Group Seeks to Convert Seven Small Cities Into a Unified Political Force : Redistricting: The plan to combine several districts into one faces formidable obstacles.

In the pocket of the county just south of East Los Angeles and east of South-Central Los Angeles lies a cluster of seven pint-sized cities distinguishable from one another only on the pages of a map.

Seen from the street, the communities of Huntington Park, Maywood, Bell, Cudahy, South Gate, Lynwood and Bell Gardens blur into one homogenous urban landscape. In one block after another, homes and apartments are jammed side by side; manufacturing plants and industrial warehouses dot the skyline. Along the main boulevards, where small Mexican bakeries, butcher shops and restaurants thrive, Spanish is heard more often than English.

The seven cities and the county territory of Walnut Park also share a host of problems: They are among the most densely populated communities in the state and are growing every day. Most of the population is poor, Latino and underemployed. The schools are overcrowded, dropout rates are among the highest in the county, social services are woefully inadequate and crime continues to rise.

Because of these and other concerns, a group calling itself the Southeast Coalition has begun lobbying Sacramento legislators to redraw political boundaries so that all eight communities, and perhaps the larger, more industrialized cities of Commerce and Vernon, will be grouped in a single political district as they were during the 1960s and early ‘70s.

The cities are now divided among three separate Assembly districts, three state Senate districts and three congressional districts. Although the Southeast Coalition eventually plans to lobby for a single state Senate district and a single congressional district, right now it is campaigning for a single Assembly district. The combined population of the area is 358,690, roughly the number required for an Assembly district, based on new federal census figures.

“This area has really been under-served,” said Luis Hernandez, a Huntington Park councilman who is heading the redistricting effort. “We need a legislator who looks through a magnifying glass at the whole area, not just a part of it. We don’t have the boundaries that say we are one, but we are. We all share the same concerns. . . . We need the accountability of one legislator.”

California legislators are going through the once-in-a-decade process of redrawing the boundaries of Assembly, state Senate and congressional districts to reflect a gain or loss in population. The state Senate and Assembly reapportionment committees have been holding hearings to give constituents a chance to offer redistricting plans of their own. Recently, Hernandez and other members of the coalition testified before the Assembly Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee.

Under the current legislative map, Maywood, Vernon, Commerce and Bell Gardens are now served by Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard. Huntington Park, Bell and Cudahy are represented by Assemblywoman Teresa Hughes, and South Gate, Lynwood and the unincorporated area of Walnut Park by Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson. Hughes and Archie-Hudson sit on the Assembly reapportionment committee.

Hughes could not be reached for comment, but Roybal-Allard and Archie-Hudson said they do not think regrouping the cities is a good idea. At least one political expert and some coalition members themselves said the group’s plan has little chance of success.

“It makes a lot of sense,” said Leroy Hardy, a professor of political science at Cal State Long Beach who has authored several books and papers on redistricting. “It’s exactly the district I would create. You know why it will never work? What they want impinges on someone else’s district. . . . Although the ideal is that politicians represent us, their primary purpose is survival.”

In addition, Hardy noted that all three districts are represented by minority assemblywomen and that it could be difficult to generate support for a plan that might jeopardize their seats.

Thomas E. Jackson, a Huntington Park councilman, said it is expected that most legislators would not react enthusiastically to a plan that could mean the loss of their power. But, he said, “none of this has to do with existing politicians. We are not doing this to unseat them. We are only doing it because we belong together. . . . This is the way we were in the 1960s. What was wrong with it? We want to go back to the way we were.”

Until 1974, Bell, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Maywood, South Gate, Vernon and Walnut Park lay in one Assembly district, one state Senate district and one congressional district.

Before district lines were redrawn that year, Floyd Wakefield was the assemblyman, Lawrence Walsh was the state senator and Del Clawson was the congressman. There was an active political group of Democratic local leaders who met with representatives on Southeast-area issues.

“There was a community of interest,” said John Sheehy, a former South Gate councilman who was a member of the 52nd Assembly District Booster Club during the early ‘70s.

Sheehy, Huntington Park’s Jackson, who was also a member of the Booster Club, and Bell Gardens City Manager Claude Booker, who was a Bell Gardens councilman at the time, said there were definite advantages to sharing the same district. The three said the Southeast area had greater and more consistent political clout because its leaders spoke with a uniform voice. More important, they said, there was a much stronger sense of community among the residents of all eight cities.

