Thread by @willplancal

For the final night of @RedistrictSF April 13 public meeting, I tried to present slides to all 11 districts. I developed this map with D5, 6, 10 & 11 in mind. My map does not dilute the Black vote in any district. #SanFrancisco has lost 60 percent of its Black pop. since 1970.

My standard deviations were generally within 3 standard deviations except for my D8, matching the inverse of RDTF’s D8. I don’t know why the @RedistrictSF task force required this high bar. one day, they recanted, saying it was impossible. But it wasn’t.

My District 1 keeps much of Richmond, Jordan Park, Laurel Heights and Presidio Heights intact, relying on Fulton, Great Highway and California as major boundaries that people know and can point to easily.

District 2 has much stronger boundaries than say the RDTF D5. It keeps the waterfront united from the Cliff House to Mission Bay which is great for combating sea level rise. Emerging communities in East Cut, Rincon, Mission Bay, South Beach and FiDi are together.

District 3 joins Pac Heights with the Chinatown, North Beach and Nob Hill neighborhoods east of Van Ness. It also includes portions of the FiDi and Lower Nob Hill aka the TenderNob.

District 4 unites the Outer Sunset, Parkside and Inner Sunset north of Judah and west of Arguello. It cedes tracts adj. Pine Lake Park and Stern Grove to 7.

My District 5 has my best deviation, +0.06. It’s based upon the maps that destroyed the Black and Japanese communities there in the 1960s. I was baptized at Sacred Heart, a Black gospel Catholic Church in D5 that’s now gone.

My District 6 map keeps the Tenderloin, Mid-Market, and South of Market whole, respecting lines of the established @SOMAPilipinas and @SFLeatherDist. @RedistrictSF splits this redevelopment area from the Tenderloin, with which it has been intrinsically linked for decades.

My District 7 map keeps the majority of West of Twin Peaks whole, linking D7 denizens to the retail districts in West Portal and Stonestown rather than severing Inner Sunset from D4. It keeps Sunnyside and Golden Gate Heights whole. It retains Merced Triangle and Merced Manor.

My D8, which is my native hood, retains Castro, Corona Heights, Noe, Diamond Heights, and Glen Park, with some expansion into Cole Valley and near UCSF to balance pop. deviation. It’s also contains a previous redevelopment area that I kept whole.

My D9 west border is Guerrero-San Jose from Duboce Avenue to Glen Park BART. Historically this border was Church Street. Portola stays with the Mission in my map, which strengthens the Latino vote there.

My District 10 aligns Potrero Hill with Bayview and Visitacion Valley, strengthening the Black vote. It also retains landmarks important to the Black community: @ChaseCenter , @UCSFHospitals and @ZSFGCare. A Black Catholic Gospel church shuttered here too.

The impacts of redevelopment continue to plague this community which suffers the highest unemployment rate in San Francisco. District lines should uplift D10 not divide it.

I currently live in D11, where my aunts bought houses in the 50s and 70s. One still lives here. One is displaced. Two Black churches have been divided from D10 since the last #redistricting. My map and the RDTF map unites these. one small victory the Black community achieved.

#SanFrancisco #Redistricting should be a holistic process where past harms against the most vulnerable communities should be acknowledged. Our communities deserve to be made whole. Many of these neighborhoods pushed for better parks, programs, schools. Uniting them helps us all.

Maybe a historian, geographer & a planner should be non-voting resources to future committees. keeping the map the same for more than 24 hours would allow for greater community participation. Maybe allowing a 2 week review period with more outreach and media can boost engagement.

We know our community boundaries are steeped in past harms to specific communities. It’s important that we uplift those communities. Whether required by the charter or not, there are San Francisco values we have cherished for at least the past four decades that I’ve been alive.

I hope that however the map moves forward, we use this process as a learning experience. We may need to review the City Charter and understand what changes to this process might increase public input and access. I found myself giving public comment at 4am for my 1st time ever.

I gave public comment while working a gig job. I lost hours of sleep to participate in a process where I actually as a resident developed a map that worked better than the approved map, yet my map was never discussed. I was never heard in the @RedistrictSF process.

I also used the map tool on the @sfgov website, that crashed on me on several occasions. I never was able to fully craft an 11 District map because of glitches. The map tool should be redesigned to ensure we can use it and provide complete maps.

We have a lot of work to ensure this process can be a better one ten years from now. I’ve included some more incomplete maps below. Thank you for attending my tweet talk.

Sorry. Divided from D11. New Providence Baptist Church was severed from it’s Black D11 roots and placed in District 7 last #SanFrancisco #redistricting. The @RedistrictSF pondered moving Historically Black @ThirdBaptistSF Church from D5 to D8.

These churches have organized civil rights movements, food pantries, emergency housing vouchers. The Black Panther Party organized free hot lunch programs in my now defunct Black church turned roller skate rink commune where whites now reside in the nunnery.

This is our lives @RedistrictSF task force. Please consider Black Lives as you deliberate.

Correction: 16th St to Glen Park. My D6 comes south of the Central Freeway to account for losing the growth of Mission Bay and South Beach-Rincon-East Cut that is absorbed into waterfront D2.