It’s Redistricting time!

Last year it was census time and now it’s time to redraw various maps based on the results. I’ve seen all the maps and things are looking pretty whacked for 90045. 🙄

City Districts

For the most part, our council district remains the same. There is one little blip about Ladera being pulled out of CD-11, but the community didn’t like that, and our councilman made a motion to preserve the status quo. I think he expects his motion to be successful.

If you want a little historical context on city redistricting, I thought this article was eye-opening.

Congressional Districts

This map is crazy. It cuts right through the heart of Kentwood, a 3400 member HOA with an obvious “community of interest.” A request was made to Kentwood Home Guardians to take an official stand on the map. No word at this point whether they will.

The map also divides the broader Westchester, as shown in the images above. I believe the rest of Westchester needs to be brought into the same district as Playa del Rey and Playa Vista, our sister communities in the our city Neighborhood Council area.

I am not including Ladera (part of our NC) only because they are a more recent addition and I don’t feel the community of interest is as strong as the community of interest between Westchester and the Playas. Westchester and PdR have been like one community forever. Playa Vista is almost 20 years old, and has been part of our NC since inception. I’m only omitting Ladera here and in my personal comments submission for simplicity. By all means, add it to your own submitted comments, if desired.

Here is what you do to submit comments. Use this link. Identify yourself as a Westchester community member and tell them you are providing feedback on the Congressional Districts Draft Map. If you agree with my position, tell them you want all of zip code 90045 (including LAX) moved into the same district as Playa del Rey & Playa Vista because we share a community of interest inasmuch as we are in the same city Neighborhood Council area and regularly address local issues together as a block.

State Senate Districts

This map is pulling us & Playa Vista away from Playa del Rey, and I feel strongly that we need to preserve our community of interest with both Playas.

Here is what you do to submit comments. Use this link. Identify yourself as a Westchester community member and tell them you are providing feedback on the Senate Districts Draft Map. If you agree with my position, tell them you want all of zip code 90045 and zip code 90094 (Playa Vista) moved into the same district as Playa del Rey because we share a community of interest inasmuch as we are in the same city Neighborhood Council area and regularly address local issues together as a block.

I don’t know what to say about LAX on this map. Will it matter at the State level? Our interests are not any more important than Inglewood and El Segundo when it comes to LAX impacts.

State Assembly Districts

This map splits Westchester off from half of Playa del Rey and all of Playa Vista. We belong together due to our Neighborhood Council community of interest.

Here is what you do to submit comments. Use this link. Identify yourself as a Westchester community member and tell them you are providing feedback on the Assembly Districts Draft Map. If you agree with my position, tell them you want all of zip code 90045 north of Westchester Parkway and all of zip code 90293 (Playa del Rey) moved into the same district as Playa Vista (zip code 90094) because we share a community of interest inasmuch as we are in the same city Neighborhood Council area and regularly address local issues together as a block.

I don’t know what to say about LAX on this map. Will it matter at the State level? Our interests are not any more important than Inglewood and El Segundo when it comes to LAX impacts.

County Supervisor Districts

This redistricting plan confuses me the most. This commission either hasn’t gotten to the point of issuing one draft map or they don’t do that. On October 28, 2021, the commissioners voted to move four draft maps forward for further public input and discussion. You can find those maps at this link.

Apparently 27 more maps were submitted after the October 28th meeting and are also in play. 😲 It looks like anybody can submit a map. Consequently, I don’t even know where to begin to systematically review each proposed map.

I can say that I looked at 10 maps and liked anything that didn’t split 90045, which five of the 10 reviewed maps did. It looks like A, E & F are out in my mind. B might be ok. I liked OP 053 and OP 057 for keeping our NC area intact.

The other consideration is to keep our NC together, along with El Segundo and Inglewood as communities that share our interest in LAX impacts.

Here is what you do to submit comments. Apparently we can’t via their website. See this page.

The FAQ page says input can be provided by email, telephone or correspondence. Find email addresses for the commissioners on this page. The next zoom hearing dates are December 1 and December 7. Meeting details can be found on this page.

And voila! With plenty of clicks, I finally found this form for submitting comments on a flyer.

Past hearings can be found on their YouTube Channel. With six meetings and the shortest being 2.5 hours, I don’t see myself watching, but please drop comments here if you watched any. The hearing for our geo area (“Zone H”) was yesterday on August 19th. I don’t see that video uploaded yet.

My personal strategy. I am going to submit the statement below by email to each commissioner, plus I’m going to submit via the online form. If I can make one of the December meetings, I’ll try to speak there, as well.

My statement:

I am a resident of Westchester 90045. I am asking the commission to keep Westchester (90045), Playa del Rey (90293) and Playa Vista (90094) together in the final redistricting map as a “community of interest.” Westchester and Playa del Rey have been together as a city-based Neighborhood Council since the beginning of that system. Playa Vista joined us almost 20 years ago when construction of that master community began.

I am also asking that Westchester (90045), Playa del Rey (90093), El Segundo (90245) and Inglewood (90301-90312) be kept together as a community of interest with a common interest in LAX and its impacts.

In Conclusion

Whew! That’s my whirlwind research on redistricting. I admit I haven’t been paying attention. Fortunately a KHG member reached out to me last week and pointed out that the Congressional Draft Map splits our homeowners association. That took me down the redistricting rabbit hole.

I hope you found my efforts helpful. It’s on us to stand up for ourselves. I’ve asked KHG to weigh in on the Congressional Map and I’ve asked our Neighborhood Council to weigh in on defining our NC Community of Interest, but at the end of the day, each of us needs to pipe up and let our representatives know this issue matters to us. We’re stuck with these maps for 10 long years.