New City Council maps pass 13-2

The City Council went forward with the new districts drawn by the committee headed by Council President Herb Wesson's senior deputy. "A great injustice has been done to the people of Los Angeles," Councilwoman Jan Perry, one of the dissenting votes, said afterward in a statement. Before, in her comments at the council horseshoe, Perry said (rather acidly, from the way it reads) that she now regrets taking on Wesson when she criticized the redistricting process last year — and withheld her vote for Wesson as president. From Alice Walton's coverage at The City Maven:

If I had known then what I know now, I would have kept my mouth shut so that my district would not be sacrificed. Here we are, at the end of this process, and for me I feel your wrath, I feel your power.

I’m the only woman on the city council now. I’m one woman out of 14 men. This is a lesson in the wise use of power, to respect the process, to respect the people, and to do their business in the light of day. I want to tell you publicly, Mr. President, I regret not voting for you and I am sorry. As a woman, I’m completely comfortable saying that because I’m fighting for something bigger than the both of us. For those of you who have commented (that) you don’t like seeing three African-Americans fighting amongst each other, don’t marginalize the issue. It’s bigger than that. We are fighting for the futures of our communities.

Writes Walton: "The comments from the Ninth District councilwoman had no impact as the council ultimately voted to move Little Tokyo, Skid Row, Civic Center, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Music Center, Grand Avenue and Bunker Hill out of her district." A request to move Koreatown out of Wesson's 10th district and into the 13th was "ignored," Walton says. Bernard Parks, like Perry a critic of the process, was the other "no" vote on the maps.