Padilla to Focus on Services to His District

In taking the oath of office Tuesday, Los Angeles City Council member Alex Padilla sounded much the same theme that got him elected--that his priority will be to increase basic city services to his working-class district so that it gets its fair share.

“I do believe the northeast Valley is not getting its fair share of city resources,” Padilla said.

A review of city service levels finds that in some ways, the 251,900 residents of the 7th District are getting their fair share and more, but in many other ways they do lag behind other parts of the city.

One area where the district does well in comparison with others is in parkland: Padilla’s district has 1,613 acres of parkland, a greater amount than the citywide average of 1,015 acres per council district.

The 7th District has 8% of the city’s streets, in mileage, but received 8.4% of the street repaving work last year.

But the district represents 7% of the city’s population, and:

* has 3.6% of the city’s 234,000 street lights. There are 8,500 street lights in the district, nearly half as many as the citywide average of 15,600 lights per council district.

* has 4.4% of the city’s libraries.

* has 3.9% of the city’s fire stations.

Only one of the city’s 30 DASH shuttle bus lines is located in the 7th District.

* There are 312 officers assigned to the LAPD’s Foothill Division, compared with the citywide average of 340.

* The average police emergency response time in the Foothill Division is 7.8 minutes, slower than the citywide average of 6.7 minutes.

Padilla said he has two strategies for getting more services for the district: rallying residents to demand better services, and establishing close relationships with department managers who have the power to affect the level of services.

“I’m looking forward to establishing positive productive working relationships with each of the departments,” Padilla said. “The departments sometimes have been an obstacle to progress but they are also our biggest tool in being constructive.”