A Venice Beach Break

 Our outdoor thermometer read -10˚F (-23˚C).  That was not abnormal when we first moved to Anchorage in 1977, but it hasn't been that frequent in the last 10 or 20 years.  I know it sounds awful - especially to folks who have never experienced it, but the sky was crystal clear, the air still, and it's like being in another, amazing world.  As they say, there's no bad weather, just bad clothes.

In any case, we flew through Seattle and got to LAX Monday night.  LAX is still trying to be a world class airport.  But it still doesn't have rail service and you have to take a shuttle bus to get a taxi or Uber, etc.  It used to be a taxi to my mom's house was around $30.  That's why we often just took the bus.  Then came Uber and Lyft and we could get to the airport for about $19.  But when I opened the Uber app, prices ranged from $33, then a bunch between $56-$86, and then some that were $200 and up.  We decided on a taxi, which ended up $29.  (That's all without tip of course.)

Tuesday was the storm.  It rained on and off, but didn't seem to match the great storm predictions.  Or maybe we slept through it.  By the afternoon there was sun.  But it was in the high 40s, chilly for LA.

Yesterday it was in the 50s and J found the bike pump and I went off to see what the last two years have brought.  Things look pretty much the same.  The biggest difference was the fence along Penmar Golf Course.  (This is a public course that was a swamp when I was a kid and a great natural playground I spent many hours in.)

Well, of course the gold course has always had a fence.  But there's a dirt pathway along the outside which had been changing into a homeless camp.  It had campers parked there for a while, but last time there were also tents along the walkway. Here's a pic I posted January 2019:

Here's what it looked like yesterday:

There are houses across the street and having homeless folks camped out by your house without bathrooms can become old.  From the neighbors' perspective this is neighborhood improvement.  Not sure what the homeless who camped here think.  If they've been offered decent lodging, maybe they'd agree.  

From my perspective, the city has blocked off a beautiful walkway along the golf course that I used to jog along when I was still running.  The bike trail is still usable.  It's only an improvement in the sense that our society has deteriorated to the extent that there are so many homeless people that the city has to fence off their encampments to get them out of the neighbors' hair.  Having a social safety net like most European countries have would have been a better way to deal with this - that is make it so people have health care, including mental health care.  Have jobs that pay a living wage.  Support those losing jobs to cheaper labor overseas or automation.  Better education.  Child care for working families, etc.  Then this would still be a lovely walk way for the neighbors to enjoy without the extra fencing blocking it off.  

Our understandings of the world and of human behavior never worked all that well, but the Protestant work ethic - just work hard and you'll do well - is not an accurate description for most people.  Yes, there are examples of it working, but the homeless populations in the various US cities shows us that we need more complex theories.  

But I was headed for the beach on this nbikeride and so were you in this blog post.  

The next picture has me almost there - riding down the last block of Rose Avenue before getting to Venice Beach.  I love this view with the palm trees and the water off ahead of me.  I spent a lot of time at the beach here as a kid and later in life visiting my mom.  

But I got to the bike trail, which wasn't there anymore.  Truly, we must have slept through the worst of the storm.  The bike trail was completely covered with sand.  Mostly it was navigable by bke, but there were places I just had to get off and walk.  I did google to see if anyone has explained all the sand, but all the reports are from previous years - usually wind blowing sand.  But I've never seen it like this.  Was it high tides and wind?  (The moon was close to full.)  I did call a number on an LA City Venice Beach website, but the woman who answered said she had nothing to do with Venice Beach.  I've sent an email to an address on that page, but I'm not holding my breath.  

I got to the skateboard park which had a few skaters despite a sign saying it was closed for filming obligations.   

Folks were filming - tv show?  movie?  commercial?  - taking advantage of the dune like setting.  I'd note this wall of sand is usually there, courtesy of the City of Los Angeles.  Then I made my way a little further to Venice Pier where I got these pictures 

Santa Monica mountains in the background.

This isn't a high resolution photo, but if you look closely above the building, closer to the pole on the left, you can see what I think is Mt. Baldy with a good amount of snow.  I'd note, with the sandy bike trail, there were very few other bikers.  The pier was pretty empty and I didn't see anyone fishing in the choppy waters.  Nor were there any surfers below the pier.  That's a first for me.  

On the way back I just stayed on the pedestrian walk (that turns into the Venice Boardwalk) which had been cleared of sand.  I stopped at the Frank Gehry house (designed by the famous architect, not where he lives).  Here's a post with the Disney Concert Hall for a very different Geary construction.

Finally back to the Boardwalk - Venice's contribution to edgy kitsch.

And then I was back on my way home having enjoyed the beach, and pushing pedals.  

And yes, I've got links to all the redistricting legal challenges and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with them.  Also so Tom Begich's press release about yesterday's Board meeting (also an email and I can't find a link) which I spent at Venice Beach.  Later.  

