TEEN PRESENTS REDISTRICTING PLAN - * BERKELEY HIGH STUDENT, TOO YOUNG TO VOTE OR HOLD OFFICE, SOUGHT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE POLITICALLY

Greg Cannon
West County Times
February 7, 2002

BERKELEY - At 16, Nick Rizzo is not old enough to vote, but he is savvy enough to recognize that the shakeup of local political districts now underway will influence city government long after he has cast his first ballot.

So, fed up with the City Council's factional maneuvering that passed a plan last fall and quickly repealed it, Nick drew up his own scheme for remaking the boundaries of the city's eight council districts.

It's one of five plans that will be considered.

A quick glance at the information packet provided would-be redistricters shows this was no task for the timid.

Page upon page of census data is followed by excerpts from the city's charter, ordinances and state rules.

Nick was undaunted, spending about a dozen hours with calculator and map crafting a plan that he says is sound and fair.

"It's really not that bad in terms of how dry and dull it is," he said of the process.

Too young to vote for candidates or become one himself, this was one of the only ways he could make a difference, he said.

But it is not just Nick's age that sets him apart.

In a political arena marked by an ever-widening split between the council's progressive majority and moderate minority, Rizzo says he is a true bipartisan.

"It was really a very polarizing situation," he said of last year's redistricting scuffle. "I just really desperately don't want to go through that again."

He points out that he has helped campaign for both progressive and moderate candidates and causes.

"I really think I'm ... a swing voter," Nick said, quickly adding, "if I could vote."

Nick is volunteering for Loni Hancock's campaign for state Assembly.

"He's impressed everyone with his enthusiasm," said campaign coordinator Molly O'Shaughnessy.

And he is not shy. At a fund-raiser recently, Nick marched right up to Sen. Barbara Boxer and introduced himself.

"I wish I could work a room like Nick," O'Shaughnessy said.

When he was younger - oh, around 7 or 8 - pure bliss was sitting down with an atlas and planning new cities.

Given his age, it is easy to contrast his political interests against the more common teen-age pursuits of music and hanging out.

But how many adults, for that matter, would tackle redistricting, let alone prepare for the job by reading a biography of the late Rep. Phil Burton, of San Francisco, who Rizzo calls the "master of California redistricting"?

Burton's story, Nick said, "shows how powerful moving a few lines on a map can be," but he warns that Burton went too far in manipulating boundaries for political gain and said Burton is "not a good role model."

Burton, chief architect of the state's 1980s redistricting plan, called it his "contribution to modern art."

Nick has more modest goals.

"More or less I'm trying to preserve communities of interest," Nick said. For example, his plan moves UC Berkeley students from District 6, which is dominated by homeowners, into Districts 7 and 8, which already have lots of students.

At public hearings later this month, Nick's proposal will compete for the council's attention with plans from Councilwoman Dona Spring, the Associated Students of UC, the Berkeley Party, and Elliot Cohen.

Nick would seem to be destined for a future in politics, but he is not quite sure. "The problem is at a certain point, politics becomes a very ugly game."