Manhattan, Hermosa, Redondo lose Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s representation
by Mark McDermott
Supervisor Jance Hahn no longer represents the Beach Cities after the County of Los Angele completed its citizen-led redistricting process. Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and Hermosa Beach were removed from Hahn’s District 4 and replaced with heavily Latino areas further inland in order to give the Board of Supervisors a second Latino-majority district.
The yearlong process represented the first time redistricting was not undertaken by the supervisors themselves but instead by a 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission.
The final decision was made on December 15 and went into effect immediately. The Beach Cities will now be a part of District 2 and represented by Supervisor Holly Mitchell, a native of Leimert Park political background has largely been within the communities of South Los Angeles.
“It is hard to say goodbye to communities I worked so hard to represent for so long, but redistricting means that the Beach Cities, along with many other communities in the County, have a Supervisor they didn’t vote for,” Hahn said. “I am going to be working closely with Supervisor Mitchell’s office during this transition to ensure the work we did in the Beach Cities continues.”
Local leaders are not pleased. Hahn was uniquely connected to the Beach Cities. She is a South Bay native who first learned to swim in Manhattan Beach and previously represented the area as a member of the U.S. Congress. She is also the daughter of the legendary late supervisor Kenneth Hahn and a deeply experienced politician who has a uniquely deep knowledge of the levers of federal, state, and local government.
Manhattan Councilperson Richard Montgomery said the loss of her representation will deeply felt in the Beach Cities.
“What we are losing is someone that’s born in the South Bay, knows our cities, knows our residents, knows our issues — regardless of her stance on Bruce’s Beach and what she did there,” Montgomery said.
Hahn of late has become best known for leading the political charge that resulted in LA County returning land taken from the Bruce family in a racially motivated use of eminent domain a century ago, a historically rare act of reparation that has garnered her and Manhattan Beach national attention. She was inspired by her father, who was the only elected official to meet with Martin Luther King when he visited Los Angeles in 1961, before he’d achieved his revered status and when he was considered a radical. When she launched that effort last April, she said that the lesson she’d learned from her father is that sometimes being on the right side of history meant taking a stance that others may find radical.
“Someone was interviewing me and they said, ‘Are you afraid to start a precedent?’ And I said, ‘I hope it does,’” Hahn said in an interview in April.
Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand expressed gratitude for what Hahn did for the Beach Cities.
“Supervisor Hahn was a great friend to the South Bay and a personal friend of mine. I am so grateful for her friendship and tireless service to our community. I already miss her, but I am looking forward to meeting and working with Supervisor Mitchell.”
Montgomery, who is on the opposite side of the political aisle from Hahn and vehemently disagrees with her stance on Bruce’s Beach, worked closely with Hahn on several issues. He said that the most significant workings of government have a lot more to do with unglamorous infrastructure and funding issues and less to do with political issues such as Bruce’s Beach. He cited the Sepulveda Bridge widening project, which will retrofit the 90-year-old bridge for earthquakes, add a traffic lane, reduce congestion and nearby neighborhood traffic flow. Hahn directed “multiple millions of dollars” into the project, Montgomery said, and its completion could very well end up preventing a traffic fatality and will certainly make an incremental improvement to local quality of life — but few will ever know that Hahn made it possible.
“It’s the unsexy things,” Montgomery said. “The Justice grants, money for our roads…Janice led the way to give us money for small businesses during COVID — grants, not loans. Some people don’t like her decision on Bruce’s Beach, I get that. But there’s a lot she has done for our schools, for our cities, for our roads, our businesses, things that no one ever talks about. That’s the sad part of this because once you lose somebody who knows your area, knows your groups, knows your people, knows our needs — no matter who we get, that person doesn’t know anything about us.”
Newly drawn Los Angeles County Supervisorial District boundaries moved the beach cities from District Four to District 2. Los Angeles County map
Hahn was a ubiquitous presence in the Beach Cities. She was routinely present at Veteran’s Day gatherings, Council meetings, 4th of July picnics, and dozens of other types of events. Montgomery recalled as a Congresswoman, Hahn still responded to his request and made it to MBPD Chief Eve Irvine’s swearing-in ceremony, which was historic because Irvine was the first female chief. And while legislative work is the bread and butter of politics at every level, knowing what to legislate for only happens by being there and knowing literally hundreds if not thousands of people by name. Montgomery recalled a few years ago when the closure of lanes on Vista Del Mar for bike lanes caused local commute times to increase drastically and he led a charge against LA Councilman Mike Bonin that was loud (Hahn called him “the brick thrower”) but perhaps not effective at brokering a compromise. Hahn knew all the players, got them all together in a room, and told them not to leave until a compromise was reached. It worked. Bonin got a lowering of parking rates at Dockweiller, and local residents got the lanes back on Vista del Mar.
“She brokered that deal by herself,” he said. “She’s the one that gets all the credit for that. Yes, I’d been beating Bonin up, but she’s the one who finally got that thing resolved.”
Hahn’s fingerprints will remain on a lot of local projects, including funding for LA Found after Nancy Paulika’s disappearance, the Homeless Court and pallet shelters in Redondo Beach, securing outreach assistance for Manhattan Beach’s homeless plan, the state’s first mobile stroke unit in Torrance, making Hermosa Beach’s Pride Tower permanent, and the installation of a wheelchair beach access mat in Manhattan Beach. She was also instrumental in speeding state reimbursements to El Segundo residents and businesses after the Hyperion spill earlier this year, and during the course of her time as supervisor locally brought nearly $1 million in funding to more than five dozen local organizations, ranging from education foundations to the Jimmy Miller Foundation to the Cancer Support Center to Grades of Green.
“Janice Hahn is going to be sorely missed throughout all the Beach Cities,” Montgomery said. “You might not even know who she is, but she has probably helped make your life better.” ER