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City Council President Eric Garcetti was one of the 850 speakers who signed up to address the Board of Supervisors this afternoon on the divisive issue of political redistricting. And Garcetti, who's going to build part of his run for mayor on a Latino base he hopes will come to him, came out for the creation of a second Latino district. This separates him from Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, writes Gene Maddaus at the LA Weekly.
Yaroslavsky is already in hot water with Latinos for opposing the creation of a second Latino seat. He has clearly calculated that he couldn't endorse a new Latino district at the expense of his own district and his own constituents.Unlike Yaroslavsky, Garcetti didn't have to weigh in on this. But he represents a largely Latino council district, and Latino activists have made this a top issue. So Garcetti came out in support of a new Latino seat. In doing so, he cited his grandfather's experience being denied access to a public pool. Redistricting, Garcetti said, is "about letting everybody into that pool."
Surely that will help Garcetti with Latinos, and with organized labor. But it won't win him many friends in the San Fernando Valley -- or at least, not in the white parts of the Valley. Valley leaders have been denouncing the second Latino seat all day, saying that map would carve up their community and dilute their power.
Also today: Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill giving AEG some breaks from legal challenges to the NFL stadium downtown. Both Speaker John Perez and state Sen. Alex Padilla sent out press releases taking credit for the bill.