Second in a series
Re “Flames Are Crackling in the 8th and 9th Over Wesson’s Plan”
[img]1436|left|Bernard Parks||no_popup[/img]Although there is a tendency among non-blacks in Los Angeles to look at the City Council and lump together the three black Councilpersons, that would be a mistake.
The 8th District of Bernard Parks, the 9th District of Jan Perry and the 10th District of Herb Wesson are contiguous, a dominant commonality. But it would be a vast overstatement of the professional relationships between and among them.
No kids here. All are in the maturity of their accomplished lives. Even though there is not a political virgin within miles when they are present, equal they are not. Not close.
The Most Equal Member
The Boss, as officially decided unanimously last winter by the other 13 members of the Council, not Mr. Parks or Ms. Perry, is Mr. Wesson. He, who is not commenting for this story, has deigned, unilaterally, say critics, that he can pluck the most envied neighborhoods from the districts of Mr. Parks and Ms. Perry, trading them off for down plots that might make the homeless sneer.
The Council’s voting date on the new explosively disputed district lines remains unannounced, sometime next week, evidently.
Mr. Wesson, who rode the Los Angeles-to-Sacramento-to Los Angeles rails to his high chair elevation above the Council, is closer to his four fellow former Assembly members (Paul Koretz, Paul Krekorian, Richard Alarcon and Tony Cardenas) than to either Mr. Parks or Ms. Perry.
Except for the latter two, the Other Thirteen in Council Chambers feel peachy about the always thorny matter of redistricting. Mr. Wesson did not take from their districts. All of them got the lines drawn where they wanted.
One of the ugly slices of the months’ long Council discussion of redistricting is that the electricity has been off the whole time, metaphorically. A blackout.
No News Is Bad News
“What has happened throughout,” Mr. Parks told the newspaper, “is a quiet undercurrent of keeping the public out,” which he lays entirely at Mr. Wesson’s feet.
“This debate should be well publicized. The public should be there in full force.
“When you go back and watch the process, 80-plus percent of everyone who showed up at meetings said they did not support the maps.
“Eighty percent of all the people,” Mr. Parks repeated, as if he still could not believe what happened.
“The people who drew the maps did them in private. The process was designed so that the most important part, drawing the maps, was done in private. They produced maps with no justifications, gave them to the public. Contrary to the public’s input, they went back and drew some more, most of the time making them worse than what the public asked for.”
Turning to the virtual media blackout, Mr. Parks said that “it has been interesting to watch people who are upset about it. They know how unfair it is. For whatever reason, though, they have the view ‘this is just politics.’ They feel hopeless and helpless. I tell them, no, they aren’t.
“Since redistricting is moving forward, when the public comes to meetings in large numbers, this will produce a legal record for when the case goes to court to show the great amount of discontent.”
(To be continued)
