Posted on 07/16/2011 10:29:58 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Do you live in a "gayborhood"? Are you part of an Armenian sub-community or do you reside among black farmers and agriculturists?
These and myriad other questions that most of us have never thought to ask will be answered Aug. 15, the day the Citizen's Redistricting Commission is scheduled to release its final maps.
.. Among the criteria that the commission must consider when drawing its boundaries is "community of interest," a concept so vague as to remind one of Justice Potter Stewart's famous definition of pornography - "I know it when I see it."
Knowing a community when one sees it is easy with traditional ethnic minorities. Oakland proudly boasts an African American orientation, and East Los Angeles is unquestionably Hispanic. Small minority groups are often even easier to spot - San Francisco's Little Saigon has officially recognized boundaries ..
But this being California, the voters adopted a definition of community that goes far beyond mere ethnicity: "A community of interest is a contiguous population which shares common social and economic interests that should be included within a single district for purposes of its effective and fair representation."
This definition is so broad that it is easiest to define a community by what the commission is prohibited to consider, namely, political party affiliations.
Tea Partiers who want community recognition are out of luck, but the field is open to most everyone else, and we have already seen some clever innovations. For example, it has been proposed - with ample statistical evidence - that California is home to emergent "gayborhoods," LGBT-friendly areas far from traditional gay communities like Castro Street. Based on the maps submitted to the commission, there are gayborhoods in the suburbs of Contra Costa County and amid the conservative enclaves of San Diego.
...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Look for new neighborhood street signs soon, huh? :-)
God Bless Ya , Progressive America! (/sarc)
Communities of interest:
Americans
Legal Citizens
Taxpayers
Gun Owners
Citizens for enforcement of constitutional laws
Citizens against racial and religious discrimination
Citizens opposed to communists in the federal government
Rulership by special interest: what a concept!!
Those are all on the SOL list.
I thought the Castro district was primarily Hispanic... is it overrun with jotos now?
I’m a native Californian and I can state without hesitation that California is lost to any form of rational governance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.