In a contest between squiggly lines or straight lines, will the straight lines win?
It’s definitely possible in Santa Maria, where the City Council and residents seem to favor a redistricting map that divides the city into the four quadrants that have always divided the city—along Main Street and Broadway.
Those two roads divide so much … social, economic, and racial demographics. They are the divisions that define the city, its problems, its pressure points, its history.
And if you ask City Councilmember Mike Cordero, it was meant to be. In his long, rambling soliloquy during the March 3 Santa Maria City Council meeting, I wasn’t quite sure where his stilted speech was heading. Did he like the proposed district maps presented to them at the meeting?
“Looking back in history back in the 1800s, four men came along. I think Miller, Thornburg, Cook, and Thessler, and they donated the land that was centered at Main and Broadway where all the properties intersected,” he said. “And obviously, they didn’t have an idea that in 2022 we’d be looking at this, but the quad[rant] map—unintended so—takes into consideration going back to the 1700s about how that was originally planned out for us. … I think they’re all gone now.”
You think? By “they,” do you mean the original folks from the 1800s or the 1700s, because you mention two different centuries? Last I checked, we don’t have anyone over the age of 119 years old living on this planet right now, so yes, those people who founded the city are definitely long gone.
But Cordero’s insinuation that the city really hasn’t changed in 200-plus years says a lot about Santa Maria. Communities of interest gravitate toward the same parts of the city and wealth is concentrated in the same parts of the city. And the dividing lines that started the city are still relevant.
It says almost as much about the city as Mayor Alice Patino did with her question: “This is just a hypothetical, but what if we did nothing, and stayed where we are right now?”
She posed the question to the city’s redistricting consultant, Daniel Phillips, who had just finished telling her and her colleagues that the city was required to change its districts in response to the 2020 census because the existing districts didn’t comply with federal law.
You know how she doesn’t like state and federal laws telling the city what to do.
“You would be sued for not being in compliance with federal law,” he said, giving the answer we all knew was coming.
Duh!
It’s kind of like what happened in Solvang, which is still battling over backyard sheds. SHEDS! Seriously. Sheds.
Apparently a couple of Solvang residents asked the Solvang Planning Commission if the city’s new rules could be amended to “grandfather” in homeowners who have sheds that violate both the current rules and the future rules.
What? Kind of like, no rules for you?
Planning Commissioner Aaron Petersen said he sympathized (and I do, too; I hate it when my bird cage is out of compliance), but argued that exempting any homeowners would complicate the already complicated situation.
Duh!
The Canary believes bird cage rules need to be overhauled. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 10-17, 2022.
