In 2008, Councilmember Jesse Arreguin was elected to serve on Berkeley City Council, making him both the youngest and the first Latino council member among his predominantly white peers.
“It’s really frustrating and disheartening that it took this long to get someone, a Latino, on the City Council,” Arreguin, a 2007 UC Berkeley alumnus, said.
Despite the appointment of Arreguin four years ago, the council may not change drastically in terms of its demographics with the Nov. 6 election, now less than two weeks away. Still, the council could see new female faces if council candidates Sophie Hahn and Denisha DeLane and mayoral candidate Jacquelyn McCormick are elected.
The demographics of the City Council — which is made up of one mayor and eight council members representing their respective districts — have rarely varied over the years, despite periodic fluctuations in Berkeley’s ethnic identity. Currently, there are two African Americans and one Latino serving on the predominantly white council this year.
Over the last 30 years, the population of Latinos in Berkeley has increased from 5,117 to 12,209, and the population of Asians and Pacific Islanders has increased from 10,311 to 21,876, according to Bay Area Census data from 1980 to 2010. The total population in Berkeley, according to the 2010 census, is 112,580.
Despite the increasing Asian American population, Councilmember Ying Lee Kelley was the last Asian American to sit on the council, doing so in 1973.
“(We need to) elect new leaders,” McCormick said. “That’s the only way we are going to get a demographic change to the council … this is a dynasty. It’s been going on too long — that’s the reason we’re stuck.”
Failure to diversify?
According to mayoral candidate and Councilmember Kriss Worthington, a large part of the lack of council diversity lies in the “failure” to appoint a diverse range of people to commissions. Working on a commission provides a greater likelihood of gaining the experience and exposure needed to run for City Council, he said.
“Theoretically, any district can elect anyone of any race,” Worthington said. “I think it’s always good to have a diversity of experience, ethnic diversity, gender diversity and income diversity. Having people who have different life experiences really enriches the conversation.”
Since the current council district lines were drawn in 1986, the seats for Districts 2 and 3 — which encompass most of West and South Berkeley — have always been held by African American councilmembers. Yet data from 1980 to 2010 show that the African American population in the city has decreased by almost half, from 20,671 to 11,241, according to the Bay Area census.
District 2 Councilmember Darryl Moore said a large majority of the African American population lives in these districts due to historical events, such as labor migrations during World War I and policies of segregation.
“As an African American, I feel I can represent the diversity of people who live in District 2, whether they are African American, white, Latino (or other ethnicities),” Moore said.
The gender issue
Having been on the council for two decades, Councilmember Linda Maio said that while she believes the council has become quite diverse in terms of ethnicity at this time, the council is not diverse in terms of gender.
Berkeley’s population is 48.9 percent male and 51.1 percent female, according to 2010 census data. As of now, however, only two females sit on the council with six male council members.
Back in 1994, the council was composed of nine females — including the mayor — which was the first and only time this has occurred in Berkeley.
“It was wonderful because nobody had talked about it or planned for it or even thought about it,” said former mayor Shirley Dean, who sat on that council. “I thought that the council got along very well.”
But Maio said even with an all-female council, members were much more divisive at the time, with some “blatantly attacking” other council members rather than focusing on the issues at hand.
“There was little effort to bring people together as it was a highly polarized environment — toxic, in fact,” she said in an email. “The nasty divisiveness is reduced significantly (now).”
How this election could impact diversity
UC Berkeley enrollment data for 2012 state that 35,899 undergraduate and graduate students attend the campus, suggesting students make up a significant presence in the city.
Yet the last time a UC Berkeley student served on the council was in 1984, when current state Assemblymember Nancy Skinner was elected as an undergraduate.
If passed in the upcoming election, Measure R will amend the existing city charter to eliminate the 1986 boundary lines so that a student may have a higher likelihood of being elected to the council. The current boundaries divide the city in such a way that it has not been possible to create a supermajority district district of UC Berkeley students since the redistricting rules were established in 1986.
“If you increase the number of students in a district, then there’s a better chance that a student would win,” Worthington said. “It doesn’t mandate it, but it possibly increases the chances. We already have a sizable student majority.”
But given the current situation, Arreguin insists the city still needs to work harder toward greater diversity in elected offices.
“(Diversity) really matters because it’s making sure the people in our community have their voices heard,” he said. “I think with district elections, with changes that are happening, hopefully we’ll start seeing more diversity.”
Daphne Chen covers city government. Contact her at [email protected].
Comment Policy
Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article or blog post to which they are connected. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is discouraged, but permitted. The Daily Cal encourages readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regard to the readers, writers and contributors of The Daily Californian. Comments are not pre-moderated, but may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy. Click here to read the full comment policy.
How come transgendered and biracial individuals are ignored? There ought to be at least one undocumented homeless vertically challenged person on the council as well.
Aren’t you forgetting dogs and cats?
So the article is saying we have too many black council members. Based on population, having Arreguin on the council covers the Latino population. I guess we need to add a couple of Asian council members. So we toss one black and one white male council member for two female Asian council members. One of those would be a student. Interesting how all my council changes above do not actually take into account the abilities or positions of anyone. It is all based on race and gender. Race and gender do not really tell us anything about the person. Even in the article, Shirley Dean and Linda Maio couldn’t agree on how well the mostly female city council did.
If race and gender don’t tell anything about the person, then why are non-whites underrepresented on the council? By your own reasoning they are just as “able” as the whites…
There aren’t really more whites on the council than in the population. The statistics in the article say that Berkeley is 60% white. That would mean we would have between five or six white people on the council, which is what we have. We have a Latino that fits with 10% of the population being Latino. We have two black council members, and that is double what the population would indicate. I am thinking that the only reason we don’t have Asians on the council is that we just don’t happen to have Asian residents in Berkeley who are interested in being on the council. Berkeley has shown in the past that they have no issues with electing women or minorities, and the only reason there aren’t more women on the council now is probably lack of interest in women wanting to be on the council in the recent past.
Could anyone of them have gotten into Cal. on their merits? Tom Bates of course, mayor, did, but half the councel really can’t read a spreadsheet.
Slow news day, eh?
I suspect that if more black councilmembers were elected the city’s government might take a turn less friendly to LGBT concerns. Look at the 2008 elections, when record numbers of black voters were mobilized : yes, Obama was elected, but Prop. 8 passed as well. You win, you lose.
Black voters did not have an effect on the outcome of prop 8. As only less than 6.6%% of the state population you’ll have to stop buying into the media blame game. Do the math! On the other hand those GLBTQ people (mostly white) showed what they really felt about black people when many they referred to them as N—-rs on the day prop 8 passed. That’s the left for you! Should we now worry that having any GLBTQ people on the council would ensure racial oppression would return?
The point is that your comment is lacks any sense of intelligence. In the liberal city of Berkeley they would not elect people they believed to be bigots, racist, sexist or homophobic.
The focus of elected officials should be based on qualification regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation etc.
The problem with Berkeley is (and this comes from someone of the group they believed is underrepresented) that while it is open season for anyone to run and get elected here. All that diversity does nothing if the quality of the candidates you elected is lacking. And here it is surely lacking.