Who is My Representative

As a recently elected residential district director of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council of Westchester / Playa representing residential district 9, Westport Heights (North), I quickly realized that I did not know the landscape of policy influencers that affect the lives of stakeholders in our neighborhoods. I was aware that Mike Bonin was the Los Angeles City Council District (CD) 11 representative but little beyond that.

To better understand the intersection of all the influential legislative, deliberative and advocative entities that affect us on a daily basis, I started to collect data on the local, County and State-level agencies in California. I found that at each tier, there were ways to learn “who is my State Assembly representative” but there didn’t seem to be a single place to learn who all the influential forces for a particular area were. I decided to create an interactive map that would allow me and anyone else to find all of the parties interested in a particular address.

Click on snapshot above to explore your neighborhoods. Click on the eyeglass in the top left to enter an address to learn about (e.g., 1233 N McCadden Pl, Los Angeles). All of the representatives that cover the address located are presented below the map.

The representatives I started with were the Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils, LA City Councils, LA County Supervisors and the California House and Senate. I only collected data on the House and Senate members in the greater Los Angeles area but expect to collect the rest soon.

It is also important to understand how each of these agencies benefit and influence our daily lives. Many people are not aware that Los Angeles County plays a considerable role in the delivery of healthcare, emergency response, housing and family services, lifeguards at our beaches and the Sheriff’s office. This is important because in many situations such as in working to address chronic homelessness, mental health concerns or housing, the County may play a greater role than the City in providing these services.

And then, beyond these influencers, there are many others. On the coast in Southern California, we have the California Coastal Commission that “in partnership with coastal cities and counties, … regulates the use of land and water in the coastal zone.” We also have the Army Corps of Engineers that in our context “[plan, design, build and operate] water resources and other civil works projects (Navigation, Flood Risk Management, Ecosystem Restoration, Disaster Response, etc.)” such as the Ballona Creek flood control channel.

This was a fun exploration into the capabilities of the Leaflet JavaScript library for creating interactive maps and some extensions that provide additional functionality.

What are other influential agencies and organizations that have a regional presence in the Greater Los Angeles area? Oh wait, what about the Los Angeles Unified School District; on to that next.