Koreatown follows up on its promise to sue city over redistricting map

Ruxandra Guidi/KPCC

Koreatown residents sit in an L.A. City Council hearing on Wednesday, March 7, 2012, in protest over the new redistricting.

Many people who live in Koreatown were unhappy with the final L.A. City Council redistricting map, which they say undermines their representation.

So unhappy, in fact, that they threatened to sue the city — a threat they're now officially standing behind after local law firms Akin Gump and Bird Marella took on the suit pro bono.

For many months, Koreans and Korean Americans in L.A. have been publicly mobilizing like never before to protest the redistricting process.

The new district map, they say, reconfigures their neighborhood in such a way that the community will lose any chance of electing the first Korean representative to the City Council.

They’ve also complained that the mapping commission was working behind closed doors, ignoring public comments.