The group responsible for redrawing political districts in a city that is
The group responsible for redrawing political districts in a city that is one-third Asian until this week did not have a single Asian American member.
But on Tuesday, the city’s Board of Supervisors voted 11-0 to appoint Jenny Lam, director of community initiatives for Chinese for Affirmative Action, to San Francisco’s Redistricting Task Force, the World Journal reported.
The task force is a nine-member panel responsible for redrawing the boundaries for San Francisco’s 11 supervisorial districts to maintain a relatively equal population balance, according to population shifts recorded in the 2010 census. In the past decade, San Francisco’s Asian population grew by nearly 12 percent, from 239,565 to 267,915. The growth pushed Asians from 30.8 percent of the city’s total to 33.3 percent, according to calculations by The Bay Citizen’s census data app.
In an interview with the World Journal before the vote, Lam said because the new supervisorial districts will have a direct impact on election results over the next 10 years, the redistricting process must be fair and open, allowing different ethnic communities to participate. Lam said she would bring her track record of advocating for equal rights to the task force and welcomed a wide range of opinions.
The mayor, Board of Supervisors and the city’s Elections Commission each get three appointments to the task force. The Board of Supervisors’ other two picks were Eric McDonnell and Mike Alonso. The Elections Commission appointed David Pilpel, Mark Schreiber and Melissa Tidwell. Mayor Ed Lee has not yet released his nominations, but Supervisors Jane Kim and Scott Wiener have expressed hope that the task force would have more female and LGBT representation, respectively. The mayor has until July 8 to make his selections.