By Lisa Awbrey, HANC President
As we all know, district based elections for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors require adjustment of supervisorial district boundaries every 10 years in order to reflect population shifts by giving each district roughly the same number of people within plus or minus 5% of the average.
The Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council Board and members engaged early and often in this most recent redistricting mapping process. Although many of us are deeply disheartened and angered by the final map that was adopted by the Redistricting Task Force at the end of April, HANC is resigned to continue to organize and engage with our neighbors around everyday issues that impact each of us. The newly adopted map has torn the Haight Ashbury asunder into 3 new districts: D5, D7 and D8.
At our June public meeting, we will discuss how to keep Haight residents and community members in surrounding neighborhoods that were formerly a part of D5 connected and together even though the new map has torn us apart. Let us aspire to continue to work together no matter which district we live in. This is most certainly not goodbye, but if anything, a wake up call and reinvigoration of our Council and our communities. Here is an opportunity to strengthen and grow our coalition beyond old boundaries.
By David Woo, HANC Vice President
HANC welcomes our new neighbors in the Tenderloin to District 5. We hope to build together around issues that face our communities and struggles for affordable housing, tenants’ rights, and supporting our houseless neighbors.
The San Francisco redistricting process was a joke. The Redistricting Task Force created a predetermined map, aimed specifically at attacking tenants, low-income and working-class residents, communities of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and established neighborhoods. The Chair of the Task Force even admitted to multiple people that he was under immense pressure from the Mayor, who had appointed him to the Task Force, to make specific changes. The impact of outside influences on certain Task Force members, in an attempt to shift the political landscape of the current districts, became abundantly clear as the months wore on in the redistricting process.
Central to the shifting boundaries in the redistricting process was District 6 and the Tenderloin. Tenderloin and South of Market residents gave testimony, submitted evidence, and spoke again and again about the deep connection and community that spans the two neighborhoods. The refusal of these two neighborhoods to be split from each other, and remain together in District 6, was a consistent demand articulated by the Black, Filipino, LGBTQ+, and Arab communities who live in these two neighborhoods.
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