I wrote earlier this week about leaders in the Asian community who want to influence the redistricting process that will establish boundaries for San Diego’s ninth City Council district.
They want to create a seat on the council that will be an Asian seat, much like the District 4 and District 8 seats in southern San Diego that are considered African-American and Latino.
So they’re focusing their push on carving out a new district in a chunk of northern San Diego they think will give them the best shot of electing an Asian representative to the council. The area includes Mira Mesa, Rancho Peñasquitos, and possibly parts of University City and Carmel Valley. Those four neighborhoods have large and growing populations of Asian residents.
So what do the numbers look like? Here’s a snapshot from data compiled by the San Diego Association of Governments:
Mira Mesa
Overall population: 78,102
Asian population: 35,296
Total: 45 percent
Rancho Peñasquitos
Overall population: 49,833
Asian population: 15,453
Total: 31 percent
University City
Overall population: 62,509
Asian population: 14,441
Total: 23 percent
Carmel Valley
Overall population: 36,089
Asian population: 6,860
Total: 19 percent
Total Asian population in those four communities: 72,050
According to Sandag estimates, there are about 215,000 Asian and Pacific Islander residents across the city. Those four neighborhoods account for almost 34 percent of the Asian population citywide.
Mitz Lee, a former school board member and one of the leaders of the effort to establish an Asian district, said the numbers and the requirement that a council district be geographically compact make those communities of northern San Diego the most logical place to try to create an Asian seat.
— ADRIAN FLORIDO