There were also disadvantages. Wakefield and Walsh were widely regarded as ineffectual, and Jackson says they commanded little respect among their Sacramento colleagues. When districts were redrawn after the 1970 census, neither man had enough political might to prevent other representatives from snatching pieces of the Southeast territory. In the end, in 1974, the state Supreme Court ordered a panel of retired judges to redraw the lines, and, Sheehy said, “the Southeast was split asunder.”

In part, Hardy said, the reason the Southeast area was split into three distinct political districts was that the demographics of the area had drastically changed. In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, the Southeast began a dramatic metamorphosis from a semi-rural home of Midwestern transplants to the densely populated minority community of today. By 1974, the need for minority representation was apparent. “They wanted to create the first Hispanic district,” Bell Gardens’ Booker said. (Since the fall elections in 1974, all state and federal representatives of the eight cities have been minorities.)

The Southeast Coalition, which is made up of Latino activists and longtime Anglo leaders, argues that today the Southeast area is paying the price of fragmentation.

In testimony July 23 before the Assembly reapportionment committee, coalition members argued that separation into three political districts has resulted in a lack of community cohesiveness and an inadequate health and social services network that is overwhelmed by the problems of a densely populated community.

In written testimony, the coalition argued that the Southeast cities are at a disadvantage because their legislators are also answerable to the demands of the “larger, more vocal, more politically sophisticated and established areas such as Los Angeles, East L.A., and South-Central L.A.”

“We feel we have been a pawn in this game up to now,” coalition leader Hernandez said in an interview. “It’s time to unite and flex our muscles a bit.”

In separate interviews before last month’s Assembly committee hearing, Archie-Hudson and Roybal-Allard criticized the coalition’s plan.

“My own personal view would be that I would prefer to have two or three or four or five legislators that could bring collective power than have a single person arguing for all cities,” Archie-Hudson said.

Archie-Hudson, who was elected last year after former Assemblywoman Maxine Waters was elected to Congress, said one of the dangers of having a single representative in one geographical area is that the area tends to become isolated.

“They will find themselves very dependent on a single legislator to advocate their interests,” she said.

Roybal-Allard, who was elected in 1987 and whose district is largely made up of East Los Angeles, disputed the claim that the smaller cities she represents have become political afterthoughts. In fact, she said, the smaller cities of the Southeast, many of which have the lowest voter registration rates in the county, benefit by sharing a district with larger cities.

“There is a real danger in making a district out of those that are poor, minority and not politically knowledgeable,” Roybal-Allard said. “There needs to be a balance in a district, a power base, so that an elected official can influence change in areas that are less powerful.”

Roybal-Allard said her fight to keep a hazardous-waste incinerator out of Vernon is a good example of how the smaller communities benefited. The neighboring city of Maywood could have been affected had such an incinerator been built, but she said it was with the help of constituents in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles that she was able to wage a successful four-year fight to kill the incinerator plan.

“We are able to help using the expertise and the knowledge of other members (of the community),” she said. “If a district is totally made up of people who don’t have that knowledge, it would be difficult to accomplish anything. An elected official would have to call on supporters outside the district.”

But coalition leader Hernandez said Roybal-Allard’s perception of the small cities in the Southeast is outdated. More people are becoming citizens and registering to vote, he said.

Last year, Hernandez and fellow Councilman Raul Perez became the first Latino council members elected in Huntington Park, where Latinos make up 92% of the population. In Bell Gardens, a growing number of Latinos have become politically active and are now seeking the recall of all but one member of the City Council.

“That argument could have been used in the early and mid-’80s,” Hernandez said, “but the level of sophistication in the Southeast is changing. People are starting to become aware of their rights.”

Both Roybal-Allard and Archie-Hudson said putting cities in one district just because they have common interests is a simplistic solution to the area’s problems.

“I would venture to guess that there are differences in each community even though they appear to be similar,” Roybal-Allard said. “For example, in Vernon, the City Council wanted the incinerator. That did not mean it was going to be good for Maywood and Bell Gardens (residents) who were going to breathe the stuff. It is not that simple. The issues are not black and white, and they vary with each city.”

One of the stumbling blocks the coalition must overcome is a reluctant attitude toward their plan among some local city leaders who remember the Wakefield-Walsh era and who are loyal to their current representatives.

