district. 

Hollywood resident Joyce Dyrector was among those speakers.

“It’s very difficult to deal with development or other things going on a block away from you if you’re in a different council district,” Dyrector said. “I really would appreciate it if you would really look at it and keep Hollywood together under one council district. It would make it so much easier for neighbors to deal with development and everything going on in Hollywood.”

Valorie Keegan, a resident of Spaulding Square, pointed out that having several council districts represented in Hollywood, including Council Districts 4, 5 and 13, is causing conflicts between area businesses and the surrounding neighborhoods. She said these could be avoided if the commission would “possibly bring back Hollywood together.”

Of course, not all members of the Hollywood community share the view that the entire community should be united in one single Council District. Last Friday Hollywood Patch reported that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is “urging its 900 members” to support the current Council District boundaries. From the story:

“Our position is that the business district should remain as it has for 20 successful years,” Leron Gubler, president and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, said. “It has worked well to have the core business district remain under the guidance of one councilman familiar with the area.”

To me, this issue – whether or not all of Hollywood should be represented in a single Council District – is the primarily, fundamental, question that Hollywood residents and stakeholders need to speak out on. Two thoughts on this issue:

1. If the Redistricting Commission decides to unite all of Hollywood in a single City Council District where should the boundaries of “Hollywood” be drawn? Even at its broadest imaginable definition, Hollywood doesn’t have enough residents to constitute its own Council District (each Council District should have about 252,847 persons); so what other communities should be included in a Council District with Hollywood? Silver Lake and Echo Park? Atwater Village? Fairfax and Mid-Wilshire? Koreatown? Studio City? North Hollywood and Toluca Lake?
2. If the Redistricting Commission decides to continue to divide Hollywood into multiple City Council Districts, then where should those divisions be drawn? Would it be appropriate to divide the community along Neighborhood Council boundaries? School District boundaries? LAPD Bureau boundaries? Separate the commercial and business core from the single-family residential neighborhoods? The hillside communities from the flats? Central Hollywood from East Hollywood? East Hollywood from Los Feliz and Franklin Hills? 

Etc., Etc., Etc.

Again, to me, the question of whether or not to divide up Hollywood is the critical one. At this point in time, I don’t really see the advantage in dividing Hollywood up in multiple Council Districts (I’ll post more on that later). In any case, if you have any thoughts on how the City should be redistricted now is the time to speak up. Redistricting only happens once every 10 years, so Hollywood residents and stakeholders should take advantage of any and every opportunity to speak up and tell the Redistricting Commission how they define their community and where the future Council District boundaries should be set.