Weighted Voting For Congress

[Хahar 🤔]

Having a district that connects San Francisco with San Luis Obispo County and not Alameda County or Marin County so obviously flies in the face of actual settlement patterns that it defeats the purpose of the whole assignment.

[Хahar 🤔]

When you say SV, do you mean Santa Clara County? If so, it's an inseparable part of the Bay Area; despite the Census Bureau's definition of the San Francisco metropolitan area as separate from the San Jose metropolitan area, there is no definition of the Bay Area that excludes Santa Clara County.

If shoehorning San Jose into a non-Bay Area district is off-limits (as it should be) there are then only three potential options:

1) Draw a district consisting only of the Central Coast
2) Connect the Central Coast to the San Joaquin Valley
3) Split the Central Coast between the north and the south, connecting the northern part to the Bay Area and the southern part to greater Los Angeles

The first solution is obviously unfeasible from a population standpoint. The second solution might keep the Bay Area and the Los Angeles area intact, but it connects two areas that are not connected either culturally or by major roads. That leaves the third option, which involves connecting the parts of the Central Coast that are in Northern California (Monterey County and points northward) with the Bay Area, while connecting the parts that are in Southern California (San Luis Obispo County and points southward) with greater Los Angeles. This line is basically non-negotiable; lumping in Salinas with a Southern California district is straightforwardly wrong, as is grouping San Luis Obispo with a Northern California district.

I haven't looked to see whether the numbers work by splitting the Central Coast like this. If they do not, then the only conclusion is that California simply does not work with this number of districts and this level of acceptable deviation.

[Хahar 🤔]

When you say SV, do you mean Santa Clara County? If so, it's an inseparable part of the Bay Area; despite the Census Bureau's definition of the San Francisco metropolitan area as separate from the San Jose metropolitan area, there is no definition of the Bay Area that excludes Santa Clara County.

If shoehorning San Jose into a non-Bay Area district is off-limits (as it should be) there are then only three potential options:

1) Draw a district consisting only of the Central Coast
2) Connect the Central Coast to the San Joaquin Valley
3) Split the Central Coast between the north and the south, connecting the northern part to the Bay Area and the southern part to greater Los Angeles

The first solution is obviously unfeasible from a population standpoint. The second solution might keep the Bay Area and the Los Angeles area intact, but it connects two areas that are not connected either culturally or by major roads. That leaves the third option, which involves connecting the parts of the Central Coast that are in Northern California (Monterey County and points northward) with the Bay Area, while connecting the parts that are in Southern California (San Luis Obispo County and points southward) with greater Los Angeles. This line is basically non-negotiable; lumping in Salinas with a Southern California district is straightforwardly wrong, as is grouping San Luis Obispo with a Northern California district.

I haven't looked to see whether the numbers work by splitting the Central Coast like this. If they do not, then the only conclusion is that California simply does not work with this number of districts and this level of acceptable deviation.

A ten-second look makes it pretty clear that, to comply with your Option 3, all muon would need to do is shift San Luis Obispo south- and such a move would actually decrease variance anyway. 

EDIT: I misread where San Francisco itself was, which complicates matters.  But presumably removing San Luis Obispo would render that split of the Bay Area less objectionable?

(Yes, muon, I still owe you my thoughts on Philly/Atlanta/Detroit.  Comin' soon.)

If the numbers check out, then moving San Luis Obispo out would work, yes. Having Marin in the same district as Alameda County but not San Francisco is not ideal, but it's acceptable.

This map doesn't work at all for reasons that have already been discussed. There's no possible configuration in which Palo Alto and Thousand Oaks can belong to the same district.

[Хahar 🤔]

If Ventura was given its choice of district:

(1) Silicon Valley-Central Coast;
(2) San Joaquin Valley;
(3) Orange County;
(4,5) One of the suburban LA districts;

which would they choose?

Suburban Los Angeles, absolutely. There's not even any question in that regard. Ventura County is suburban Los Angeles. Orange County would be awkward because of non-contiguity but not terrible. The San Joaquin Valley would make very little sense but it would still be better than a connection with San Jose.

[Хahar 🤔]

If Ventura was given its choice of district:

(1) Silicon Valley-Central Coast;
(2) San Joaquin Valley;
(3) Orange County;
(4,5) One of the suburban LA districts;

which would they choose?

Suburban Los Angeles, absolutely. There's not even any question in that regard. Ventura County is suburban Los Angeles. Orange County would be awkward because of non-contiguity but not terrible. The San Joaquin Valley would make very little sense but it would still be better than a connection with San Jose.

Which of these two options would make more sense to you for the LA area:

Option A (keep LA county whole)
1) SLO, SB, Ventura, Orange (about 1K over population but justifiable)
2) Antelope Valley, San Gabriel Valley, Agoura Hills, and communities included inside LA city
3) City of LA
4) Torrance pocket, Los Angeles Valley (East LA to Long Beach)

Option B (keep Orange separate)
1) SLO, SB, Ventura, Antelope Valley, Agoura Hills, Torrance pocket, and communities in LAC
2) San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles Valley
3) City of LA
4) Orange

Option B is ideal.

Rank these:

[2] San Gabriel&Antelope Valleys, includes Lancaster-Palmdale, Santa Clarita, San Gabriel valley including Pasadena, plus Glendale and Burbank.

[1] City of Los Angeles, includes the city plus enclaves such as Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and the city of San Fernando, and the area of western LA County (Malibu on north to Ventura County).

[3] Los Angeles South, includes suburbs to the south of LA and the San Gabriel valleys, on both sides of the city of LA's harbor extension (eg Inglewood, Torrance, Palos Verde, East Los Angeles, Whittier, Long Beach, Compton, Bellflower, etc.

[6] Silicon Valley-Central Coast;

[5] San Joaquin Valley;

[4] Orange County;

The first three aren't exactly interchangeable, but I'd certainly accept a different ordering. The latter three, on the other hand, are fairly clear.