The Los Angeles City Council took the first step Tuesday toward reworking a controversial map of the city’s political boundaries, with council members drawing up 38 proposals for reworking the plan submitted by a citizens commission.
Some of the proposals are minor, such as one to ensure that Little Ethiopia is placed in a single council district. Others are far more sweeping, raising the possibility that major chunks of the Redistricting Commission’s draft map could be discarded and replaced.
Council President Nury Martinez, a critic of the commission’s work, called for city officials to prepare an alternative redistricting map, one that relies heavily on a proposal submitted last month by a Latino labor group. Under her proposal, the labor map would serve as a template for several districts in the the San Fernando Valley, including her own.
The labor map calls for Martinez to reclaim key parts of her district, including the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area and the neighborhood of Lake Balboa. It also would keep intact much of the East Valley district represented by Councilman Paul Krekorian, who has been facing the possibility of representing an area that is 100% new to him.
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