New districts, new city council representatives
NEIGHBORS from Larchmont Village, Ridgewood-Wilton, St. Andrews Square and Windsor Square gathered to meet Mitch O’Farrell (back to camera), who now is the City Council representative for those areas.
Political redistricting has brought significant change to the Mid-Wilshire areas covered by the Larchmont Chronicle.
For more than 80 years, most of the City of Los Angeles’s geographic area east of Fairfax Avenue and north of Olympic Boulevard has been a part of the Fourth Council District, represented successively by Robert L. Burns, Harold A. Henry, John Ferraro, Tom LaBonge, David Ryu and Nithya Raman.
With the new maps approved last month, Council District Four has been moved elsewhere, and our area now is split into two city council districts, CDs 5 and 13, and the new representatives are Paul Koretz (CD 5) and Mitchell O’Farrell (CD 13). Koretz is termed-out in 2022, so there will be a new representative elected this year in CD 5. O’Farrell is running for re-election in a CD 13 district that still remains primarily Hollywood.
WINDSOR SQUARE BACKYARD was the setting for a December gathering where association presidents welcomed new councilmember Mitch O’Farrell. Shown (left to right) are: Rory Cunningham and Liz Gabor, St. Andrews Square Neighborhood Association; Charles D’Atri, Larchmont Village Neighborhood Association; O’Farrell; Larry Guzin, Windsor Square Association; Bob Reeves, Ridgewood-Wilton Neighborhood Association, and John Winther, Larchmont Boulevard Association.
Meet and Greet
Residents and business people eager to meet their new spokespeople in City Hall have been reaching out to their new representatives. The former CD 4 denizens east of Arden Boulevard and north of Wilshire Boulevard held a reception for O’Farrell in the Windsor Square backyard of Jennifer and Bill Fain on Dec. 5.
The Hancock Park Homeowners Association has scheduled a virtual “Meet and Greet” Town Hall with its new representative, Koretz, on Thurs., Jan. 13 at 6:30 p.m. The Zoom link for that meeting can be found on the association’s website, www.HancockPark.org.
HOST BILL FAIN discusses how he and the area’s new City Council representative have in common an interest in American Indian affairs in Oklahoma. Left to right are Fain, Rory Cunningham, Liz Gabor, and Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell.
Windsor Square event
Although hosted in their Windsor Square backyard by the Fains, that Dec. 5 gathering actually was organized by residents throughout CD 13’s new areas, including Patti Carroll, Brian Curran, Charles D’Atri, Larry Guzin and Jane Usher, as well as the Fains. About 60 neighbors gathered to meet O’Farrell and several of his CD 13 staff members, including field deputy George Hakopiants, who has become the deputy for this “southern” part of CD 13.
Guests at the event included all of the local association presidents. There were Rory Cunningham and Liz Gabor of the St. Andrews Square Neighborhood Association, Bob Reeves of the Ridgewood-Wilton Neighborhood Association, and John Winther of the Larchmont Boulevard Association — in addition to hosts D’Atri of the Larchmont Village Neighborhood Association and Guzin of the Windsor Square Association.
ON THE PORCH, Councilmember O’Farrell, left, speaks with (left to right): Jeryl Bowers, Windsor Square; Bob Reeves, Ridgewood-Wilton; Rory Cunningham and Patti Carroll, St. Andrews Square; CD 13 field deputy for the new areas, George Hakopiants; Nora Houndalas, Windsor Square and Larchmont Boulevard and Karen Gilman, Larchmont Village.
Redistricting
Changed political lines that affect the Larchmont Chronicle readership area have been created not only for the city, but also for the county and state. For those jurisdictions other than the city, the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council areas fared well, at least through the six months of public participation leading to the final draft maps of Nov. 10, 2021. Then, in last-minute changes made public with the final maps of Dec. 20, 2021, the State Redistricting Commission switched to an untrue community boundary line created in 2009 by a “Los Angeles Times” mapping project that made up a wholly artificial and historically incorrect western boundary for what that newspaper’s interns and/or editors decided was “Koreatown.” As a result, for the coming decade beginning in 2022 and for the U.S. Congress and State Assembly, Greater Wilshire will be split again, with the dividing line being the middle of Wilton Place, from Beverly to Wilshire, and then south along Crenshaw Boulevard. At least for the State Senate, the communities within Greater Wilshire are largely kept together.
With respect to the County of Los Angeles, there has been significant boundary shifting among its five Supervi-
sorial districts. Most of Greater Wilshire now will be in Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s District 2, with the dividing lines separating District 2 from Sheila Kuehl’s District 3 being along La Brea Avenue and Beverly Boulevard. Mitchell was just recently elected, and Kuehl is serving her final term this year.
Election challenges
There will be lots of campaigning getting underway soon for all of these elected positions — plus the citywide offices of mayor, city attorney, and controller. These days, it often seems like our communities are in constant campaign mode.
Category: News
