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Koreatown Residents Blast L.A. City Council District Split

Ryan Faughnder |
February 1, 2012 | 10:06 p.m. PST

Executive Editor

The L.A. City Council Redistricting Commission (Ryan Faughnder)
The L.A. City Council Redistricting Commission (Ryan Faughnder)

Thirty-year-old attorney Ben Juhn works in Koreatown and, like many in the community, he is angry about the recently drafted map proposed by the L.A. City Council Redistricting Commission. The drafted borders, which must be approved and submitted by March 1, give most of Koreatown to Council President Herb Wesson’s 10th district, splitting it with the 13th.

This is not how Juhn wanted it to play out, and he spoke at the commission’s first of seven public hearings Wednesday night, saying the members had not listened to his community’s input. 

“It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “We’ve had 15 pre-draft hearings, and the Koreatown community came out to so many of those hearings and spoke. I think the process is flawed when you have all these public input hearings and you don’t take public input into account.”

Koreatown residents and businesspeople came out in droves to the Wilshire Ebell Theater to bash the proposed City Council redistricting map, many wearing sashes reading “Keep WCKNC [Wilshire Center-Koreatown Neighborhood Council] whole.” 

The draft map has sparked outcry from many communities and especially individual council members, many of whom would lose key constituents if the draft were adopted. The commission, which was appointed by members of City Council, has made most of the decisions in backroom meetings, and has been criticized for a lack of transparency.

The redistricting maps are supposed to give equal representation to communities. According to the latest census data, L.A. is about 48 percent Hispanic, 28 percent White, 14 percent Asian and 9 percent black. But Wednesday night’s public hearing reflected the fact the political and social dynamics turn redistricting into a messy ordeal. 

Juhn’s father and cousins live in Koreatown. He said in an interview that the neighborhood lacks many of the public services that other communities enjoy. He said the idea of a community divided is something that strikes a chord with many residents. “Korea is divided as a nation, which is something that was done externally,” he said. “That’s something that doesn’t need to happen in Los Angeles; we can keep Koreatown in one district.”

Grace Yoo, director of the Korean American Coalition and frequent public commenter on redistricting issues, decried the draft boundaries. “We have a problem in this community when our voices are not heard,” she said.

Business lawyer Lloyd Lee, who also works in Koreatown, said the public outcry over the draft map represents a political awakening for the Korean community. “We’re not going to be a quiet group that just hands out money without representation,” he said.

Redistricting commission member Chris Ellison, who was appointed to represent the 10th district in the negotiations, asked if there hadn’t been an agreement reached between the Latino, Bengladeshi and Korean communities on the boundaries of Koreatown a couple years ago. In 2010, City Council officially recognized agreed-upon borders for Koreatown and Little Bangladesh

Grace Yoo again took the microphone, arguing that this was beside the point. “As far as we’re concerned, drawing a line on 3rd St. was not something this community wanted,” Yoo said. “It was something that was politically forced upon our community.”

Some members of the Latino and Bangladeshi communities came out to support the draft map, arguing that having Koreatown's district extend above 3rd St. would encroach on the representation for their groups. 

Raul Claros of the Latino Coalition said in an interview that he supports the Korean community’s wish to remain represented by one district, but to also stick to the officially recognized borders of the neighborhood.

“That’s fine if they want it to be in one district, but we want it to be within the boundaries we negotiated at the table,” he said. “We do not want it to filter into Westlake, East Hollywood, Mid-City or Pico-Union. That’s all we’re saying.”

Koreatown is hardly the only district in dispute. Among the loudest critics of the map proposal is council member Jan Perry, who would lose much of the economic powerhouse of Downtown L.A. to Jose Huizar.

Tom LaBonge’s 4th would undergo a dramatic transformation into a pterodactyl-shaped district connecting the hipster-haven Silver Lake area with a decidedly different portion of San Fernando. LaBonge told the L.A. Times that the only thing connecting the two areas was the geese.

Bernard Parks’ 8th district would lose Leimert Park, while gaining Westchester, which would be stripped away from District 11. Eleventh district resident Garrett Smith said the move makes little sense. “We don’t have anything to do with the 8th district. And they’re losing their main cultural center in Leimert Park.”    

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