The latest proposed San Francisco electoral map maintains the Tenderloin and central South of Market neighborhoods in the same supervisor district. But the boundaries of the city’s 11 supervisory districts are still far from being set in stone.

The panel members tasked with redrawing the supervisory districts took heed Saturday of the demand from LGBTQ advocates and residents who want to see the two historic LGBTQ neighborhoods kept together in the new District 6. It reversed their vote last month that had advanced a map that moved the Tenderloin into a new District 5 with Japantown, the Fillmore and the Haight.

At their April 2 meeting, after hearing from 182 members of the public over seven hours, the San Francisco Redistricting Task Force voted 8-1 to advance what is known as Map 4D, which can be viewed here. It maintains the Tenderloin with both central SOMA and Mission Bay.

“To me, most important is keeping the Tenderloin and central SOMA together,” said Commissioner Raynell Cooper of the main changes the public had called for in the maps.

Jose Maria (Chema) Hernández Gil moved that the panel advance Map 4D as a template for further refining the boundaries of the 11 supervisory districts in the coming two weeks. He argued for viewing the Tenderloin and central SOMA as “sister neighborhoods” that should not be broken apart.

“Splitting these communities along Market Street would break apart vulnerable communities that can and do support each other,” he noted.

Jeremy Lee, who is gay and one of two LGBTQ members of the task force, said he would not support any other map than the 4D version.

“I can not in good conscience go against the will of the public,” said Lee, adding that moving the tenderloin out of District 6 would strip its residents of their “agency and right to self determination.”

The lone no vote cast Saturday came from task force chair Rev. Arnold Townsend, who last month had argued that connecting the Tenderloin with the Fillmore, two of the city’s largest Black communities, would ensure an African American person could be elected to the Board of supervisors. He apologized if his comments violated the Voting Rights Act but defended his stance.

“My idea was not a political game,” said Townsend, who is Black.

It came, he said, from his belief that “African Americans in this city are becoming inconvenient. They are seen as in the way.”

Over the past week LGBTQ groups in the city have held two rallies to lambast seeing the Tenderloin be disconnected from central SOMA. They gathered outside City Hall prior to the Saturday meeting and again made their case during public comment.

Jupiter Peraza, who is transgender and director of social justice initiatives at the Transgender District in the Tenderloin, told the panel splitting the cultural district from central SOMA would be “undermining the efficacy, preservation and future of communities of interest.” By doing so, she added, the task force was “engaging in a biased process” that would “eventually render cultural districts and the boundaries that define them obsolete.”

Paul Aguilar, a gay man who chairs the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club’s HIV Caucus, also implored the task force to keep the Tenderloin and SOMA connected in one supervisory district. Doing so is “urgent and imperative,” he said.

Erick Arguello, a gay man who is the advocacy manager for the Glide Center for Social Justice in the Tenderloin, echoed the comments about the need to maintain the two neighborhoods under the purview of one supervisor.

“It is a moral obligation,” he told the panel.

San Francisco’s 11 supervisory districts are redrawn every 10 years based on census data so that they each have roughly similar populations. Things the task force considers include boundaries, neighborhoods, and communities of interest.

Under the proposed Map 4D the Board of Supervisors’ lone LGBTQ member would remain in his current district. Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who is up for re-election of this case, lives on the block of Valencia Street between 24th and 25th streets.

The newly proposed eastern boundary between Districts 8 and 9 would maintain that portion of Valencia Street in District 8. The line would be moved west to Guerrero Street starting at 22nd Street and run north to Market Street with a carve out along 18th and 17th streets to Church in order to put Mission High School into District 9.

At the northern and western ends of the district, the neighborhoods of Duboce Triangle, Buena Vista, and Corona Heights would be included in District 8, after members of those communities argued they wanted to remain tied with the Castro LGBTQ district by the same supervisory boundary . A previous map would have split them off into District 5.

The task force is to submit a final map to the Board of Supervisors by April 15. Its next meeting will be held at 5:30 pm Monday, April 5.

To learn more about the panel’s work and meetings, visit its website here.

