San Fernando Valley Neighborhoods Unite to Oppose LA City Council redistribution of the map – Daily News

In the San Fernando Valley, the battle to redistribute the city of Los Angeles comes to a head, but in an unexpected way.

The commission overseeing the redrawing of the political boundaries for the Los Angeles City Council boroughs will hold its fourth and final public hearing on Draft Map K2.5, representing the location of the 4th and 2nd counties, represented by Councilor Nithya Raman ., would change significantly or Paul Krekorian.

The card drew strong reactions almost immediately. Raman was elected to office on a historic coat of arms of support last November, and some of those supporters have called the draft card a “backdoor recall,” incited by those in the 4th district who were unhappy with the election results.

Raman now represents a district that spans several parishes in LA, including the Valley:

• • Sherman Oaks and Toluca Lake in the valley,
  • Hollywood and the Hollywood Hills area
  • the Wilshire area through which the Miracle Mile runs, and
  • Communities like Los Feliz that are overlooked by Griffith Park.

Under what is known as Card K2.5, Raman could be lifted in whole or in part from communities she now represents to those she is less familiar with, with three years remaining in her four-year term.

This map design would either move Raman to a district:

• That’s entirely in the West San Fernando Valley to represent the communities of Canoga Park, Winnetka, Reseda, Lake Balboa, and Van Nuys, or
• one in the East Valley with North Hollywood, Studio City and Toluca Lake as well as Griffith Park and the Hollywood Hills.

It is still unclear which area Raman would ultimately represent as the commission has not yet decided where she and Krekorian should be allocated. The two proposed districts – one in the West Valley and the other in the East Valley – are still referred to as “2 or 4” and “4 or 2”, with the numbers representing the Krekorian and Raman districts.

The commission has so far sided with supporters of the card configuration in the Valley, including residents of Sherman Oaks, which is now in the 4th district represented by Raman. The draft of the K2.5 map would take Sherman Oaks out of a district that stretches over the hill and move him to a district that is entirely within the San Fernando Valley.

Bob Anderson of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association spoke out in favor of the card on Wednesday, saying the K2.5 card draft would bring Sherman Oaks “into a single, compact, All-Valley Council District 3 including Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Encino” and Valley Village, ”he said.

“It offers a single valley-majority bridge district through the Cahuenga Pass,” he said. “Most importantly, the K 2.5 card gives the valley its fair share of districts – an initial redistribution.”

He also said the card was the product of several meetings. “No other map or new map has or will have a pedigree,” he said. “It’s too late for new cards.”

But a wave of opposition grew from several neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley this week, with growing discontent this week sparked by Reseda residents who said they were “excited” about the draft of the K2.5 map.

Most of Reseda’s residents are now in District 3, but under the K2.5 draft, they would be moved to the newly created district to be represented by either Raman or Krekorian.

Much of Reseda is now in a district represented by Alderman Bob Blumenfield, who is up for re-election next June. York said that if Reseda was in the 4th

Daryt Frank, president of the Reseda Neighborhood Council, said it felt like something “was going on”.

“Any way you look at it, that was just wrong,” he said.

The map design would also place Reseda in a district that has a high concentration of working-class neighborhoods with predominantly Latin American and Asian residents. The 3rd district, meanwhile, would have predominantly white residents who live in predominantly single-family neighborhoods, with the exception of planned densely populated areas such as the Warner Center.

This has raised fears that the wealthier residents of the 3rd political influence over developments in these important locations.

And so the Reseda Neighborhood Council held an emergency meeting on Tuesday October 12th to draft a damning statement against the card, calling it a “racist disenfranchising card, community assets from proposed renumbered District 2 or new.” numbered “removed district 4.”

“It would create a district with high levels of poverty and rents, which lacks green spaces and communal educational facilities and which racially and economically segregate historical communities from national cultural interests,” it said in their statement.

Jamie York, the neighborhood council secretary, said that although she initially feared that many of the Raman voters who voted her would be disenfranchised, she is also looking at the new card to give Reseda residents the vote withdraws and leaves the district in which they were created with little community assets.

“We have a very heterogeneous board that has a range of political opinions and it was unanimous to write the CIS (Community Impact Statement),” she said. “Everyone agreed that I wanted to make what I thought was an extremely strong statement because we are all really crazy about it.”

York read the statement before the Redistribution Commission at their third public hearing on Wednesday, only to see the Sepulveda Basin, which was the remaining asset in their proposed district, also removed, despite objections from Ramans. The newly appointed commissioner, Jackie Goldberg, was placed in the 3rd district.

This happened about four hours after the meeting. Jackie Goldberg, freshly appointed by CD4 councilor Raman, appealed. But the chairman of the commission, Fred Ali, stepped forward and said he had “felt a consensus”. It was quite a battle for the commission tonight. pic.twitter.com/xii0sWsQei

– Elizabeth Chou 🌊 🏖️ ☀️ 🌆 ⛰️ (@reporterliz) October 14, 2021

However, the Reseda Neighborhood Council is expected to bring allies on Saturday. York was among those citing an indictment last week that persuaded other Valley residents in separate neighborhoods to coordinate with one another to oppose the map. She answered a call from many gathered on a planning call convened by the West Valley People’s Alliance, a community group that formed in June 2020 amid the pandemic.

Last week, the Van Nuys, Woodland Hills, Greater Valley Glen, and North Hollywood neighborhood councils each approved statements of effect that also oppose the K2.5 card, each with their own concerns about the way the card is designed now the Valley’s configured Political Landscape.

The NoHo neighborhood council raised issues with the map dividing Armenian-American neighborhoods and diluting their power, while the Van Nuys neighborhood council wrote that their neighborhood would be divided into multiple wards, with part of their parish into one district to the West Valley, which they believed their community was different from them.

The Woodland Hills and Warner Center Neighborhood Council determined that the Warner Center represents a significant “economic interest” in the West Valley that would affect the surrounding communities that are already part of a “protection plan” under a land use plan that the new development heads in this area.

And the Greater Valley Glen parish council raised concerns that its parish would be split into three parish wards, with lines running through two areas where the parish council has been working to reach agreements over the past few years and months, including improving the green spaces along one Flood canal. The council also said they had less in common with communities like Canoga Park and the Hollywood Hills and worked much more with other surrounding neighborhoods involved in a “tiny home” project in North Hollywood aimed at helping the uninhabited temporary accommodation in the area.

“We need a representation that points to our existing community bonds,” it said in its statement.