Redistricting Choices Stir Controversy : Government: The City Council appears ready to adopt a plan recommended by a 15-member task force. It includes three minority districts, but some Latinos are unhappy.

Whether the political destinies of the city’s most impoverished neighborhood and one of its most affluent areas should remain combined or be divided dominated debate once again on city redistricting Tuesday at a forum before the City Council.

Representatives of Latino groups also expressed some dissatisfaction with the odd-shaped City Council district that has been proposed to concentrate Latino strength.

At a 1 3/4-hour City Council hearing, proponents of keeping the upscale Linda Vista-Annandale community in the same council district with predominantly low-income Northwest Pasadena were about as numerous and passionate as those who favored splitting the communities.

The issue focused once again on whether or not there is a “community of interest” between the two neighborhoods, which are separated by the Arroyo Seco.

“We fought to stay together, and we want to stay together,” said the Rev. David Scott, one of dozens of participants who wore red tags saying: “Diversity Without Division.”

“Linda Vista is a different world from Northwest Pasadena,” Harry Washington rejoined, “ . . . as different as night is to day.”

The council will vote next week on a 10-year redistricting plan. It appears all but certain that the council will adopt the plan recommended by a 15-member task force after 11 months of deliberations. It would establish two districts dominated by black voters and one with a largely Latino population.

The task force plan is the only one being considered by the council, which must submit a plan to the county registrar-recorder’s office by the end of June. Six out of seven council members have, in remarks to The Times, given the plan grudging support. Councilman William Paparian has not commented.

Task force members say they were limited by federal laws and court decisions, which dictated that the city’s new council map include a predominantly Latino district without diluting black voting strength. According to 1990 Census figures, Latinos constitute more than 27% of the city’s population.

But representatives of Latino groups complained that the task force’s Latino-dominated district left out large concentrations of Pasadena’s Spanish-speaking residents.

“It’s like taking a shard of glass and just dropping it,” environmental designer David Diaz said, pointing at a map with an unruly configuration near the center of the city, the task force’s designated Latino district. “There are major groups of Latinos in four districts.”

City Atty. Victor Kaleta, who worked with the task force, acknowledged that Latino neighborhoods were split.

The task force’s difficulty had been in trying to maximize both Latino voting strength and population in a single district without diluting black voting strength, Kaleta said.

Frank Rocha, a Linda Vista resident, said the task force plan could be “an invitation to a lot of litigation” from Latino groups.

Some black residents worried that the proposed map will reinstitute a system of segregation in the city.

“You’re asking for a racial war,” said Stephen Mack, a former Pasadena NAACP president, who was wary of placing all of the city’s affluent residents in a single district. “You know very well they’re going to join hands,” he said.

“Come on,” Northwest resident Regina Jackson said. “Certain sections of the city are already segregated.”

Only one speaker raised the issue of the Rose Bowl, which, in the task force map, becomes part of Northwest Pasadena. “So much is happening with the Rose Bowl--Guns N’ Roses, UCLA games,” Linda Vista resident John Mazur said. “I don’t want that to leave my district.”