Letters to the Editor: A new L.A. council district map that makes sense? Yes please, we need a plan for the Los Angeles County Council
The current district map of the Los Angeles County Council was established in 1985.
The current district map is based on a population survey done in Los Angeles County in 1986. It is almost exactly where the population was in 1986. If this population survey is considered a complete census and if the current map were perfect, then it would reflect what Los Angeles County residents of the year 2000 would look like.
Instead, the current map is more than three times as big as what the year 2000 residents of Los Angeles County would naturally look like. The current district map is 2,000 square miles larger than what the year 2000 residents would be.
As for the current map, it was drawn by the Los Angeles Times staff, who have done such a good job of making their map that the county should be ashamed of itself. To think that the staff of the Los Angeles Times would draw a map that was less than optimal for Los Angeles County, that is, that is not just larger than what the year 2000 residents of Los Angeles County would be, but more than three times as big, would make the staff of the Los Angeles Times want to throw their pens at the nearest copy machine.
What a terrible way to draw the district map. That there are no major new districts or wards is a clear indication that the current map was drawn without community input.
The current map is not a map that a committee of people and organizations could come together and draw that would be acceptable to the voters. The map was drawn and published by the Times, a company that has a track record of creating district maps for the LA County Council that no other group could conceivably draw and publish.
So, there are a number of possible reasons why the current map is so flawed.
The first and most obvious are politics