Los Angeles City Council District 7
Encyclopedia
Los Angeles City Council District 7 is one of the 15 districts of the Los Angeles City Council
Los Angeles City Council
The Los Angeles City Council is the governing body of the City of Los Angeles.The Council is composed of fifteen members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The president of the council and the president pro tempore are chosen by the Council at the first regular meeting after...
. It covers much of the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
. The current council member is Richard Alarcón
Richard Alarcón
Richard Anthony Alarcón is a California politician who is currently a Los Angeles City Councilman. A Democrat, he has previously served in the California State Senate and, for approximately three months, in the California State Assembly.Alarcón first served as an assistant to Los Angeles Mayor Tom...
.
Modern
The Seventh District includes the neighborhoods of Pacoima, Lake View Terrace, Panorama City, Mission Hills, North Hills and Sylmar.See official city map outlining District 7.
Historic
A new city charter effective in 1925 replaced the former "at large" voting systemPlurality-at-large voting
Plurality-at-large voting is a non-proportional voting system for electing several representatives from a single multimember electoral district using a series of check boxes and tallying votes similar to a plurality election...
for a nine-member council with a district system with a 15-member council. Each district was to be approximately equal in population, based upon the voting in the previous gubernatorial election; thus redistricting was done every four years. (At present, redistricting is done every ten years, based upon the preceding U.S. census results.) The numbering system established in 1925 for City Council districts began with No. 1 in the north of the city, the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
, and ended with No. 15 in the south, the Harbor area.
At the beginning, the Seventh District was situated south of Downtown
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
. It was moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1956 after Councilman Don A. Allen
Don A. Allen
Not to be confused with Charles A. Allen, Los Angeles City Council member, 1941–47.Don A. Allen, also known as Don A. Allen, Sr., was a member of the California State Assembly in the 1940s and 1950s and of the Los Angeles City Council between 1947 and 1956.-Biography:Allen was born on May 13, 1900...
was elected to the State Assembly.
1925: Bounded on the north by Jefferson Boulevard, on the south by Slauson Boulevard, on the west by Vermont Avenue
Vermont Avenue
Vermont Avenue is one of the longest running north/south streets in Los Angeles, California with a length of about . Located just west of the Harbor Freeway for the major portion south of Downtown Los Angeles, it starts in Griffith Park at the Greek Theatre in the Los Feliz neighborhood as a...
and on the east by South Park Avenue.
1926: 46th Street, Jefferson Boulevard, Vermont and Alameda avenues, with district headquarters at 529 West 41st Place.
1928: Same as above, with the addition of the Exposition-Vermont-Vernon-Arlington area.
1932: On the east by Alameda Avenue, on the west by Crenshaw Boulevard, on the north by Exposition Boulevard and on the south by Vernon Avenue.
1937: On the west by Crenshaw Boulevard, on the north by Exposition Boulevard, on the east by the city boundary with Vernon
Vernon, California
Vernon is a city five miles south of downtown Los Angeles, California. The population was 112 at the 2010 United States Census, the smallest of any incorporated city in the state....
and on the south by Vernon Avenue.
1940: Same as above.
1947. It was noted that the district's population was "nearly 50 per cent Negro."
1956: Move to the San Fernando Valley. North: City boundary; south: Riverside Drive; east, Coldwater Canyon and Woodman avenues; west, generally Balboa Boulevard.
1961: Van Nuys, Sepulveda, Granada Hills and Sylmar.
1986: Panorama City, part of Sun Valley and Sylmar.
1993: A 70 percent Latino and 19 percent African-American district that covered "much of the northeast Valley" encompassing "one of Los Angeles's poorest areas" and containing "the shuttered General Motors plant in Van Nuys as well as Blythe Street in Panorama City, one of the Valley's most drug-infested areas until a police crackdown." Registered voters were 39 percent Anglo, 30 percent Latino and 19 percent African-American.
Officeholders
The district has been represented by nine men and no women. They have been:Downtown
- Ralph Luther CriswellRalph Luther CriswellRalph Luther Criswell , first a Socialist and then a Republican, was a member of the Los Angeles City Council for ten years in the early 20th Century...
, 1925–27 - Howard W. DavisHoward W. DavisHoward W. Davis was a member of the California State Assembly for two years and of the Los Angeles City Council for 16 years. He was indicted on charges of accepting bribes to influence his actions as a city official but was cleared on one count and never tried on the others, which were...
, 1927–35 and 1937–39 - Will H. KindigWill H. KindigWilliam Harvey Kindig , known as Will H. Kindig or W.H. Kindig, was a candidate for California state controller in 1934, Los Angeles City Council member from 1935 to 1937 and a sponsor of the Ham and Eggs movement for old-age pensions in California in 1939.-Biography:Kindig moved to California...
, 1935–37 - Carl C. RasmussenCarl C. RasmussenCarl Christian Rasmussen was a Lutheran minister who was also a member of the Los Angeles, California, City Council between 1939 and 1947.-Biography:...
, 1939–47 - Don A. AllenDon A. AllenNot to be confused with Charles A. Allen, Los Angeles City Council member, 1941–47.Don A. Allen, also known as Don A. Allen, Sr., was a member of the California State Assembly in the 1940s and 1950s and of the Los Angeles City Council between 1947 and 1956.-Biography:Allen was born on May 13, 1900...
, 1947–57
San Fernando Valley
- James C. CormanJames C. CormanJames Charles Corman was a Los Angeles City Council member from 1957 to 1961 and a Democratic Congressman from California between 1961 and 1981.-General:...
, 1957–61 - Ernani BernardiErnani BernardiErnani Bernardi , known also as Noni Bernardi, was a big-band musician turned politician in Los Angeles, California. He represented District 7 on the City Council there from 1961 to 1993—at 32 years the second-longest-serving council member in the history of the city...
, 1961–93 - Richard AlarcónRichard AlarcónRichard Anthony Alarcón is a California politician who is currently a Los Angeles City Councilman. A Democrat, he has previously served in the California State Senate and, for approximately three months, in the California State Assembly.Alarcón first served as an assistant to Los Angeles Mayor Tom...
, 1993–98 and 2007– - Alex PadillaAlex PadillaAlejandro "Alex" Padilla is a California State Senator. He was elected as the state senator for California's 20th State Senate district in November 2006 and was inaugurated in early December. Prior to serving in the Senate he served 7½ years on the Los Angeles City Council representing the 7th...
, 1999–2004