Opinion ID: 1151125
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Congressional Plan

Text: Every congressional district in the state consists of entire census tracts, and each district varies by no more than 0.25 percent from the ideal size of 572,308 persons. A computer generated map showing the various districts proposed by us is set out as part of Appendix One of our report. The population of each proposed district is set out in Appendix Two. A listing of the census tracts contained in each proposed district is set out in Appendix Three.
The Northern Coastal Region is entitled to 12 congressional districts. Districts 1 and 6 are in the northernmost part of this region. District 1 includes all of Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake and Napa Counties, Geyserville and Healdsburg in Sonoma County and Fairfield and part of Vacaville in Solano County. [63] This area is mostly rural with some suburban areas in the southern part of the district. District 6 includes most of Sonoma County and all of Marin County. It is primarily suburban. Districts 8, 12 and 14: These districts occupy the San Francisco Peninsula. District 8 constitutes most of San Francisco and is almost 56 percent minority in population. District 12 includes the southwest corner of San Francisco and northern San Mateo County. A small part of Belmont on the southern edge of the district had to be cut in order to achieve the necessary population balance. District 14 includes the remainder of San Mateo County and a compact area of northwest Santa Clara County including the cities of Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Cupertino. Districts 7, 9, 10 and 13 are located in the East Bay. District 7 includes Richmond and the Contra Costa cities on or near San Pablo Bay, the Carquinez Strait or Suisun Bay, including Pittsburg and Concord. The district also includes Vallejo and Benecia on the northern side of the Carquinez Strait. Since significant numbers of African-Americans live in Richmond, San Pablo, Vallejo and Pittsburg, the district has a 16.6 percent African-American population and a total minority population of 44 percent. In this congressional district we were able to honor the request of a number of citizens that Richmond not be included in a district that also included Oakland. District 9 includes all of north Alameda County, including Berkeley and all but four census tracts of Oakland. It has an African-American population of 31.9 percent (and an overall minority population of 58.9 percent) and, in our view, it is an effective African-American majority district. District 10 includes all of Contra Costa and Alameda Counties east of the East Bay Hills plus the unincorporated Castro Valley area west of the hills, which had to be included for population equality reasons. District 13 includes all of Alameda County along the shore of San Francisco Bay south of Oakland including San Leandro, Hayward and Fremont. It also has part of Milpitas in an adjacent part of Santa Clara County which was necessary to add for population equality reasons. Districts 15, 16 and 17 constitute the southernmost part of this region. District 15 includes the central part of Santa Clara County including the cities of Santa Clara, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell and much of eastern and southern San Jose. It also includes some of northern Santa Cruz County, including Scotts Valley, an outpost of Silicon Valley. District 16 includes all of the eastern part of San Jose and the southern part of the county. It includes most of the Latino population and much of the Asian population of the area. As a result it is almost 37 percent Latino and over 62 percent total minority in population. District 17 includes all of Monterey and San Benito Counties and most of Santa Cruz County. It is very similar to the current congressional district in the area.
The North Interior Region is entitled to nine congressional districts. Districts 2, 3 and 4 include the northern agricultural region and most of the mountain areas of the region. District 2 includes all of the rural mountain counties of Trinity, Siskiyou, Shasta, Modoc, Lassen, Plumas, Sierra, Yuba and Nevada Counties, and all but two census tracts of Butte County. (The division of Butte was necessary for population equality reasons.) District 3 includes all of the Sacramento Valley counties of Tehama, Glenn, Colusa, Sutter, and Yolo and the eastern part of Solano County including Dixon and part of Vacaville. [64] It also includes part of suburban Sacramento County north of the City of Sacramento. District 4 includes the Mother Lode counties of Placer, El Dorado, Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne and the mountain counties of Alpine and Mono. It also includes the northeastern corner of Sacramento County, including the City of Folsom. Districts 5, 11 and 18 are located in the middle of the Central Valley. District 5 is entirely urban, and includes the City of Sacramento. District 11 includes the southern and eastern parts of Sacramento County and all but two census tracts of San Joaquin County. District 18 includes all of Stanislaus and Merced Counties and small parts of adjacent San Joaquin, Madera and Fresno Counties necessary to achieve population balance. Districts 19, 20 and 21 are located in the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley. As with Assembly districts 30 and 31, because of the need to obtain preclearance from the Attorney General without any delay whatsoever, the first step in constructing districts was an attempt to construct a district which would include Kings County and would have the maximum feasible Latino population. Again, because of the circumstances we modified what we ordinarily would have considered controlling state law criteria. The result was District 20, which divides Fresno, Visalia, Tulare and Bakersfield (the latter by a hook encircling the city to the south and then the east.) However, we achieved a district with 55.4 Latino population and an overall minority population of over 67 percent. Districts 19 and 21 include the territory of the region remaining from constructing District 20.
