East Los Angeles resident Kristie Hernandez remembers the excitement and anticipation that she felt as she prepared to vote for the first time in November 2001. But when she arrived at the polling place, she was surprised to find that the candidates for the Los Angeles mayoral race were not listed on her ballot.
When she inquired with an employee at the polling place, Hernandez learned that East Los Angeles is unincorporated and does not have municipal representation.
“It was a rude awakening, and, as you can imagine, I was really disappointed,” Hernandez said.
Encompassing seven square miles and home to around 120,000 residents, East Los Angeles is the largest unincorporated community in California. Like the other 5 to 6 million Californians who live in unincorporated communities, residents of East Los Angeles lack local representation, with no mayor or city council.
The only form of local representation East Los Angeles has is a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Hilda Solis, who is currently the supervisor for District 1 of Los Angeles County, holds decision-making authority over the area’s developments and services. However, this form of governance does not provide for a direct focus on the East Los Angeles community, as Solis represents two million residents across her district.
In addition to a lack of representation, the area also suffers from a lack of local resources. Incorporated cities have the ability to provide their residents with their own municipal services. East Los Angeles, in contrast, relies on county services, which are more limited, for law enforcement, public works, and other resources.
As a result, residents of East Los Angeles are calling for cityhood in order to gain more local services, as well as financial transparency, from the county.
In 2024, former assemblymember and current state Senate candidate Wendy Carrillo introduced Assembly Bill 2986. If passed, the bill would have required the Los Angeles Formation Commission for the County of Los Angeles to conduct a fiscal study on the feasibility of allowing East Los Angeles to become its own city or special district – a type of local government created by communities to provide essential local services. LALAFCO is an independent public agency with jurisdiction over the formation, dissolution, and expansion of cities and special districts in Los Angeles County.
However, although AB 2986 advanced through committees and the Assembly, it was not passed into law. At the request of Senator Lena Gonzalez, the bill was ordered on the Senate inactive file, where it died.
AB 2986 constituted the fourth unsuccessful effort in the past 63 years to incorporate East Los Angeles. The most recent proposal before then, in 2012, was denied by LALAFCO.
Paul Novak, executive officer of LALAFCO, said that the commission determined East Los Angeles was “not close at all” to being economically viable during their 2012 review. According to Novak, LALAFCO’s review concluded that granting East Los Angeles cityhood would result in a $17 million deficit in its first year of incorporation.
When asked if any changes could be made in East Los Angeles that would result in the community being deemed economically viable by the county government, Novak responded, “I do not know if the revenues will ever be there and be sufficient for East Los Angeles to become a city.”
Novak pointed to the lack of commercial land in East Los Angeles as one of the reasons it is not financially feasible in the eyes of the county.
East Los Angeles is surrounded by cities such as Los Angeles, Commerce, and Montebello. Some of these cities have previously annexed commercially successful parts of East Los Angeles, including East Los Angeles College and businesses along Whittier Boulevard. These annexations were approved by LALAFCO.
What emerges is a vicious cycle: after approving the annexation of commercial areas, LALAFCO uses the lack of commercial areas as a justification for denying requests for cityhood.
Genesis Coronado, an East Los Angeles resident who is an advocate for cityhood, is frustrated that East Los Angeles stands at an impasse – that it is facing annexation while remaining unincorporated.
“Those same entities that have allowed for this to happen get to turn around and say, ‘guess what? Now you are too poor to become a city,’” Coronado said. “No one should be told that because of their zip code, because of their limited resources as a family, as a household, as a community, that they should be denied a local voice.”
This February and March, a series of community forums have given East Los Angeles residents the opportunity to explore the possibility of a Municipal Advisory Council. If established, a citizen-led MAC would enable community residents to directly advise the county board of supervisors about issues unique to their area. However, the MAC would not have the power to enact laws, approve budgets, or lead any county operations.
While a MAC could benefit East Los Angeles citizens by providing them a more direct avenue to share their perspectives with the supervisors, Hernandez pointed out that the community forums may not generate constructive progress.
“People think it is a venting session, but nothing gets done,” Hernandez said.
Ultimately, the establishment of a MAC could still be seen as a net positive, but only incorporation and cityhood will rectify the lack of local representation and financial transparency in East Los Angeles.
“I am hopeful that we are going to have a new supervisor that is really going to sit down with us and support us,” Hernandez said. “We also are really building that momentum. We have a lot more folks that are now getting involved…and now they are outraged that this is how we are being treated, that we have no local voice. And that sentiment is going to build the power that we need to move forward. It is going to take time, but we are all here for the long run, and we are all here to continue fighting for our community.”
Featured Image Source: California Unincorporated