Patrick Range McDonaldIn the current issue of L.A. Weekly, the feature story “Democratic War for L.A.'s Richest” takes a look at the hard-fought, highly contentious political race for California Assembly District 50 — one of the wealthiest, most celebrity-packed, left-winger districts in the entire country.
It also happens to be where a whole bunch of white people live — in the above map, which shows the black population in AD 50, there's just a sprinkling of African-American folks in the southeastern section of the district.
“[AD 50] is the remaining bastion of white L.A.,” geographer Paul Robinson told us for the article.
Here are more maps that Robinson drew up for the Weekly that show what he means. The pink areas in the maps are generally where the white people live and the various shades of red are where other folks reside, depending on the map.
Latino population in AD 50; Credit: Paul Robinson
In this map, the Latino population in AD 50 is more spread out than the black population. Seventy-two percent of voting-age residents in AD 50 are white, 11 percent are Asian and 11 percent are Latino. Just 4 percent are black.
The district runs from Malibu and the Pacific Ocean in the west through Topanga Canyon, Santa Monica, Bel Air, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, the Hollywood Hills, Hollywood, Hancock Park and a sliver of Koreatown in the east.
As we reported in the feature story, political candidates Torie Osborn, Betsy Butler, Richard Bloom and Brad Torgan are not trying to create an often-used L.A. coalition of blacks, Latinos and white liberals for a winning campaign. As these maps show and Robinson points out, they really don't have to — the white vote will reign supreme.
Asian population in AD 50; Credit: Paul Robinson
The above map shows the Asian population in AD 50, which is more clustered around Koreatown and Park La Brea. Robinson doesn't expect Asian or black voters to show up in large numbers in the June primary. Front runners Betsy Butler and Torie Osborn may very well win in the “top two” primary slots and face each other in a runoff in November in this hotly contested race.
Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.
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