Southern California is entitled to 31 congressional districts. Because we started with minority districts in Los Angeles County, we will begin our descriptions with them. Districts 30, 31, 33 and 34 were designed to be majority Latino districts. District 30 is entirely within the City of Los Angeles, extending from the northeastern border through downtown and into the Westlake district. It has 61.5 percent Latino population and an additional 19.8 percent Asian population. (The total minority population is 84.8 percent.) The Latino registration is, apparently, 34 percent and the Asian registration is an additional 7 percent. District 31 is 58.5 percent Latino and an additional 22.1 percent Asian. It includes the area from Alhambra and Monterey Park on the west through El Monte to Azusa on the east. The Latino registration is apparently over 41 percent. District 33 includes part of downtown Los Angeles and the many small communities to the southeast, such as Huntington Park, Maywood and South Gate. The Latino population is almost 84 percent of the district and over 48 percent of the registered voters. District 34 includes Montebello, Pico Rivera, Norwalk, La Puente and part of Whittier. It is over 62 percent Latino in population and over 43 percent Latino in registration. Districts 32, 35 and 37 were designed to be effective majority African-American districts. District 32, including the Crenshaw and Exposition Park areas of Los Angeles as well as Culver City, is 40.3 percent African-American. District 35, which includes Inglewood and Hawthorne as well as part of south-central Los Angeles, is 42.7 percent African-American. District 37, which includes Watts and Compton as well as Carson, the Wilmington area of Los Angeles and part of downtown Long Beach, is 33.6 percent African-American (and has a total minority population of 88 percent). The largest minority in the district is Latino at 45 percent, but Latinos constitute only 13 percent of the registered voters. Districts 22 and 23 are located northwest of Los Angeles County. District 22 includes all of San Luis Obispo County and almost all of Santa Barbara County. (Carpinteria, at the extreme southeast part of the county, had to be combined with Ventura County because of the strict population guidelines for congressional districts.) District 23 includes all of Ventura County except for most of Thousand Oaks. (One census tract had to be severed from Thousand Oaks to achieve population equality.) Districts 24, 25 and 26 include the San Fernando Valley and the Antelope Valley in the Los Angeles part of the Mojave Desert Region. District 24 includes Thousand Oaks in Ventura County, the Malibu and Calabasas areas of western Los Angeles County, and the southwestern part of the San Fernando Valley. District 25 includes all of Antelope Valley (Palmdale and Lancaster) and the new city of Santa Clarita north of the San Fernando Valley. (The area north of the San Fernando Valley constitutes about two-thirds of the district's population. The remainder of the population comes from the Chatsworth and Northridge areas in the northwestern part of the San Fernando Valley.) District 26 encompasses the heavily Latino areas of northeast San Fernando Valley. The district is 52.7 percent Latino and, overall, almost 66 percent minority. Districts 27, 28, 29, 36 and 38 are the remaining districts in Los Angeles that fit around the periphery of the Latino and African-American majority districts heretofore described. District 27 is directly north of downtown Los Angeles and includes the suburbs of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena. District 28 includes the northern parts of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys and like Assembly District 59, of which it is an enlarged version, it is somewhat divided by Azusa, which is part of a previously created Latino majority district. This district includes Arcadia, Monrovia, San Dimas, Claremont, Covina, West Covina and part of Pomona. District 29 includes Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, and the westside of the City of Los Angeles (including Hancock Park and Westwood and both slopes of the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains). District 36 encompasses the various cities of the southern stretch of Santa Monica Bay, from Venice and Westchester in the City of Los Angeles through the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Its eastern side is defined by the African-American majority districts previously described. District 38 is the last whole district located in Los Angeles County. It includes most of Long Beach and Lakewood and all of Bellflower, Paramount and Downey. Districts 39 and 41 include the parts of Los Angeles County not included