AIFF2021: Award Winners

 This year I did not go to the Award Ceremony - I was busy watching movies and also getting ready to fly south.  But the Festival Facebook Page put up the winners.  Like always I agree on some, not on others, and some I didn't see so I have no opinion. 

Actually, I tend not to like the idea of awards, so at the bottom I'm just going to list my favorites because each film will connect with the viewer for reasons that have nothing to do with film.  

Jury Awards: 

Documentary Feature

1st place - 80.000 Schnitzels, Hannah Schweier

2nd place - The Form, Filip Flatau

3rd place - Not About Me, Kelly Milner

Narrative Feature

1st place - Tall Tales, Attila Szász 

2nd place - Americanish, Iman Zawahry

3rd place - Lune, Aviva Armour-Ostroff & Arturo Pérez Torres

Documentary Shorts

1st place -  Hunger Ward, Skye Fitzgerald

2nd place - Aguilucho - Dance of the Harpy Eagle, Daniel Byers

3rd place - Myrtle Simpsons - A Life On Ice, Leigh Anne Sides

Narrative Shorts 

1st place - Sinking Ships, Andreas Kessler

2nd place - Ala Kachuu - Take and Run, Maria Brendle

3rd place - Synthetic Love, Sarah Heitz de Chabaneix

Short Animated: 

1st - Eternal Igloo, Mostafa Keshvari

2nd place - Johnny Crow, Jesse Gouchey and Xstine Cook

3rd place - The Farmer and the Lightning Storm, Danielle Browne

Made in Alaska Feature

Newtok, Michael Kirby Smith & Andrew Burton

Made in Alaska Short

1st place - Pinguat, Joshua Albeza Branstetter

2nd place - The Kathryn Treder Story, Aalina Tabani

3rd place - Keepers of the Shy Place, Gianna Savoie

Screenplay: 

1st place - Racing the Wolf God: by Alessandra Bautze

2nd place - Uphill: by Adam D. Boyer

3rd place - Midday Black Midnight Blue: by Samantha Soule & Daniel Talbott

Audience Awards: 

Documentary Feature

1st place - From the Hood to the Holler by Pat McGee

2nd place - Not About Me by Kelly Milner

3rd place - On These Grounds by Garrett Zevgetis

Narrative Feature

1st place - Tall Tales by Atilla Szasz

2nd place - 18 ½ by Dan Mirvish

3rd place - Americanish by Iman Zawahry

Made in Alaska Feature

Granted: A Wish Story by Dan Redfield

Made in Alaska Short

1st place - Trailbound Alaska by Max Romey

2nd place - Pinguat by Joshua Albeza Branstetter

3rd place - Keepers of the Shy Place by Gianna Savoie

Short Animated: 

1st place - Pottero by Lindsey Martin

2nd place - Mni Wiconi - Water is Life by Jeremias Galante & Miguel Antonio Genz

3rd place - Goodnight Mr. Vincent Van Gogh by Lindsey Doolittle

Documentary Shorts: 

1st - 15 grains of sand by Rachel Handlin

2nd place - The Black Stonefly by Cody Lewis & Mark Rotse

3rd place - Why are you black? By Julie Skaufel

Narrative Shorts: 

1st place - Ala Kachuu - Take and Run by Maria Brendle

2nd place - Sinking Ships by Andreas Kessler

3rd place - Like the Ones I Used to Know by Annie St-Pierre

WHAT DO I KNOW? Favorites

Documentary Feature:

1st Place   - Captive

2nd Place - The Art of Sin

3rd Place - Not About Me and Sexplanation

[Didn't see Scrum, Newtok, On These Grounds, Underdog, Outloud, I'm Wannita]

Narrative Feature

1st Place - Tall Tales

2nd Place - Lune

3rd Place - Landlocked and Tiger Within

Documentary Shorts

1st Place - The Hunger Ward

2nd Place - Why Are You Black?

Narrative Shorts

First Place - Ala Kachuu 

2nd Place - The Manila Lover

3rd Place - Al Sit

[I didn't see many in this category]

Imagine That Alaska Only Had One Polling Place In November 2020 [And AIFF2021 Recs]

 I just watched From The Hood To the Holler online via the Anchorage International Film Festival.  It's about Charles Booker's 2020 Democratic primary race against Amy McGrath in Kentucky.  She started the race with $29 million and he had $300,000.  But the Louisville protests over Breonna Taylor helped spark his campaign from the West End of Louisville through the Hollers of Kentucky.  

What struck me the most was this tidbit from the movie:  In Louisville, Kentucky, a city of over 700,000 people, there was only one polling place in the 2020 primary!   [Note: most of the facts here come from the movie, but I did check on the population of Louisville.  Here's what Wikipedia says:  

The city's total consolidated population as of the 2020 census was 782,969.[4]

Consolidated is the key - it's all of Jefferson County.  The Currier confirms:

"For the commonwealth's June 23 primary elections, Jefferson County offered voters only one polling location, at the Expo Center."]

