Maybe you’re a longtime Angeleno who still gets confused between Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles, or perhaps you just moved into a new neighborhood and would love to join a community garden. Our civic engagement tool, Shape Your L.A., can help you navigate local institutions and get things done.
Since its launch in October 2022, a team at the Los Angeles Times has been diligently adding new features to the resource, including information on local community gardens and services. What’s new with this release? In addition to updated information on local elected officials, Shape Your L.A is now available in Spanish.
Almost 3 million voting-age Angelenos in the county report speaking Spanish at home. Now L.A.’s Spanish-speaking population can find information about their representatives and how to contact them.
Knowing your elected officials and how to interact with your local government is particularly important this year as L.A. residents will be voting in municipal, legislative, congressional and presidential races. Shape Your L.A. can remind you what district you cast a ballot in and how to check if you’re registered to vote.
The deadline for registering online or by mail for Tuesday’s primary has passed. Still, if you’re eligible, you can vote after submitting a conditional voter application.
Your boundaries and much more
All you need to do to unlock this “people’s guide to power” is to type in your address and select the issues you are interested in. The app will show your district boundaries and provide information on how to access services in the county’s 88 cities.
The web app lets you download a map of your district boundaries, like this one created for an address in the city of Los Angeles.
(Shape Your L.A.)
While learning how local institutions affect your daily life, you can enjoy beautiful illustrations and explainers that aim to make bureaucracy less mysterious and intimidating.
In the past, we’ve suggested some ideas on how to use the tool. Here are three other cool features:
You can print a PDF with the names and titles of all your local, state and federal representatives. If you have school-aged children, it may even help with a homework assignment.
You can see the literal “shape” of your L.A. and download a map with your district boundaries. It is a fascinating visual representation of how Los Angeles is a jigsaw puzzle of councils and boards.
The essence of Shape Your L.A. is that it gives you actionable information to make your voice heard. Emails and phone numbers for representatives, details about council meetings and links to complaint and help lines are all provided based on the address you input. If you submit a complaint to your local police or request a service, we’d like to know about it. Did that pothole get fixed? Let us know.
What would you want us to include next in Shape Your L.A.? Please send us your comments through the feedback form. You can help shape this civic engagement tool.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
