Part of LB Airport plus CSULB now in 4th District

Los Altos scores

TOUCH DOWN

in Long Beach Redistricting

 photo courtesy of Skyline Simulations 

On Thursday, November 18, the Long Beach Independent Redistricting Commission approved a historic redistricting map that included part of the Long Beach Airport again being in the 4^th District and moving CSULB into the 4^th District. 

The new maps are effective immediately but are subject to a 30 day opening for legal challenges.

The new map provides that Fourth District residents through their council representative will once again have a voice regarding the Airport.

New 4th District boundries

Los Altos neighborhood leaders joined neighborhood leaders from the 5^th, 7^th, and 8^th Districts in January of this year to work on “sharing” the airport. The idea was to have airport impacted neighborhoods have a voice in the airport by having the airport be in more than one council district.  For years the airport has been exclusively in the 5^th District which does not include any of the landing and take-off pattern neighborhoods affected by the noise of jets on the main runway.

The neighborhood leaders working on the change created a redistricting “community of interest” called the Airport Adjacent Neighborhoods Group.  That group worked since January to have the airport impacted neighborhoods’ council districts have a section of the airport.

Under the approved map,  District 4 with its Los Altos impacted airport neighborhood will have a section of the Airport that includes the touchdown area of the main runway.   The take-off neighborhoods of California Heights and Bixby Knolls will become a major part of the newly re-configured 5^th District making the 5^th District Councilperson directly accountable to the area of  Long Beach that accounts for the most noise complaints.

District 2 Councilwomen Cindy Allen and 5th District Councilwomen Stacy Mungo-Flannigan homes are now in new districts.  They will remain, councilpersons and will serve out their terms with the option of moving within the new district or running in their new districts when there is a scheduled election.

CSULB and Puvungna site now in the 4^th District and other changes

In addition to the Airport section, Los Altos neighborhood leaders worked with members of the Puvungna community to move CSULB (that includes the historic Puvungna site)  into the 4^th District from the 3^rd District.

Los Altos leaders used evidence of the overwhelming parking impacts from the campus on adjacent neighborhoods.  Members of the Puvungna community noted the Los Altos community's long-standing and vocal support to keep the sacred Puvungna site undeveloped by the University.

Other border changes in the 4^th District were necessitated by changes elsewhere in the city.  The Zaferia District,  the 4^th District section of Cambodia Town, the Byrant Neighborhood, and the Community Hospital Campus were all placed in other council districts. 

Communities added to the 4^th District because of shifts in other parts of the city include: Park Estates;  La Marina; Bixby Hill, South El Dorado, College Estates Park; El Dorado Estates; The Plaza; the Ranchos, and Rancho Estates.

The 4^th District’s infamous and much-maligned example of gerrymandering of the El Dorado Park known as the “whale tail”  was an easy target of the Redistricting Commission.  That area took the Nature Center out of the 5th District's  El Dorado Park and placed it in the 4th by contorted boundary lines.

The irony however is that the area was reunited with El Dorado Park by placing the entire park into the 4^th District.

Welcome to the 4th !