This Proposed Map Shows What LA City Council Districts Could Look Like For The Next Decade

After many hours of public comment and debate that wore well into Thursday night, the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission is at least one step closer to redrawing the city council lines that will define L.A. politics for the next decade.

Despite presenting and hearing public comment on two different configurations of the city’s 15 council districts, the commission decided to advance one map — called “Draft Plan K2.5” — for the public’s comment and consideration. (You can view a more detailed version of the map – which allows you to zoom in on your own street – here, as provided by the commission. We've also embedded a copy at the bottom of this story).

Much of the virtual meeting — which lasted more than five hours — was spent debating this decision, and whether the commission should put forth two maps for the public’s feedback.

On that, the 21-member commission was divided. (The commission is comprised of appointees from each of the city council districts, as well as by the mayor’s office, city controller, and the city attorney.)

“To go forward with two maps is a serious process mistake,” commissioner Rocky Delgadillo, who was appointed by CD5 councilmember Paul Koretz, argued Thursday night. “It will take us off the edge. I don’t know if we’ll get our job done,” he said, pointing to the commission’s looming deadline to get a recommendation to the city council.

“Of course we have to come to a map at the end,” said CD4 councilmember Nithya Raman’s appointee Alexandra Suh. “But we are not there, and K and L together enable us to have the richest conversation and the best hope for a map that works better for everyone.”

After a flurry of confusing and conflicting motions and votes late into the meeting, the commission ultimately decided to put forward “Draft Plan K2.5” for the public to comment on in virtual hearings on Oct. 6, 9, 13, and 16. 

Comparing the current Los Angeles City Council districts to "Draft Map K2.5"

This is the current map of the Los Angeles city council districts, as determined during the redistricting process in 2011.

(Screenshot of Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission)

Draft Plan "K2.5" was the draft map the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission voted to advance for public feedback in the redistricting process.

(Screenshot of Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission draft map)

While a majority of the commission members rejected Draft Plan L, they also recognized that the plan they advanced has its own flaws. So, they asked staff to attach a list of lingering issues still remaining in Draft Plan K2.5 that the commission would like the public to focus their comments on.

Some of those lingering questions, as summed up by the commissioners, include:

• How to divide up “economic assets and cultural engines” — such as USC, Exposition Park, as well as museums and stadiums — between Council districts 8 and 9 
• Where to place some or all of Lincoln Heights. Many public commenters said the neighborhood would like to be in the same district as similar communities such as Boyle Heights and El Sereno.
• How to figure out which region will become Council District 2 (currently represented by Paul Krekorian) and which would become Council District 4 (currently represented by Nithya Raman), as those two districts, as proposed, are radically different from their current configurations. The commission’s chair, Fred Ali, said Thursday night that he’d like to leave that decision up to the city council. For now, the draft plan labels one of the regions as “2-or-4” and the other as “4-or-2.”
• How Asian communities feel about the map.  The draft plan does unite Koreatown, a goal of activists after it was split up last time the city redistricted 10 years ago. It does so in CD10, but members of the public from Thai Town and Historic Filipinotown expressed preference for a different map that would keep their neighborhoods whole and together, too. 
• How the Armenian community feels about the map as currently drawn
• How renters are distributed throughout the map
• How the map divides districts in the San Fernando Valley

Here’s an interactive version of Draft Plan K2.5 in more detail (zoom in to find your neighborhood), as posted on the commission's mapping page:

And here's the report on Draft Plan K2.5 and each individual district in it, as provided by the commission's consultants, Redistricting Partners.

The commission is expected to make its recommendations for the city council’s consideration by the end of the month.