Residents Speak Out at Redistricting Meeting

San Gabriel Valley residents offered a message of logistical unity when delivering their thoughts on the yet-to-be-finished redistricting plans at a recent public input hearing in Whittier.

The 14-member California Redistricting Commission released draft plans for new congressional and state districts on June 10. The plans show new boundaries for California's 53 congressional districts, 40 state senate districts and 80 state assembly districts, as well as districts for the state Board of Equalization, which handles taxation issues.

The proposed face-lift for the state’s boundaries has raised plenty of questions and concerns, and Friday’s meeting was one of the commission’s efforts to address them.

Many of the more than 90 speakers at the hearing expressed confusion and disappointment at the draft maps, which feature boundaries that split some cities in half and, according to them, would group their cities with practical strangers.

Staying together was the theme for residents in the Montrose-La Crescenta and La Cañada Flintridge areas.

One La Crescenta resident thanked the commission for making La Crescenta “whole.”

“We have three assembly districts in the unincorporated areas. Our kids all go to the same schools. People don’t even know if they live in the incorporated or unincorporated area,” she said. “I would love to see the Assembly map keep the incorporated and unincorporated together.”

Cheryl Davis, president of the Crescenta Valley Town Council, also thanked the commission for “keeping La Crescenta, Montrose and La Cañada together as communities of interests, due to shared emergency responses and resources as evidenced in the wake of the Station Fire and ensuing mud and debris flows. Please help keep these communities together and unified.”

The commissioners made no decisions at the hearing, and urged people to submit testimony and public comments online. The Whittier meeting is one of several in Southern California. To see where the commission will be going, check here (http://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/hearings.html). Also, for more information on the commission’s work, go to (http://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/hearings.html).