John Clifford: Pomona Redistricting

It’s redistricting time again in Pomona. If you haven’t been aware, and I’m guessing by the attendance at the independent redistricting commission meetings that most of you aren’t, new district lines will be drawn for Pomona which will be in use for at least the next 10 years. Draft maps have been proposed and are available for public scrutiny. You can view all of the maps (including those that were not considered because they were not population balanced) at: https://drawpomona.org/draft-maps/.

The key to the new maps is to draw balanced maps. That is, where each district has nearly the same population numbers. In addition, you try to balance areas of common interest so that districts are not breaking up neighborhoods or ethnic enclaves. You can try your hand at map drawing at https://districtr.org/plan. Maps can then be saved and submitted to the commission for consideration. Additional maps may be proposed prior to February 10 if you want to get in on the fun.

The challenge in drawing balanced maps is that currently D6 is overpopulated and needs to be made smaller, and D5 is underpopulated and needs to be made larger. Since these two districts are at the extreme north (all north of the 10 freeway) and southwest, it will impact all the other districts as well.

Below are my personal opinions regarding the draft maps currently under consideration.

Of the maps which were under review at the January meeting, I have a preference for map #105. While maps are anonymous, I suspect that map 105 was drawn by an older white dude, probably the kind of guy who wears suspenders and hats with a feather in the band. This map is population balanced and in compliance with the fair maps act and other Federal and State requirements.

To make D6 smaller, it takes areas north of the 10 freeway to the extreme eastern corner of the city and moves them into D4. This keeps Fairplex, Ganesha Hills, Mountain Meadows, and the Hospital district in D6, while moving a wholly residential area into D4. My personal interest is to maintain the historic districts as common communities of interest and this map maintains Lincoln Park in D4, Wilton in D1, and Hacienda in D6.

Additionally it takes the historic downtown area from being split up between 4 council districts and consolidates it into D1. I feel that this gives downtown residents a unified voice on the council. I believe in the past that it was considered that businesses would benefit from having 4 councilmembers representing those interests. Open for debate.

As for D5, this map maintains the western side of the district and moves the district more into the southern part of the city.

A map which was preferred by the commission chair was map 104:

This map reduces D6 by moving D1 into the Mountain Meadows, Ganesha Park, and Fairplex areas into D1. This would maintain the hospital district and concentrate the rest of D6 to the northeast corner of the city. The rest of the districts are similar in shape to map 105. One of the problems that I see is that D1 under this plan would be 1.54% over populated (maps must be within 10% of equal so this is OK), but that doesn’t take into account that with the not counted development at the Pomona North railroad station, this will probably be out of balance within the next 10 years and cause rebalancing in 2031.

One commissioner liked map 108 because it would create all 6 districts with over 50% Hispanic voting age population. While I understand the historic issue of making districts to exclude Hispanic population, I’m not crazy about using redistricting to exclude any race. All other maps would have at least one district with ranged around 47% Hispanic. All other districts will have 50%+ Hispanic population as reflected by the majority Hispanic population of the city.