Opinion ID: 1151125
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Objections of Asian Pacific American Coalition

Text: (5) Representatives of Asian voters (hereafter the Coalition) complain that new Assembly Districts 12 and 13, by failing to join Chinatown with the Richmond and the Sunset districts of San Francisco, divide the city's Asian population, thereby depriving Asians (who comprise approximately 29 percent of the city's population) of an opportunity to elect a legislative representative. The Masters' Report noted the problem (pp. 771, infra ), but observed that San Francisco's Asian population is not concentrated in a single area, being dispersed throughout the city. Among other considerations outlined in the Report, the Masters were understandably unwilling to extend a long arm a block or so wide for the several miles between the Richmond district and `Chinatown' ... in order to bring these two areas into the same district.... ( Id., p. 771, infra, fn. 44.) Such a misshapen district seemingly would violate the compactness criterion, and is not required by the Voting Rights Act. As previously noted, the act applies only to functionally, geographically compact minority groups. Significantly, the Masters' proposed district, combining the Richmond and Sunset districts of the city, and some southern fringe areas thereof, with the northern part of neighboring Daly City, contains approximately the same Asian population as the one considered by the Masters that included the Richmond-Sunset-Chinatown areas, with the added advantage of being nested, for purposes of forming a senate district, with an adjacent assembly district having a substantial Asian population. (Report, p. 771.) Additionally, the Coalition complains that the Masters' plans failed to link Asian populations within Oakland, within San Jose, and within two areas of Los Angeles County. The Masters found, however, that Voting Rights Act considerations affecting Blacks and Hispanics in those areas necessitated the lines which were drawn. With respect to the area around Torrance, however, a minor change has been suggested by the Coalition (and supported in principle by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). This change, which we adopt, involves a modification of Assembly Districts 51 and 53 (and thus Senate Districts 25 and 28), that will substantially increase Asian population percentages in Assembly District 53, as requested by the Coalition and also will eliminate a split of Torrance city boundaries, without significantly affecting Black or Hispanic opportunities in those two districts, and without exceeding the 1 percent district population deviation adhered to by the Masters. Therefore, we adopt the following change to the Masters' plans set forth in their Report: Los Angeles County Census Tracts 2753.11, 2753.12, 2755, 2756, 2764, 2765 and 2770 are hereby included in Assembly District 51, and Census Tracts 6500.01, 6500.02, 6501.01, 6501.02, 6502 and 6503 are hereby included in Assembly District 53.