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SACRAMENTO (AP / CBS SF) – Joe Biden won California and its 55 votes on Tuesday, adding to the Democratic hold on the nation’s most populous state.

California has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 1992. Four years ago, Hillary Clinton surpassed Donald Trump with more than 4 million votes. The President’s trips to California during the campaign were mostly fundraising.

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“If we continue under this administration, America will be a lost cause. We’re going to lose hope, ”said Harry Rochester, 40, a San Francisco nurse who voted for Biden.

The election came under the influence of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 17,600 people in the state to date, including Alameda County’s Deputy Sheriff Oscar Rocha in July. His widow Maureen Ennor-Rocha cast her vote for Trump on Tuesday.

“This is my first election day without him so I think this might be part of my fear,” she said. “We fly the blue line flag, we believe in the protection of our police.”

Biden’s runner-up, US Senator Kamala Harris of California, made history as the first black woman to be nominated as vice president of a major political party. She is also the first California Democrat to appear on a major party presidential ticket.

It’s been decades since the Republicans were the dominant party in California. As of 1952, the GOP won nine out of ten presidential elections and the state helped send Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to the White House.

But when Bill Clinton defeated President George HW Bush in 1992, a streak began that has now achieved eight direct victories for the Democrats, including Biden.

California Republicans were more focused on winning back some seats in the US House of Representatives after a string of losses two years ago. This included four districts that either wholly or partially contained Orange County, a former Republican stronghold. The Republicans only hold seven of the state’s 53 residences.

One of the toughest competitions is the 25th borough north of Los Angeles, where GOP MP Mike Garcia is trying again to stop Democrat Christy Smith after beating her for a seat in a special election in May due to the Democrat’s resignation Katie Hill was left open amid a home ethic probe of sexual misconduct. Also the 21st district in the Central Valley where former Republican MP David Valadao seeks to reclaim his seat from Democratic MP TJ Cox, who defeated Valadao by 862 votes in 2018.

Republican Darrell Issa has moved to a neighboring district to try to get back into the US home. The former longtime congressman stepped down in 2018 and now works in the 50th district primarily in San Diego County. The seat was left open when GOP MP Duncan Hunter pleaded guilty to a corruption charge and resigned.

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Most of the seats in the Bay Area House up for re-election on Tuesday evening were found by Democratic incumbents, who were at the top by a wide margin. San Francisco House Representative and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Oakland Representative Barbara Lee, Contra Costa County Representative Mark DeSaulnier, San Francisco / San Mateo Representative Jackie Speier, and San Jose Representatives, Ro Khanna and Zoe Lofgren, all of their races dominated from 77 percent to over 90 percent of the vote.

Anna Eshoo, another South Bay representative, led her Democratic rival Rishi Kumar by almost 67 to 33 percent.

Meanwhile, voters pondered a dozen statewide polls that could revamp property tax formulas, lift a ban on positive action, and redefine the billion-dollar business models of hail shipping companies Uber and Lyft.

The most expensive campaign involved an intense battle between companies and working groups over the future of app-based hail and delivery companies.

At stake is a 2019 law requiring companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash to treat their drivers as employees in order to guarantee them benefits like overtime, sick leave and reimbursement. The companies signed Proposition 22 to try to maintain their business model of treating drivers as independent contractors.

The companies raised around $ 200 million to campaign for the measure, while the unions raised more than $ 20 million to fight it. A state appeals court has ruled that Uber and Lyft must comply with the law, which likely makes Proposition 22 their last hope.

Voters will also choose whether to increase business tax by up to $ 12.5 billion a year by triggering a new valuation every three years, with a few exceptions for smaller businesses.

Supporters have framed the debate to increase funding for schools and local governments that rely primarily on property taxes to pay for their services. Opponents have condemned the proposal as a tax hike to cut jobs amid a pandemic-triggered economic downturn.

One of the more emotional measures on the ballot is Proposition 16, which would end the state’s ban on positive action programs for hiring, contracting and admission to public colleges and universities. The democratically controlled legislature of the state put this on the ballot this year. She believed the racial justice protests since the assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis was the right time to end the ban.

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