Hanna Yoon, center, who is the president of the Korean American Democratic Committee, addresses the media at a press conference in front of City Hall on Friday. (Danny Lee)

The plan passed by a 13-2 margin, with Ninth District Councilwoman Jan Perry and Eighth District Councilman Bernard Parks casting the two opposing votes. Perry's South L.A. district currently includes much of the revamped downtown, but the new boundaries would shift the bulk of that area into Councilman Jose Huizar's District 14.

Outlined on the new map, Perry’s CD9 would hold onto the southwestern edge of downtown L.A., including Staples Center and L.A. Live, while Huizar’s CD14 would absorb areas like Little Tokyo, Skid Row, Civic Center and the Fashion District.

The Council initially set aside a little under two hours for public comments, but the session stretched well past that limit as dozens of speakers lined up behind the podium. Hundreds of people poured into the Council Chamber for the meeting—many were moved to an overflow room to watch the public comments on a monitor.

The overwhelming majority of speakers were against the redistricting plans. Several said they were concerned that removing downtown from CD9 would cut off South L.A.'s predominantly working-class black and Latino neighborhoods from a major economic resource.

“It is unfortunate that we’re still fighting redlining, only it is called redistricting,” said Janet Denise Kelly, who runs the housing and poverty blog The Urban Perspective. Redlining refers to a practice of systematically denying or increasing the costs of basic services to certain areas, usually determined by race or class. “We really urge the City Council to do the right thing for South L.A. and keep us intact.”

Just before council members finalized their votes, Perry and Council President Herb Wesson got into a somewhat heated exchange. Perry said she would have voted for Wesson to be president if she had known it would allow her district to hang on to downtown.

“I have to tell you, Mr. President, if I had the ability to turn the clock back to the day I talked to you about your run for president, perhaps I shouldn’t have been so direct,” Perry said. “I would have kept my mouth shut so that my district would not be sacrificed.”

Near the meeting’s conclusion, Wesson denied suggestions that redistricting was a way of punishing Perry for not supporting his run for Council president.

Perry said that the new district borders would reduce the percentage of whites and increase the number of African-Americans in Wesson’s 10th District lying west of downtown, ensuring blacks would hold power in a largely white district.

The new boundaries would clip the University of Southern California campus out of Parks’ 8th District and add it to CD9. Parks would also lose predominantly black neighborhoods in the northern portion of his district to Wesson.

Huizar, whose district on the northeastern edge of L.A. already encompasses 40 percent of downtown, said the area has witnessed a “tremendous transformation” over the last decade and that the redistricting commission recommended maintaining downtown within a single council district.

“It’s not an easy process putting together a map with so many interests in mind,” Huizar said. “I want to applaud the commission for keeping downtown whole. It is a community of interest.”

Meanwhile, the controversy over redistricting has earned Perry and Parks some allies just a few miles to the north near the Koreatown and Mid-Wilshire area.

Representatives from the Asian American community assembled for a press conference outside City Hall to voice disapproval of the group's voting power being dispersed over multiple council districts. They said this was counterintuitive considering L.A.'s Asian population has increased since 2000.

"Because this process has been conducted in a matter that has marginalized various communities, it has caused a stronger bond between myself, Councilman Parks and the Korean American community," Perry said. "So I stand here today to express my willingness to assist them in achieving their goal, which is to move into District 13."

Groups represented at the conference, including the Wilshire Center-Koreatown Neighborhood Council and Korean American Coalition, had sought to keep Koreatown entirely within Councilman Eric Garcetti’s District 13. They hoped it would unite the area with Historic Filipinotown and Thai Town in an attempt to concentrate Asian American political influence within one district.

“The [Asian-Pacific Islander] community has come out and said, ‘We want an influencing district,’” said Grace Yoo, executive director of the Korean American Coalition. “We’re not saying we want a majority district, but an influencing district is something that is doable and feasible.”

Including the entire area within District 13 could bump Asian American representation in the district above 30 percent and Latino representation over 40 percent, according to Hyepin Im, president of Korean Churches for Community Development.

"It won't be just the Korean community," Im said, "but the Latino community that will also benefit."

But under the redrawn boundaries, the majority of this enclave would fall into Wesson’s 10th District. Oncologist Dr. Paul Song, who was one of the speakers at the press conference, pointed out that the change would also shift African-Americans into the majority for District 10 at 51 percent.

Meanwhile, Asian American representation would drop from 10 to 9 percent in that district, he said, even though Asians surpassed African-Americans as the city’s second largest non-white group in the latest census.

"I ask you all to ask every Angeleno, 'Is it fair to consolidate one minority and dilute another minority?'" Song said. “My best man at my wedding is African-American, and when I ask him about this process, he thought it was blatantly unfair to give increased voice to a community that is shrinking and dilute us into three different communities.”

The City Council’s lack of responsiveness to the needs of L.A.’s Korean American community is a major source of disappointment for her organization, Yoo said.

 “We’ve been promised a park, we’ve been promised a museum, a community center, a senior center. These things have been going on for well over a decade, and they have yet to be fulfilled,” she said.

Yoo said the group plans to sue over the map, claiming that it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and uses race as a factor in determining new districts.

“They are breaking up more communities rather than keeping them together,” Yoo said. “We believe that is a substantive standard that the court can impose.”

The City Council will hold a vote in May on an ordinance that would create the new boundaries.