Politics

Latino-African American Coalition Creates County Redistricting Map

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published June 27, 2011 at 3:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 12 years ago.

An African American-Latino coalition plans to present a map to San Diego County Supervisors Tuesday, redrawing the lines around their South Bay district.

Redistricting happens every ten years to more accurately reflect population changes recorded by the census.

Coalition spokesman, Barry Pollard, who is African American, said it was easy to redraw the lines to give minorities a better chance to be represented.

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"It was not difficult," Pollard said,"it was rather easy, believe or not. It just made sense. What you are really looking at is to give us a chance, just a chance, to elect someone who understands our priorities. Maybe someone who lives over here so they know what we go through."

The county’s redistricting commission will present the board with three maps, none of which gives minorities a better chance of representation.

The 2010 census shows Latinos now make up more than a third of San Diego County's population, while Caucasians make up less than 50 percent.

The San Diego County Board is currently made up of five supervisors who are all white and all Republican. They have each held office for more than four terms.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.