Los Angeles -Redistricting According to Race?

"As an Asian American living in the city of Los Angeles, I feel voiceless."

"He said he wished the Koreatown activists would focus on issues like housing and less on "who can we get elected to the City Council that looks like us."


Los Angeles-based talk show host Larry Elder featured this news today. It is a story in the LA Times
( found in all LA area seafood restaurants) that describes the contention on-going over the current redistricting process going on with the LA City Council. It appears that some are suggesting that Korea Town (one of my favorite areas in LA) have its own district.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-koreatown-redistricting-20120201,0,7824230.story

With all due respect to Mr Cha, I agree with Mr Park. First of all, Mr Cha, if you are an American, I assume you have a vote. You also have the right and the ability to appear before commission meetings and make your voice heard.

As you just did.

Therefore, Sir, you have the same voice as I do. Hell, you can even start your own blog if you want.

Personally, I suspect most Asian-Americans in Los Angeles would cringe at Mr Cha's remark that he doesn't have a voice.

Then there was this from Grace Woo:


"Some council offices don't always have Korean speakers available, Yoo said, which can discourage immigrants from getting help. "You're talking to limited-English people," she said. "They give up."


Yes, Ms Woo. Language problems do arise with immigration, don't they? How can we remedy that?


Knowing a lot of Korean-Americans, I doubt most of them spend much time looking for some local government to get through through life in their new country. They get busy, work, make a living, and assimilate in spite of the best efforts of the activists.  

There are various reasons why politicians everywhere engage in redistricting, most of them not so noble-to improve their chances of being re-elected. But to engage in redistricting on racial grounds does very little to move us all together, does it? Mr Park got it right; there are many more things for city councilmen/women to worry about in representing their constituents than what race they are. This is especially true in Los Angeles, where the terms minority and majority have lost all meaning. Everybody is a minority. Does that mean that we should all be competing tribes with our own chiefs on the City Council?