Galanter Fires Shot in District Turf Skirmish : Politics: A portion of her district would be transferred to Mark Ridley-Thomas’ if a proposal is approved. But she says he’s jumping the gun.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter lashed out at colleague Mark Ridley-Thomas this week, accusing him of trying to take over the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw portion of her council district before a redistricting proposal that would give him control is approved.

The Baldwin Hills and the heart of the Crenshaw shopping district would be transferred from Galanter’s district to Ridley-Thomas’ under a plan unveiled Monday by City Council President John Ferraro and approved by the council’s reapportionment committee Tuesday. The full council is expected to take up the matter today.

Galanter accused Ridley-Thomas of treading on her turf long before Ferraro’s committee released its proposal.

“I feel like my liver is being transplanted and I’m not even dead yet,” said Galanter, who has represented the area since she was first elected five years ago.

“He shows up there all the time and treats it as if it is his district,” she said. “I’m delighted to know that he is concerned about Crenshaw, but I am somewhere between hurt and furious. It is very unusual for a councilman to appropriate someone else’s district in that manner.”

Galanter said Ridley-Thomas has violated council protocol by showing up at community ceremonies and holding meetings in her district without notice. Recently, she said, he sponsored a meeting for 200 black business leaders at the Crossroads Theater in Leimert Park to discuss loans being made available to victims of the riot.

Ridley-Thomas said Tuesday that he was unaware of Galanter’s unhappiness.

“It’s unfortunate she chose to make these remarks when she never made any such comments to me,” he said. “I look at it as a gratuitous shot that borders on being petty.”

Ridley-Thomas, who heads the council’s committee overseeing the city’s riot-recovery effort, was elected to the council a year ago. He has made no secret of his desire to represent the largely middle-class African-American communities of Baldwin Hills, Leimert Park and Crenshaw. The area has long been a cultural and business center of black Los Angeles.

“It is the most important center for African-American vitality,” he said. “It has the highest concentration of African-American wealth in the nation. I think it makes sense to have vibrant leadership that emanates from the African-American community.”

Ridley-Thomas said he would have preferred holding the black business meeting at the community room in his district, but it was destroyed in the fire. And given the Crenshaw area’s importance in the riot-recovery effort, he added, it would have been difficult to avoid appearances in the area.

Under the redistricting proposal, Galanter retains a largely residential portion of the Crenshaw area from 52nd Street south to the Inglewood border. To compensate for losing part of the Crenshaw area, her Sixth District would pick up neighborhoods of West Los Angeles and Westwood now represented by Councilmen Zev Yaroslavsky and Marvin Braude. Braude’s and Yaroslavsky’s districts would be pushed slightly northward, gaining additional territory in the San Fernando Valley.

Ridley-Thomas’ Eighth District would pick up Leimert Park, Baldwin Hills and the Baldwin Village apartment community. The $120-million Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza mall and the nearby Santa Barbara Plaza shopping center, which is scheduled to be redeveloped by the city, would also fall in his district.

The proposal to put Baldwin Hills and Crenshaw into a district that includes large sections of South Central Los Angeles, however, raises sensitive questions for many Crenshaw-area residents: Is the community part of the Westside, because of its affluence? Or should it, because of its high percentage of African-Americans, be more closely linked with beleaguered South Central?

“The fact is that Crenshaw is the crown jewel of the black community,” said Joe Hubbard Jr., a community activist and businessman. While Hubbard said he would not mind the Crenshaw community being included in Ridley-Thomas’ district, he added that the image of South Central has become a problem for some.

“South Central has become a catch phrase for crime and other social problems,” he said. “The media has done South Central a great injustice.”

The issue of where Crenshaw’s future lies has been debated at numerous community meetings. A recurring question focuses simply on whether property values and city services would suffer if it is linked with South Central.

Some community leaders have suggested that if the area is removed from Galanter’s district that it be added to Councilman Nate Holden’s 10th District, which lies to the north.

Holden has supported Galanter’s effort to hold on to Crenshaw. But in an interview this week, he said he would welcome the addition of Crenshaw to his district if she loses it.

“It has to do with a common ground or sphere of interest,” Holden said. “The Crenshaw area has more in common with the 10th District in terms of income and businesses than it does with Mark’s district.”

Many residents praised Galanter’s accomplishments in the Crenshaw area but said they would not object if the community is picked up by Ridley-Thomas.

“I think we need to realize that South Central is our roots,” said Leslie G. Bellamy, president of Consolidated Realty Board of Southern California Inc. in Baldwin Hills. “We can’t say we are not part of South Central.”

Joyce Perkins, a real estate agent who has been involved with a committee helping Galanter devise development strategies for the community, said the issue brings up conflicting feelings.

“We see ourselves as a Westside district, right across from Culver City, but we also share some of the problems and concerns of minority areas,” she said.

But Ted Lumpkin, president of Crenshaw Neighbors, a community improvement group, said he likes the attention the area is getting from the redistricting proposal.

“Mark Ridley-Thomas is acting like he wants to represent Crenshaw, and Galanter certainly said she wants it,” Lumpkin said. “I think it’s good to have politicians vying for this area. It means it’s desirable and has a lot of potential.”

Even if approved today, the Ferraro redistricting plan is by no means a done deal. Representatives of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund have threatened a legal challenge, contending that the council plan is designed to protect incumbents and doesn’t go far enough toward helping to elect two more Latino council members.

Latinos account for about 40% of the city’s population but now hold just two seats on the 15-member council. MALDEF submitted its own redistricting plan last week.

The council has until July 1 to send Mayor Tom Bradley a map that equalizes the population in council districts to reflect changes recorded in the 1990 Census.