Since San Diego started electing Council members by district in 1988, district representation has generally been seen as good for communities of color.
But after watching the latest redistricting process, community activist Barry Pollard is now wondering whether that’s still true.
The process, he said, was still controlled by the wealthier and whiter communities, at the expense of the communities of color who, collectively, now represent more than half of the city’s population.
As long as that’s the case, he asks, would Black, Latino and Asian American communities be better off electing officials citywide again?
“The numbers are the numbers,” he said, in an interview for Maya Srikrishnan’s new story on district representation in the city. “The minorities are going to be the majority.”
At the same time, other advocates are wondering whether San Diego’s nine Council districts for its 1.4 million people are enough. Other cities elect council members with far fewer constituents, and some advocates think the city could be more representative with smaller districts.
““If you have more districts, you have more options and opportunities to create appropriate representation,” said Adrian Kwiatkowski, a lobbyist who recently ran for city council, and who was on the city’s charter review committee in 2010, which put a measure before voters to increase the council from eight to nine districts.
Most Memorable Quotes of 2021
San Diegans had a lot to say this year … a lot. We endured a pandemic, witnessed an insurrection at our nation’s capital, prepared our kids for in-person classes and celebrated the return of some in-person concerts and sporting events.
As part of our annual Voice of San Diego end of year tradition, Randy Dotinga rounded up some of the best, and worst, quotes of 2021.
One of our favorites: “A wrong-way driver would not even see the sign. It is facing the wrong way.” – a user on Reddit commenting on the bizarrely worded local freeway signs that urged drivers to “SAVE LIVES/DRIVE SOBER/NOT WRONG WAY.”
In Other News
- Holiday Bowl canceled: The first football game in Petco Park ever turned out not to be the first football game in Petco Park, ever. The UCLA football team faced an outbreak of COVID-19 positive tests and administrators decided they could not safely field a football team. As one still distraught Padres fan put it, it was only the second-worst collapse at Petco Park in 2021. Converting Petco Park into a football stadium cost $2.2 million. The city contributed $650,000 of that and it was all a massive undertaking. (Union-Tribune)
- Unrelated: A balloon of a football at the Holiday Bowl parade ran into a pole and deflated.
- Can’t stop, won’t stop: Organizers said they were trying to find another team to play NC State. Because NC State is mad.
- Nearly 25 percent of all police use-of-force cases in the city are again at Black people, who represent just six percent of the city’s population. (Union-Tribune)
- Building industry pros are awaiting changes to government fire maps that could set off stricter building codes. The maps categorize areas based on fire threat level. (inewsource)
- San Diego County has followed guidance from the Center of Disease Control that now says asymptomatic COVID patients need to quarantine for only five days after a positive test, instead of 10. (City News Service)
- COVID-19 hospitalizations in the county, meanwhile, have surpassed 400. (City News Service)
- A renewable energy company is rolling out energy storage projects in 12 locations throughout San Diego County, in hopes of making the region’s energy grid both more reliable and more efficient. (Union-Tribune)
- There was another incident of unexplained abrupt, brief shaking in San Diego, the third this year, NBC 7 San Diego reports.
This Morning Report was written by Andrew Keatts, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Scott Lewis.