in other districts lying wholly within the county. This population constitutes about two-thirds of a district in population, but because of the boundaries of the Latino majority districts, the population is within a narrow strip running from Hawaiian Gardens to the southwest to Pomona at the northeast. While it would be technically possible to include all of this area in a single district with Orange County (thus bringing the number of divisions of Los Angeles County down to the bare minimum) this population was divided between two more functionally compact districts created in Orange and San Bernardino Counties. (This also has the effect of avoiding an additional division of Riverside County.) District 39 includes Cerritos, La Mirada, La Habra Heights and part of Whittier from Los Angeles County and Rossmoor, Cypress, Buena Park, Fullerton, Brea and La Habra from Orange County. District 41 includes Diamond Bar and part of Pomona from Los Angeles County, Upland, Montclair, Chino and part of Ontario from San Bernardino County and Yorba Linda and a small part of Anaheim from the northeast corner of Orange County. Because of a concentration of African-Americans in Pomona, and a significant number of Asians, especially in Diamond Bar, as well as a substantial number of Latinos, the district is 48 percent minority. Districts 40 and 42 include all of San Bernardino County not included in District 41. District 40 includes all of the desert areas located in San Bernardino County and all of Inyo County. This constitutes about two-thirds of the population of the district. The remainder of the population is in the mountains  Big Bear and Arrowhead  and in Redlands, Loma Linda and Yucaipa, all in San Bernardino County. District 42 includes most of the City of San Bernardino, all of Colton, Rialto, Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga, and part of Ontario. The district has a total minority population of over 49 percent. Districts 43 and 44 constitute all of Riverside County except for Temecula, which is attached to neighboring San Diego County. District 43 includes the western part of the county, including Riverside, Corona and Lake Elsinore. It also includes part of Perris, which had to be divided to achieve population equality. District 44 includes all of the eastern part of the county, from Moreno Valley and part of Perris on the west to Blythe on the eastern border. Districts 45, 46 and 47 constitute the central part of Orange County. District 46 was constructed first to maximize the minority population. The district includes most of Santa Ana, all of Garden Grove and the central part of Anaheim. The resulting total minority population is over 64 percent, including 50 percent Latino and almost 12 percent Asian. District 45 contains the north coastal part of Orange County, including Seal Beach, Stanton, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa and part of Newport Beach. District 47 contains much of interior Orange County and part of the central coast of the county, and includes Orange, Tustin, Irvine, Laguna Beach, and part of Newport Beach. It also includes a small part of Mission Viejo which was necessary to achieve population equality. Districts 48, 49, 50, 51 and 52 are partly or wholly within San Diego County. District 48 includes southern Orange County, including most of Mission Viejo, and all of San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente. It includes the cities of Oceanside and Vista as well as the Camp Pendleton, Fallbrook and Mount Palomar areas of northern San Diego County. It also includes a small part of Carlsbad needed to achieve population parity. Finally, it includes Temecula, which is in Riverside County just north of Fallbrook. District 50 was the first district designed in San Diego County and it is an expanded version of Assembly District 79, designed to include as many Latinos and other minorities as possible in southern San Diego. The resulting minority population figures are 40.8 percent Latino, 13.7 percent African-American, 13.7 percent Asian and a total minority population of 69 percent. District 49 is an expanded version of Assembly District 78 running along the coast from Imperial Beach and Coronado to the north of the La Jolla area but taking in a larger part of the northern interior part of the City of San Diego. District 51 includes most of the north central area of San Diego County, including Escondido, San Marcos, the far northern reaches of the City of San Diego and beach communities such as Encinitas and Leucadia. Finally, District 52 includes the cities of La Mesa, El Cajon and Santee, which are inland from the City of San Diego, as well as most of rural interior San Diego County. It also includes all of Imperial County.