Volume 4, Issue 4
Community
SDA student to compete in Miss California Teen USA pageant. A5
Lifestyle
www.encinitasadvocate.com
November 3, 2017
Council to decide between two districting maps BY BRITTANY WOOLSEY The Encinitas City Council is moving forward to consider two maps, one of which would decide how the city is split into districts. The council on Oct. 30 at a special meeting decided, with Council member Mark Muir voting no and Deputy Mayor Tony Kranz abstaining, to dwindle down a total of 22 maps to two citizen-submitted ones. Either of the two maps would divide Encinitas into four districts with an at-large mayor. According to the submitter's comments on the city's website, one of the maps, titled "Citizen 15," would "Keep core communities in tact [and] give all four a stake in El Camino Real." The other map, "Citizen 16," would "Keep the
core of communities together, cluster neighborhoods, and give three communities responsibility for the coast, El Camino Real and the Escondido Creek San Elijo Watershed," according to the submitter. Doug Johnson, the demographer the city hired to help with the maps, said it would be impossible for Encinitas to keep all five of its existing communities in tact and meet the demands of attorney Kevin Shenkman, who threatened the city with a lawsuit in July because he said the city is diluting the votes of minorities with its current at-large election system, thus violating the state’s Voting Rights Act of 2001. He also accused Encinitas of being discriminatory against Latinos, saying
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All the maps have challenges, but equal population is the roughest thing to get. You can't follow natural borders like freeways.
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Doug Johnson, demographer the city has a long history of hostility toward Latinos as evidenced by the fact that its first mayor repeatedly made racist statements during council meetings in the late 1980s. Shenkman has targeted many cities around California to move from at-large elections to district elections. In San Diego County, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Poway and Vista recently made the moves to district elections to
avoid litigation from Shenkman. Currently, Encinitas residents are asked to vote for two at-large candidates for city council and one candidate for mayor every two years. In the past, the mayor was a rotating position. In August, the city council declared its intent to move toward district elections to avoid litigation and is deciding whether to implement four districts with an at-large mayor or five districts with a rotating mayor. Johnson advised the council that it "can't achieve all the goals perfectly." Populations in Olivenhain and Cardiff made it difficult to not divide New Encinitas, for example, he said. "We have to come up with the best SEE DISTRICTS, A17
J*Company performs ‘Lion King’ songs for Encinitas pre-school BY BRITTANY WOOLSEY La Jolla theatre group visited an Encinitas pre-school Oct. 26 to expose them to the live arts and show them how fun it can be. As youth performers from J*Company presented songs from its currently running "Lion King Jr" show for the 2- to 5-year-old students of Easter Seals Head Start school, the children sat in awe and laughed as they watched a beloved Disney movie come to life before their eyes. The cast performed renditions of "The Circle of Life," "Hakuna Matata" and "I Just Can't Wait to be King" during the half-hour show, followed by question and answer periods. "See Young Simba?" Joey Landwehr, J*Company artistic director, asked the kids. "He's only 10. That's not much older than you. You can do this, too." Landwehr said he believes it is important for children to be exposed to the arts at an early age. He said he hoped the preschoolers seeing his cast, ages 10 to 15, was inspiring enough for them to think about letting the arts play a role in their lives. "Theatre changes lives and saves lives," he said. "Theatre has been proven to help people grow scholastically and socially. I think, especially in this day and age of social media where people don't connect anymore, theatre is one of the only outlets where you have to connect one-on-one. The younger they are, the better. We need to make sure that theatre and the arts are part of every child's life. It makes them a better human being to be able to empathize and connect with other people." David Landis, 10, who played Young Simba, said he was 7 when he began performing. "If you have a dream and you want to follow it, just go out there and do it," said the South
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BRITTANY WOOLSEY
Young actors from J*Company perform “The Circle of Life” from the Lion King for preschoolers at Easter Seals Head Start school in Encinitas on Oct. 26. Carlsbad boy to the kids following the performance. J*Company gives back regularly to the community, Landwehr added. It has a program called Random Acts of Culture where they do select free performances for under-served areas of San Diego. Sharon Murray, a former full-time teacher at Easter Seals, said she set up the event and invited J Company to Easter Seals because the children at the school, which serves low-income families, have likely not seen live theatre before in their lives. In the past, the school brought in professionals such as firefighters and police officers to talk to the students about their jobs, but Murray thought the children should learn about the arts, too.
"We don't have a lot of opportunity for field trips to see art," she said, adding funding for field trips is limited. "When I act things out or sing, [my students] look at me like I'm a crazy person. When I tried to do things with them that were play-oriented, the concept wasn't there. I saw J Company was doing this show, and I thought that was perfect." Murray said she hopes the performance inspires kids, who aren't athletically inclined or have other hobbies, to know that the arts might be an option for them, if they enjoy singing and acting. J*Company will perform "Lion King Jr" at San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, 4126 Executive Drive in La Jolla, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m.; and Nov. 5 at 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. For tickets and more information, visit jcompanysd.org.