Redwood City district maps are down to two

At that meeting, councilmembers agreed that Redwood Shores should get its own district separate from Bair Island, mobile home parks on East Bayshore Road should be included in the same district as Friendly Acres and they also expressed interest in having multiple districts touching downtown.

“The mobile home parks and Friendly Acres I would like together because they go to each other’s [neighborhood] meetings, they share a lot of the same issues and problems,” said Vice Mayor Diane Howard.

Councilwoman Diana Reddy found map 13c appealing.

“Some of those neighborhoods do belong together, they do make sense to me,” she said.

Councilwoman Janet Borgens also endorsed map 13c and said she based her decision on data for voter turnout, voter registration and citizens voting age.

“What I like about the map is that it abutted — six districts hit Woodside Road, six hit Jefferson, four hit El Camino Real — so it actually incorporated a lot of the decision-making that takes place up here and the next big wave, let’s say — Woodside Road, El Camino Real issues — it does abut all those,” she said.

Councilwoman Shelly Masur gave a nod to map 21b because it meets the request of the residents there.

“Redwood Shores has asked us repeatedly to make them one voting district and to please not include other areas of the city with them and I understand why. It is a uniquely situated area of our city that has separate issues maybe than other parts of the city, like many of our neighborhoods do,” she said. “That’s the one thing I feel is important and would like to see in a map. ... There’s really only one map that accomplishes that and it’s 21b.”

Councilwoman Giselle Hale also seemed interested in map 21b in part because it honors the request of Redwood Shores residents.

Each of the finalist maps put councilmembers in separate districts.

City Manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz closed out the discussion with a reminder that councilmembers are still expected to represent the entire community and not just their district.

“This is just affecting how people are elected to council, but the moment someone is seated, the moment they take the oath of office, they’re representing the entire community,” she said. “One of the things your governance committee will be discussing this spring and summer is what kind of support can we provide to future councils to help ensure that they really take that holistic community-wide view. It’s really essential.”

Go to redwoodcity.org/departments/city-clerk/district-elections to see the maps and to find additional information.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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