2021-09-23 Redistricting Commission minutes (3rd Session)

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it’s a bit kind of crazy and chaotic but I started it from scratch and started building it from nothing. I think when we have our public hearings, I’m going to be relying on you as Commissioners, and friends and neighbors, to really understand what community needs to be together. So, that’s another part of it, is understanding, okay can I split this community up? Where is this community best? Are these neighbors across the street? But we also need to take into consideration those boundaries, right? A lot of these maps are drawn off of those boundaries. Whether it was a stream boundary or arterial road boundary. So, for example, Ms. Lui, a good example for you is, where District 1 and District 2 meet at Wailuku River, right? So that’s a clear geographic boundary. I think other districts have that too. Some of them follow pretty close to ahupuaʻa lines. Some of them are keeping communities together for the most part. However, you look at like a major road, like Volcano Road, some of it splits some of those districts but that’s how it’s kind of meant to be from my understanding. So, you have those major roadways and major thoroughfares that divide those communities. And unfortunately, it divides them but that’s how they’re drawn. They’d say everyone north of this road and everyone south of this road is in a different district. So, I would really look at those major roadways and the communities that—the other part of it that we need to consider to is, and we’re supposed to be as non-partisan as possible, but there is a political sway of giving certain communities more votes at the council level, right? So that should be in the back of your mind too to an extent. In just knowing that if you carve out different areas, you’re giving potentially more seats, so we want to be as fair as possible in trying to maintain that balance between our very unique communities and making sure that they’re represented. So, that’s the harder part. In my looking at the data, and I haven’t gone as far down this rabbit hole yet, but the data there in particularly when you click on the info topic and you click on one of the census blocks or one of the census tracts, and this was my request to Mr. Jones last time, was more of a—I don’t know if it’s changed at all, but the key words and the key code for some of the information of the census data that’s on there, that shows the demographic split about percentage of people that live in each of those census tracts and census blocks. That’s really something else that we should consider. There’s a lot there. All the things I mentioned, it’s a lot of us to take in and consider and really try and find a balance. But I hope that helps. So, you can make those incremental changes between the districts or you can—I don’t know. Maybe there’s something that the 9 of us can come up with that’s completely different than what we’ve seen. I don’t know, it’s possible to divide the island in different ways. And something that’s completely new but it yet captures and represents all of our people equally somehow. Thanks. YOSHINA: This is Dwayne. KOSSOW: Mr. Yoshina. YOSHINA: My approach is similar to Mr. Hustace’s. I believe that the previous redistricting and reapportionment panels discussed all of the political ramifications of what they did. And so, assuming that and starting with the existing lines, because I believe that the previous commissions have done that, that discussion. And so, I’m trying to incrementally add or subtract from those existing lines. I’m very simple minded in that approach. I’m being mindful of the communities, and I think the statistical data that Mr. 25