He walked 50 miles of San Francisco’s district boundaries. The mission: redraw them

It’s understandable that Raynell Cooper had the old Johnny Cash song “Walk the Line” on his mind at times for the past few weeks. After all, he did spend his summer hikes. Almost 50 miles worth it.

They were the boundaries of the 11 regulatory districts of San Francisco. And this wasn’t just a hiking challenge. Cooper laid the foundation for a major task that he and eight other volunteers will take on: Using new census data to draw new boundaries for the boroughs of the city. Dozens of people competed for the spots, with three each being chosen by the mayor, the overseers and the electoral commission. You must subscribe by April 15th.

Each of the city’s eleven boroughs must be equally populated – that’s roughly one-eleventh of San Francisco’s 873,965 residents.

But first Cooper had to know his baseline. And so, last month, he started walking the current lines made 10 years ago by another group of volunteers using the 2010 census data.

I met him Wednesday night on Tank Hill with the Sutro Tower looming less than half a mile southwest.

“That was a prerequisite for me. We’re going to spend a lot of time talking about these lines, ”said Cooper. “I see it as building a foundation on which to throw a lot of other information.”

“Forty-six miles down,” he added. “Two miles to go.”

Cooper and the rest of the redistribution task force won’t get the granular data they need until the fall, but there is already big evidence of which districts need to shrink geographically and which ones need to grow.

San Francisco’s population has grown 8.5% in the past decade – so much for that rumored exodus, right? But the growth was not even.

The data shows that the neighborhoods on the eastern edge of the city have grown the most. Mission Bay had the largest population growth, swelling by a whopping 92%. South Beach, the South of Market, Dogpatch and Bayview-Hunters Point area also grew significantly.

Neighborhoods on the west side, which are known to be resistant to new housing, have hardly changed since 10 years ago. Let us hope that the 2030 census finally shows the necessary growth there too.

In order to keep the population the same, the districts in the east of the city have to shrink geographically, while those in the west have to expand.

Several local groups, including the League of Women Voters of San Francisco and the Asian Law Caucus, are calling on residents to get involved in the redistribution process so they can ensure their communities of interest – cultural districts or neighborhoods or areas where certain languages ​​are spoken be, for example – stick together.

Districts should even be within one percentage point – or can vary up to five points if this is absolutely necessary in order to involve an entire interest group in a district.

For example, the Indian Cultural District of San Francisco is currently divided into Districts Eight and Nine. Perhaps it suits the latter, the Mission, rather than the former, Noe Valley and Castro. Cooper and his comrades could try to draw their new lines with these facts in mind.

Alison Goh, president of the local League of Women Voters, said, “This is your chance to identify yourself. Federal lines are given a lot of shine, but that affects us every day. “

Julia Marks, an employed attorney for the Asian Law Caucus who administers their voting rights and census programs, agreed.

“Redistribution may sound boring, but it’s really important,” she said. “When you have a lot in common with your neighbors and split up by the way the district lines are drawn, it is much more difficult, both at the ballot box and in the organization and advocacy, to focus on the issues that are important to you. to make a difference. “

Where are these lines now? I went west with Cooper on his last remaining stretch to find out.

We descended Tank Hill and headed west, with everyone on our right represented in the Town Hall by District Five Supervisor Dean Preston and everyone on our left represented by Myrna Melgar of District Seven became.

Cooper often stopped to check his phone that we were still on the right track because there is nothing sensible about that. It is supposed to flow north into Stanyan Street, but despite a sign to the contrary, part of this street does not exist. Instead, it is one of the many “paper streets of the city” that can be seen on maps, but not in reality. It’s actually a slope behind a wrought iron fence and we had to drive around.

We walked through the Sutro Forest before hiking down the back of the UCSF Medical Center. The route then continues in front of the campus on Parnassus Avenue, our pedestrians wear scrubs and surgical masks before they cut across the dental building like a drill through a tooth. Again we went around.

Cooper is a 26 year old park planner for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. He’s very interested in civic engagement, geography, and trivia – all important things to do when you redraw district boundaries. Growing up in Oregon, he remembers convincing his parents that driving from one end of US Route 20 near his home to the other end in Boston would be great fun. He was only 7 years old and pored over maps for more than 3,000 miles in the back seat.

When Cooper was 9 years old, the family moved to the Washington, DC suburbs and his interest in trivia and geography grew. In 2011 he won the teenage tournament “Jeopardy” – and $ 75,000. He will appear on the ABC trivia show “The Chase” later that month, although he wouldn’t reveal how he fared.

He studied geography at George Washington University and earned a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Maryland in 2017 before moving to San Francisco the next year. He has been the proud resident of District 5 ever since.

On the final leg of our walk, we strolled through the Inner Sunset before reaching the end of our segment, 17th Avenue and Judah Street. The sun was beginning to set behind St. Anne of the Sunset Church, and its pink facade matched the sky. The N-Judah rumbled by.

“Oh my goodness!” Cooper exclaimed, ecstatically his line-walking was finally finished. “We come full circle.”

Well, actually not a circle. But miles and miles of lines.

The San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf