2021-11-12 Redistricting Commission Agenda Packet

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the council district person to try to address that much geography. So that's another nut to crack for me. I yield. Thank you. KOSSOW: Mr. Hustace. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez, for pointing that one out. I was looking at this, even the current template where we have Council District 5 as over 11 percent, right? This is mapping. So, the two districts that I've struggled with the most are the districts that have—definitely District 1 is one of`em. It's just where people live, right? It's a challenge of where people have lived, or where people have moved to, and where development is happening, that it's going to drive some of these changes going forward too. It's assuming this constant back and forth, and there are areas where you're very familiar with where there isn't that development, there aren't those places people are moving to. And I think, Ms. Lui, you see with District 1 for sure where there's kind of wide openness between communities and there isn't. Especially with Council District 6 too, right? We had testifiers say that we don't like traversing across this huge district that represents too many distinct areas on the west and the east side. Unfortunately, the problem that I've had in correcting or fixing or adjusting the issues with Council 6, is that I've made it even bigger. It covered the whole half, southern half of the island. It's an issue of, the communities are very distinct. They're far apart from each other. There isn't as much urban growth as we've seen in that area as we see in our core centers so there's a big challenge there. Thank you. BATH: It's Stephanie. KOSSOW: Ms. Bath. BATH: So, I understand we're talking about the approaches that we took. In part, the approach that I took first was, I looked at the map. I thought about the people and the community because that's who we're serving. I started with District 5 because that's where I live in upper Puna, well, middle upper Puna. And I immediately looked at District 4 which I polarize too because of my community service and during the flows, I was involved with Civil Defense. So, I kind of grounded out down there and got to meet the communities and actually knocked on doors to advise people so I kind of knew the area. When I looked at District 5, I immediately saw that Kalapana and that area where the people polarized towards Council District 4, they come and go through Pahoa at the very least, that's in my district and that felt really not right knowing the people down there. There's also that big crack along the rift that geographically isolates us from that area of District 5. So I looked at that and I was playing with the deviation and the numbers and I took that one hunk off. It looks like, if it's a boot, it's like the toe area and I gave it to District 4 which just skyrocketed their numbers. But it felt right to me, it felt right for the people. Then I moved into Ka`u, which I'm also familiar with and kind of played with that but the numbers were still really high in District 4. When we're talking about people in communities, I think it's really important during this redistricting to get that one right, especially with the changes. I looked to Council District 3 to try to figure that one out and I couldn't move anything. I ended up taking Volcano and the upper Puna 27