street-hassle: Council District Maps, Council District Problems

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Council District Maps, Council District Problems

The old lines, left; the proposed new ones, right.

"They didn't listen," a resident of Sunland-Tujunga tells me, as her community gets slammed into CD 7 in a draft of the redistricting commission's new map for LA, made public today. "Not happy with today's map release." They in this case is mostly Craig Miller, who probably knows CD 5 a little better than CD 2--but that's who Paul Krekorian appointed to represent his district, CD 2, on the city's Redistricting Commission. The lines for CD's 2 and 7 approximate their old lines in the 1970's. Miller was unavailable for comment.

The new CD 7, which likely will host a provocative battle between Felipe Fuentes and Andrea Alarcon in 2013 when Alarcon's father is termed out, absorbs most of Sunland-Tujunga, and will remain one of the top homeowner-centric districts in Los Angeles. Jan Perry has already scheduled a news conference for tomorrow, as she's losing downtown north of Olympic and wants some of it back. Tom LaBonge's CD 4 would lose Hancock Park and pick up Vals galore clustered along the southern, tony end of the 405. The new CD 2 would threaten to become a very different place, a kind of Burbank-lite. CD's 3, 11, 12, and 15 all stand fairly pat, with 11 ceding some territory around Mar Vista to CD 8. CD 5 extends more into Hollywood where Paul Koretz can keep the skyscraper "dream" alive.

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The year of the water dragon

For those of you born after 1952, this will likely be your only Year of the Water Dragon. I am told it is the peak creative year of all the sixty years of the Chinese zodiac. That doesn't surprise me, as Los Angeles in 2012 reminds me of New York in the late seventies--the city is such a political and economic monstrosity that the masses are simply tuning it all out to create.

I'm sure most readers of this site know by now that I don't much like the city at a political level (and, it follows, at an economic one) but I do like its culture. Even here, however, things can go either way. And I detect it is like this in many other cities across America--the local politics are simply too corrupt to devote much attention to, and the local topline culture only mimics the politics. A scant two years ago, for instance, the Ring cycle that LA Opera produced ran to farce for many--and nearly broke the twenty-five year old company to boot--but now things are on an even keel again, maybe even better than ever. I also have to admit I'm not fussy for the whole idea of the soon wrapping Pacific Daylight Time extravaganza--these shows have largely touted the whimsical and the static in a time when fine arts need more gravitas and kinetic expression--of which there is plenty, but it doesn't have marketing machines behind it. And let's not talk about Hollywood's output in recent years--but even here, the indie scene is the only scene.

The most historically grating thing about LA culture, however, and yet now also the most promising as well, at least for me, is linked the perilous state of New York commercial publishing. For a long time--decades--commercial editors in New York have not brought to light the best of LA, but rather the books that best describe their own hackneyed vision of the place: gritty detectives, vapid landscape, surfer boys. Now, thanks to Kindle (left coast, that) and the Espresso Book machine, LA has far more elbow room in fiction and fine letters. I expect we'll see a flourishing as local authors simply elect to bypass the New York mills should they continue to move at less than real time, and in less than good faith, on their manuscripts.

We don't need to get into the gangsta wars in any arts, even hip hop, to put our best creative self out to the world. The plain truth is that economic crisis when conflated with economic support makes for the kind of unstructured time essential to creativity. When you meet the Water Dragon this year, engage, embrace.

Peace and boat drinks,

Joseph Mailander