• District Conversion Update 2

A special city council meeting has been set for Wednesday January 27th at 6:30pm to further map out the forced conversion from At Large to District voting for Wildomar.

Below you see a district map the city had adopted back in 2009.

If you go to the following city page about this you'll bump into many different maps that were tossed around back then (LINK). The above map is labeled "Final" but it's defunct at this point and has ZERO value in 2016.

With this map, our current representation would be as follows

• District 1 Bob Cashman
• District 2 Empty
• District 3 Tim Walker
• District 4 Marsha Swanson
• District 5 Bridgette Moore and Ben Benoit

If similar lines are drawn again, that would mean that Ben Benoit would have to run after having just won his second term last election, and directly against Bridgette Moore.

Can you imagine it?

If you're not one of the screwballs that hate the city, what a disaster such a thing would be.

You'd be hard pressed to find more dedicated public servants than those two... in any community. And you can look until the Energizer Bunny's 100th replacement wears out and you'd still come up on the short end if you were looking for their equals in the 92595.

And because of twisted views on local politics we may be forced to say goodbye to one of the two of them? 

It's interesting to note in the map above, that the largest district (District 1) which included The Farm, the future Walmart, the shopping area that has Pizza Factory and Sunpro Solar, also had a southern notch that includes Council Member Bob Cashman.

Unless I'm missing my guess here, you should expect to see The Farm run one of their own candidates no matter if the newly drawn districts pencil in a representative for them or not. They are a large, and pretty close knit, community and it sure wouldn't make sense if they didn't use their numbers to their advantage.

Another thing I noted in the above map is that Windsong Valley (District 2) is chopped into two pieces. The dividing line seems to be between the older and the newer. (And "yes" Palomar Ridge, you are considered part of Windsong if you like it or not... just ask people from other parts of the city if you need straightening out on that one.)

There were also next to no businesses in district 2, unless you're counting the Equipment Rental place on the corner of Palomar and Central, Anne Sullivan Preschool and the Assisted Living place. Certainly no retail businesses or places to eat... but hey, we had two elementary schools, so take that!

District 3 had the middle and high schools, the cemetery, the post office Marna O'Brien Park,  and the badly painted red market with so many banners it gives you vertigo if you look at it as you're driving by.

The pride of District 3. I can't imagine that someone actually signed off on that joke of a paint job. 

District 4 looks like the area where most of the commercial would have been. It had the entire Clinton Keith corridor (Except USA Gas), which includes all the grocery stores —even Plow Boys, the future MSJC campus and the hospital. Plus all the apartments in town, so now they alone will be the "High Density Capital of the World".

District 5 had Regency Heritage Park, the animal shelter (AFV), the Elks Lodge, The VFW, Arco, El Comal and The Hideaway. They make up for their lack of physical size by having the most places to drink.

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Though the above map is not the map we'll have, we will end up with something similar.

For several reasons it can't be as simple as getting out a fresh map and begin marking it based on obvious landmarks.

First, the five districts need to be drawn with roughly the same number of residents in them. (Though there is a case out of Texas currently in front of the Supreme Court discussing a similar issue, it's completely immaterial here because it hasn't been adjudicated, and we have our own timetables to adhere to.)

Link to article about the court case.

Second, Wildomar is hiring a demographer to make sure the lines are drawn in a fair manner that also takes into account the alleged violation of California's Voting Rights Act as mentioned in the complaint letter that started this process in the first place.

Let's see if people will actually show up to this meeting or not. Wouldn't it be nice to see an overflow crowd at the city council chambers for once?

Yeah, I already stopped holding my breath too.

We can always hope that Team Crank will show up en masse. For as much as they distract from a city meeting's purpose, they are great entertainment to watch as they pontificate from the podium. 

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Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.  — Plato

Wildomar Rap tip of the day: You can participate in your local government, or you can keep making excuses and let others continue to do it for you. Just don't whine about it after the fact.