San Francisco’s new Meeting districts befuddle residents
The San Francisco electoral card for the two State Assembly districts could soon look very different, leaving some residents confused about who represents them in Sacramento and how best to organize politically on important issues.
In the past ten years, assembly districts 17 and 19 were largely easy to demarcate and clearly separated The City into the east and west sides. But the new maps, created by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, due for approval by Dec. 27, show vastly different polling lines instead weaving in and out of neighborhoods, dividing whole parts of the city into a new borough.
“I would ask the committee why they made these changes, but this is definitely a district with some significant changes,” said Supervisor Matt Haney, who is running in a special election for assembly district 17 in February. (The new cards wouldn’t go into effect until June.)
The commission had not answered any questions about its work by Friday.
Such a change would include areas near the Panhandle, such as Haight-Ashbury, Cole Valley, and North of Panhandle (NoPa), from District 17 to District 19 and neighborhoods such as West Portal, St. Francis Wood, and Forest Hill from District 19 in District 17.
“It is a confusing puzzle that no community of interests I know of will delineate and confuse residents’ voting rights,” said Mike Chen, a Pacific Heights resident and Assembly District 17 delegate for the California Democratic Party. When the new cards go into effect, Chen will live in District 19.
How these voting card changes will affect San Francisco politics is not yet clear.
Cally Wong, director of the Asian Pacific Islander (API) Council in San Francisco, said that while she did not need to do a full analysis of the proposed map, her first reaction was that the make-up of voters would be significantly different. Until recently, both districts were represented by a member of the Asia-American-Pacific Islander Community, Representative David Chiu, who represented District 17, and Phil Ting, who represented District 19.
“I think this could change things if we move forward,” said Wong. “I don’t yet know how this will affect the voters and who is representing whom. I think that remains to be seen. “
Every 10 years all of California is redistributed along with a new census. It is overseen by a 14-person commission made up of five Republicans, five Democrats and four people with no party preference. People apply, then get cut by the California legislature before finally being drawn through a lottery at random by the California State Auditor.
The task of this commission is to meet a daunting challenge: to create statewide constituencies that offer relatively equal representation; maintain contiguous boundaries so that all parts of a district are connected; minimize the division of “interest groups” with common priorities and lived experiences; and ensure that all people have equal opportunities to vote for representatives.
Community groups can submit their own cards, and the commission goes through months of public meetings, public comment periods, and card drafts, followed by revisions before moving on to the final product. While it is almost always a messy process, this is done in order to protect the integrity of the California voting card.
California is one of only eight states with independent reallocation commissions. Voters voted in favor of its creation in 2008 with a vote to protect against gerrymandering, which occurs across the country – and within the state – when constituency lines are drawn to silence some voices and ensure others are heard keep power.
Members of Chinatown and North Beach barely fought off potential political disenfranchisement through the redistribution process.
The Redistricting Commission originally proposed maps that drew the dividing lines for the elections along Broadway Street and Columbus Avenue. Anything north of Broadway and south of Columbus would have been placed in District 19, which would have split two of San Francisco’s oldest neighborhoods in two.
Such a rift would have jeopardized the ability of residents, many of whom are immigrant and low-income, to organize for political advocacy. It would also have separated the state-level interests of the otherwise closely-knit communities of Chinatown and North Beach.
“Our only concern was that if that part were removed, you would disenfranchise all local residents and most businesses from their respective interest groups,” said Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center. “It is very worrying because you have effectively eliminated the purpose of the meeting place.”
Community leaders in Chinatown and North Beach say they learned about these cards late in the redistribution process, so their mobilization to fight them was quick and chaotic. They held a press conference on December 17, ahead of the Commission’s final public meeting on December 19.
But it was also effective.
The commissioners have revised the map slightly and moved the line from Columbus Avenue to Jones Street.
According to Wong, this result was the “best-case scenario” given the firefighting drill situation, but acknowledged that more attention needs to be paid to state redistribution sooner next time.
“The lesson we have learned from the pandemic – and maybe now re-entering the pandemic – is that many of our immigrant communities, many of our low-income communities, are still really struggling,” Wong said. “We have to look at the redistribution much earlier because … that was almost a big problem. It would have taken power away from our most vulnerable communities. “
Many local groups devote their limited resources to advocating for county redistribution at the local level, but looking to the future, both Yeung and Wong recognized that there should be a balance with similar work nationwide.
“We are still evaluating how we got to this point, but I am just very grateful and very proud that so many local leaders have been very willing to step in to make our voice heard,” said Yeung. “That makes me pretty optimistic about where our churches are right now.”
cgraf@sfexaminer.com
