Coast and inland counties: They're mountains apart

Redding Record Searchlight
April 12, 2011

Shared interests, political theories and a vague sense that we're due for change are nice, but when it comes to practical politics, sometimes you've got to focus on the concrete - literally. You've got to look at the roads.

Saturday's meeting of the Citizens Redistricting Commission at Shasta College opened a debateamong a clutch of politically minded locals about our region's identity - about our rivers, our mountains, our lifestyles and our economies-as some speakers pressed the commission to consider congressional and legislative districts that would link Shasta County to the North Coast.

It is an intriguing concept as the state launches its political redistricting for the first time under the independent, apolitical commission. Such districts, for state Assembly and Senate and U.S.Congress,would link two rural regions that have a lot in common but are profoundly at odds socially and politically.

And, depending on the counties included, the districts could be close to political toss-ups.That explains the keen interest in the topic from Jim Reed - the Democrat who ran against Rep.Wally Hergerin2010 - and other liberal-minded north state residents. By contrast, the conservatives who spoke Saturday largely favored the current districts, which follow the Sacramento Valley. Some frankly pointed out that coastal liberals just aren't like us. (The feeling of mistrust, no doubt, would be mutual.) But the best argument against such a change in districts is based not on politics, but on pavement. The roads that knit such a district together are narrow, curvy, prone to rockslides and snow closures, and far between.

And those highways are the way they are because of the unforgiving geology of the Coast Range. It's said that Trinity County is the size of Texas, if only you could stretch it out flat, a task well outside the jurisdiction of the redistricting panel.

The physical isolation of the North Coast has always made the redwood country a distinct region, with a separate economy, oriented down Highway 101 (more or less the only straight road in and out) toward Sonoma County. Tying it to the inland north state is artificial.

Of course, some of today's districts are alsoartificial - including the 4th Senate District, represented by Sen. Doug LaMalfa, which does in fact reach to the coast, but only to leapfrog across the rugged Siskiyou Mountains to swallow Del Norte County.That remote county in the far northwestern corner of Californiais due west of Siskiyou County and doesn't look far on a map, but in fact there's no highway directly linking the next-door counties, which are divided by high ridges and federally designated wilderness.

Boosters of an east-west district that included the coastconcededthatthebadroadswouldbeaheadache for candidates, elected officials and their staffs, but said their convenience isn't a priority. Well, of course it'snot.But roadnetworks and mountain ranges have shaped how Californians live since the Gold Rush. To ignore them is silly.

In general, shuffling the state's political districts, which for the past decade have been frozen intooverwhelmingly "safe seats," to foster livelier competition in elections is a worthy goal. If the redistricting commission draws sensible maps that do so, it'll be a victory for public accountability.

But if the road to competition is a white-knuckle drive across Highway 36, maybe we're better off staying home.