By Alison St John
Residents from Imperial Valley to the coast turned out to a public hearing in San Diego Monday night on state and congressional redistricting. Some drove almost two hours to present their case to the Redistricting Commission. It was the last opportunity to give the 14 member Citizens’ Commission oral testimony before the final maps are drawn up in August.
Political boundary lines are redrawn every 10 years to reflect changes discovered in the census. But this is the first time the new state and congressional political boundaries are being drawn by a Citizens’ Commission rather than state legislators, thanks to propositions passed by California voters in 2008 and 2010.
The chance of better representation brought together different minority communities. Elizabeth Lew, a Sudanese refugee, spoke for a coalition that has formed to fight for a new state assembly district to represent their interests.
“In City Heights,” she said, “we have Latinos, we have African Americans, we are now comfortable with each other and we are just solid together. So I would really appreciate it to see City Heights remain in tact.”
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