 | | | Image provided | | | | | | Once a decade, county districts for elective offices are redrawn in accordance with U.S. census data. In order to hear local concerns, the county is seeking input about what are known as "communities of interest." State law defines a "Community of Interest" as "a population that shares common social or economic interests that should be included within a single supervisorial district for purposes of its effective and fair representation. The county has promised to keep communities of interest, which do not include "relationships with political parties, incumbents, or candidates," together in a district.
On Sept. 20, the state of California released California redistricting data. This data differs from the U.S. census data in that it accounts for the population in state prison facilities according to their home addresses.
Contra Costa County is composed of five districts. Lamorinda currently falls into District 2, which currently contains the largest population in the district, at 243,779. The lowest population in the county is in District 1, with a population of 225,298. District 1 borders District 2 to the north-west boundary of Orinda, and includes unincorporated areas as well as El Cerrito, Richmond, San Pablo and Pinole. According to the county, based on the California Redistricting Data, equal population distribution is 233,613 per district. The current Supervisorial districts have a deviation of 7.9%.
A series of?Online Mapping Workshops?will be held to assist residents in drawing and submitting Communities of Interest to be considered in the county's Supervisorial Redistricting Process. The workshops will be hosted by DistrictR, the online mapping tool the county is making available to provide an easy way to draw and submit maps and comments.?
An online mapping workshop will be held on Oct. 14, at 2 p.m.? There is also a mapping workshop in Spanish on Oct. 13. The County's?second redistricting public hearing will be held at the Board of Supervisor's meeting at 9 a.m. Oct. 5, and will be available via Zoom, online, and on Contra Costa Television channels. A District 2 forum is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 23, at 9 a.m. at San Ramon City Hall.
There are a lot of ways to submit comments to the board of supervisors concerning redistricting and communities of interest, all of which can be found at www.CoCoRedistricting.org.? |
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA