Los Angeles City Council District 8  Los Angeles City Council District 8 is one of the 15 districts of the Los Angeles City Council, representing much of western South Los Angeles. The current council member is Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who took office on 1 July 2015. The preceding council member was Bernard C. Parks, from 2003 to June 2015. The 8th District includes the neighborhoods of: Baldwin Hills, Chesterfield Square, Crenshaw, Leimert Park, Jefferson Park, West Adams and other communities of western South Los Angeles. Los Angeles City Council District 9 represents neighborhoods and communities in eastern South Los Angeles. For all the communities represented, see the official City of Los Angeles map of District 8. A new city charter effective in 1925 replaced the former "at large" voting system for a nine-member council with a district system with a 15-member council. Each district was to be approximately equal in population, based upon the voting in the previous gubernatorial election; thus redistricting was done every four years. (At present, redistricting is done every ten years, based upon the preceding U.S. census results.) The numbering system established in 1925 for City Council districts began with No. 1 in the north of the city, the San Fernando Valley, and ended with No. 15 in the south, the Harbor area. As the city's population expanded to the west, the 8th District's boundaries gradually shifted that way as well. Areas covered over the years have been:  1925: South of Washington Street, north of Jefferson on the western side and north of Slauson Avenue on the eastern side, bounded on the east by Alameda Street and the Vernon city line.  1926: Bounded by 47th Street, Vermont Avenue, Florence Avenue and Alameda Street.  1928: Same as before, with the addition of an area bounded by Central Avenue, Manchester Avenue, Vermont Avenue and Florence Avenue.  1929: "Extreme southwest." 1932–33: ". . . due to the exceptional growth of the western part of the city, a general movement toward the ocean was necessary." East boundary: Central Avenue. North: Vernon Avenue. West: Vermont Avenue. South: Century Boulevard.  1935: Roughly the same as in 1932.  1937: North: 45th Street or 48th Street. East: Alameda Street. South: Manchester Avenue. West: Vermont Avenue.  1940: "The general trend is westward and northeastward, due to heavy construction in the San Fernando Valley and the beach areas."