In 1971, San Jose took pride in electing Norm Mineta as the first Asian-American mayor of a major U.S. city.
Fifty years later, Asian Americans are the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in San Jose, but they have no representation on the City Council. None. Zero.
Now, as the City Council considers a leading plan for new political boundaries in San Jose, only two of the 10 districts would have an Asian-American majority, and one would have a plurality. That would make it tough for Asian-Americans, who comprise 38% of San Jose’s population, to wield the political influence they deserve.
The council could be leaving itself vulnerable to a Voting Rights Act lawsuit alleging district boundaries unfairly discriminate against Asian-American voters.
The city of Santa Clara lost a Voting Rights Act suit in 2018. Now three Asian Americans sit on that seven-member council. Every other neighboring city of San Jose has at least one Asian American on its council. Milpitas, for example, has four. Cupertino has three.
So you would think San Jose officials would prioritize ensuring fair representation for Asian Americans during the redistricting process.
Think again.
For starters, it’s appalling that no Asian Americans were named to the 11-member San Jose Redistricting Commission tasked with drawing maps for City Council consideration.
The commission advanced three maps, including the “Unity” map. It was drawn by a coalition of civil rights and labor groups and would reduce Asian-American voters in central San Jose’s District 7, which has the third highest percentage of voting-age Asian Americans (48%) of any district in the city.
Then, last Tuesday, the Council voted 8-3 to tentatively adopt a map introduced the same day by District 4 Councilman David Cohen. His map, which was portrayed as a compromise, would increase Latino representation to a greater degree than Asian-American representation in District 7.
That matters in District 7, where labor-friendly candidate Maya Esparza defeated Tam Nguyen in 2018.
Another failing of the map is that it splits long-standing neighborhoods. It also creates a confusing pocket of voters in District 8 who would be virtually surrounded by District 5 and District 7 voters.
The council must give final approval to its new redistricting map by Tuesday in order to meet its deadline. Asian Americans make up roughly 380,000 of San Jose’s 1 million population. They shouldn’t be short-changed in the city’s redistricting process.