LOS ANGELES : Walters Urges Expanding Olvera Street Commission
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rita Walters has proposed expanding the size of the city panel that oversees management of the park around Olvera Street, so that blacks have a chance to serve.
“Although the commissioners are of various racial composition, the board is not fully representative of the racial diversity that characterizes the ancestry of the city,” Walters said.
In her motion, Walters noted that the original settlers in the area in 1781 were made up of 11 families of Hispanic, African, Native American and mixed descent. In the mid-1800s, immigrants of Chinese, French, Anglo and Italian origin also settled in Los Angeles, Walters said.
The El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument Authority board consists of five Latinos, a Chinese American and an Italian American.
Walters wants to add two more commissioners. Her motion did not specify that African Americans be appointed to fill the new slots. The council’s Arts, Health and Humanities Committee will consider her proposal at a future hearing.
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