Cudahy city leaders, for example, have named a school after Assemblywoman Hughes and a sports complex after state Sen. Bill Greene.

“It really hurt when we were divided into three different districts,” Cudahy Mayor Joseph Fregeau said. “I would gladly go back (into a single district), provided we get to keep Teresa Hughes and Bill Greene. They have been very good to us, and I don’t want to take a gamble on someone else. I would rather stay with a known product.”

Coalition leaders acknowledge that it will not be easy to sell their plan in Sacramento. With dozens of competing special interest groups waving their own redistricting plans before Senate and Assembly committees, Huntington Park’s Jackson puts the coalition’s chances of success at “slim and none.” But he and other coalition members said it’s a start.

“This goes beyond reapportionment,” said Martha Escutia, an attorney who is helping the coalition with its campaign. “These communities are seeking to unite themselves, to develop an infrastructure, a sense of community. Even if we don’t reach our goal the first time around, it’s a wake-up call.

“We are letting Sacramento know that there are people here who want to get involved, who want to make changes. We may not have the sophistication of the larger cities, but we are an evolving political force.”

Current Assembly Members

Lucille Roybal-Allard

(D-Los Angeles)

56th Assembly District

Born and raised in Boyle Heights, Allard was elected May 12, 1987. She is currently serving her third term.

Number of constituents in district: 332,666*

Marguerite Archie-Hudson

(D-Los Angeles)

48th Assembly District

A native of South Carolina. Archie-Hudson was elected Nov. 6, 1990.

Number of constituents in district: 367,054

Teresa P. Hughes

(D-Los Angeles)

47th Assembly District

Born in New York City. Hughes was first elected in 1975. She is currently serving her eighth term.

Number of constituents in district: 370,453

* When Assembly districts are redrawn this fall, each legislator’s district must include about 372,000 constituents.

Source: California State Assembly Committee on Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments

Proposed Redistricting for New Assembly District

Bell

Size--2.81 square miles

Population--34,365

Ethnic groups--86% Hispanic, 12% Anglo, 1% black

Density--12,230 people per square mile

Per capita income--$7,651

Bell Gardens

Size--2.397 square miles

Population--42,355

Ethnic groups--88% Hispanic, 10% Anglo, 0% black

Density--17,670 people per square mile

Per capita income--$5,405

Commerce

Size--6.547 square miles

Population--12,135

Ethnic groups--91% Hispanic, 7% Anglo, 1% black

Density--1,853 people per square mile

Per capita income--$7,133

Cudahy

Size--1.071 square miles

Population--22,817

Ethnic groups--89% Hispanic, 8% Anglo, 1% black

Density--21,304 people per square mile

Per capita income--$5,468

Huntington Park

Size--3.018 square miles

Population--56,065

Ethnic groups--92% Hispanic, 5% Anglo, 1% black

Density--18,577 people per square mile

Per capita income--$6,480

Lynwood

Size--4.848 square miles

Population--61,945

Ethnic groups--70% Hispanic, 6% Anglo, 21% black

Density--12,777 people per square mile

Per capita income--$6,886

Maywood

Size--1.183 square miles

Population--27,850

Ethnic groups--93% Hispanic, 6% Anglo, 0% black

Density--23,542 people per square mile

Per capita income--$6,468

South Gate

Size--7.321 square miles

Population--86,284

Ethnic groups--83% Hispanic, 14% Anglo, 1% black

Density--11,786 people per square mile

Per capita income--$7,636

Vernon

Size--5.018 square miles

Population--152

Ethnic groups--78% Hispanic, 19% Anglo, 1% black

Density--30 people per square mile

Per capita income--$13,357

Walnut Park

Size--0.74 square miles

Population--14,722

Ethnic group--92% Hispanic, 6% Anglo, 0% black

Density--19,895 people per square mile

No per capita income figures available

Note: Asians make up 2% or less of the population.

Sources: 1990 Census; Los Angeles County Department of Public Works

NEXT STEP

Once the Assembly Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee and its state Senate counterpart, the Elections and Reapportionment Committee, wrap up their public hearings, the two committees must begin mapping the new district boundaries. According to Lynn Montgomery, the Assembly committee’s press secretary, the Assembly and the Senate are expected to reveal their first maps no sooner than Aug. 19. Both houses must have final versions, in bill form, ready to submit to Gov. Wilson by Sept. 13.