The Tenderloin will be removed from District 6, Potrero Hill will remain in District 10, and Supervisor Mandelman will not be drawn out of his District 8 under a finally approved “final draft map” from a wildly contentious SF redistricting process.
The city of San Francisco redraws its supervisor districts every ten years based on the latest Census data, generally a political-nerd process which attracts little public interest. But this year’s redistricting process has been more akin to a WrestleMania match, with attempts to have committee members removed, members storming out of meetings, and ultimately, the SF Redistricting Task Force defying its legal deadline amidst charges Mayor London Breed had improperly tampered in their work. Oh and for good measure, members of the public are suing the task force.
San Francisco Redistricting Task Force voted 5-4 to adopt the final map draft, with mixed reaction from the audience.
Major changes:
Potrero Hill back to D10
Portola back to D9
Tenderloin split from SoMa & D6 pic.twitter.com/KNgp8P4PJk— Han Li 李晗 (@lihanlihan) April 22, 2022
But lo and behold, City and County of San Francisco, the Redistricting Task Force finally approved a new supervisor district map late Thursday night, according to the Chronicle. As seen above, they approved the supervisor district map just before 10 p.m. (which is great for them, because these meetings have lately been going until like 3 or 4 a.m.), to a smattering of applause and boos from the roughly three dozen people in the audience.
It’s a version of what had been called the “healing map,” though opponents are calling it the “blow up map.” (There has been plenty of rhetorical play with the naming of these maps, previous versions have been called “class warfare map,” and there was one called the “community unity map,” which, you can guess the three-letter acronym they were using for that one.)
Image: SFGov
Have a look at your new supervisor districts, which do still need some ratifications before being set in stone. There is also a zoomable, pinch-and-scroll high-res version so you can view certain individual boundaries.
This new map sticks with one what have been several highly controversial aspects, splitting up the Tenderloin and South of Market into two different districts. The Tenderloin moves to District 5 (Dean Preston’s district), South of Market stays in District 6. This means splitting up the Market Street-spanning Transgender District (which is a cultural district, not a political boundary), enraging LGBTQ activists, as well as the Filipino community.
“The task force willingly splitting the trans district in half is outright transphobia,” Mission Local quotes Transgender District director of social justice initiatives Jupiter Peraza as saying.
tl;dr they passed the ‘Final Draft Map’ which is the same map they voted down last week, but with one major change- Potrero Hill and Dogpatch are back in D10, Portola stays in D9. SOMA and Tenderloin are divided despite overwhelming public comment pic.twitter.com/JqvE7aNXex
— SF League of Pissed Off Voters (@TheLeagueSF) April 22, 2022
But all of the other raging controversies were quelled peacefully. Notably, District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman will not be drawn out of his own district, and Potrero Hill will remain in District 10, after complaints that its removal would dilute the Black vote.
In terms of the traditionally LGBTQ-leaning District 8, two separate blocks of Valencia Street were re-included after having been removed. As the Bay Area Reporter explains, “much of the eastern boundary of District 8 with District 9 is moving west from Valencia to Guerrero Street, and D8’s northeastern boundary is being expanded to include Ashbury Heights and Cole Valley. The rest of D8 will largely remain the same, consisting of the Duboce Triangle, Castro, Noe Valley, Diamond Heights and Glen Park.” Duboce Triangle had, in a previous draft, been drawn out of the district.
And there still may be lawsuits over this! Mission Local reports that “ looking into the possibility of taking the map to court for allegedly violating the City Charter by disregarding communities of interest. Kim Tavaglione of the San Francisco Labor Council and Joseph Bryant of SEIU 1021 have previously said that they were open to pursuing legal challenges to earlier iterations of the map approved today.”
But that said, the currently submitted lawsuit “would not be invoked unless the map was somehow deselected in the coming week,” according to Mission Local.
So, this is not technically done yet. There is another legally mandated meeting on Monday, April 25, wherein minor changes will be allowed. The map must also be ratified by the City Attorney.
Where does this leave us politically now? Even-numbered supervisor districts are up for reelection this November, and the new map will be in effect. For D8 Supervisor Mandelman and D10 Supervisor Walton, this is a win, because it keeps their traditional districts intact. District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney is off to the state Assembly, and the Chronicle had a Wednesday scoop that Haney aide Honey Mahogany “will likely run for election in November” for that seat.
Then again, that quote came before the Tenderloin was removed from District 6, and Mahogany — who would become the city’s first trans supervisor — has been instrumental in the creation of the Transgender District in the Tenderloin.
We still await Mayor London Breed’s choice for her temporary appointee to Haney’s seat.
Related: Redistricting Task Force Submits ‘Draft Final Map’ After High Drama, Twitter Fights, and Half the Task Force Walking Out [SFist]
Image: SFGov