The state of Alaska has roughly the same population as Jefferson County.  Imagine.  Just one polling place!  One of many ploys Republicans are offering to suppress votes.  

The movie was like a campaign film for Booker, rather than a documentary, and perhaps a bit too long, but well worth watching.  

Some other suggestions for people in the last couple of days before the Festival ends.  You'll note the documentaries are a strong category.  I recommend all of these.  

Documentary Features.

Captive - So far this is my personal favorite.  We can debate what makes a good film.  I spelled out what I consider important in a 2012 Film Festival post.  Captive is the story of western journalist of Asian descent going to Nigeria to interview girls and young women who had been kidnapped by Book Haram.  It's an important and well told story.  I posted about Captive already.

The Art of Sin -   Ahmed Umar, a refugee from Sudan who is now a Norwegian citizen, is an artist and a gay man.  The film tells his story of coming out - the first Sudanese of any fame to do so.  We see him in Norway and then on hist first trip back to Sudan after ten years away.  A powerful film.

The Form - The form in the title is an application to nominate someone as Righteous Among Nations, a recognition given by the yadvashem foundation to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from Nazis.  A young Frenchman is asking his mother to fill out the form for the people who hid her in Poland in WW II.  His mother has refused to talk about those experiences and doesn't want to fill out the form.  The son wants to know about that part of his mother's life.  

A Sexplanation - The title seemed exploitative. (Ya think?)  But it turns out to be accurate.  A 36 year old gay Asian man from San Francisco wants to learn more about why he had so much trouble finding out about sex and the shame he felt over masturbation and being gay.  He talks to a number of experts and also interviews his parents.  A fun and informative movie.  

Run Raven Run - I wrote about this film opening night.  Good movie.

Narrative Features

Tiger Within - Not entirely believable, but a good story anyway.  A Holocaust survivor takes in a runaway girl with a swastika on the back of her jacket.  Ed Asner plays the role of the old man.  

Lune  and Tall Tales - I wrote about these here (Lune) and here (Tall Tales).  Tall Tales is just a good story told well by a Hungarian film maker who has won best narrative feature  twice already at AIFF.  

I still have a bunch of features to watch.  I will note that I dropped out of The Wanderers about midway.  I tend to like off beat films, but this one just wasn't working for me. I finally gave up waiting for whatever it was that got this picked by the reviewers.  Given the relatively few narrative features, maybe it seemed good compared to others they watched.   And it's easier to move on to the next film when you're watching online than when you're in the theater and you'd have to wait for the next film to start anyway.  

Narrative Shorts

These films aren't too long, so I'm just going to list them and let you decide which to watch.

• Absurd Man
• Al-Sit
• Ala Kachuu - Take and Run
• Dualba - This one is odd, but it's Iranian and shows an unexpected side of that country - the location and the fact that someone made this film.
• Manila Lover 
• Synthetic Love
• The Women's Hour - Homage to old films

Documentary Shorts

I realize that I haven't seen many of these.  Here's one I'd recommend:

• Why Am I Black - Another African immigrant to Norway film.  A Somali this time if I remember right.  

Alaska Redistricting: Meeting Wednesday Dec 15; Law Suits Due Soon; VRA Language Requirements Alaska

 Let's just get a few things out here:

NEXT MEETING OF THE BOARD 

"The Alaska Redistricting Board will be meeting virtually on Wednesday, December 15 starting at 2:30pm. The meeting can be accessed in the following ways:

Listening to the audio stream on the legislature’s website at: www.akl.tv.

Calling in to the listen-only teleconference using the legislature’s teleconference system:  from Anchorage 563-9085; from Juneau 586-9085; from anywhere else: 844-586-9085.

The agenda and backup materials are posted to our website at: Alaska Redistricting Board - Minutes & Audio (akredistrict.org). They are also attached to the public notices on the State of Alaska’s Online Public Notice system at: http://notice.alaska.gov/204673 and on the Legislature’s website here.

Note: public testimony will not be taken at this meeting."

Looking at the Agenda, I'd say there won't be much public discussion of anything important.  

Agenda

1. Call to Order and Establish Quorum
2. Adoption of Agenda
3. Adoption of Minutes from previous BoardMeetings
4. Litigation review in Executive Session with Legal Counsel
5. Litigation management discussion
6. Adjournment 

There's also a link to documents - "Board Packet" -  that includes:

1.  Board Minutes Since September 2020 - I'd note that while the Board has been good about putting lots of documents up on the website, including audio and video, in a timely manner, none of the parts that said "minutes" on the site had links.  Now, we get them.  Some over a year old.  How did these get approved?  It would seem that decision, at least how it was going to be done, should have been public.  That said, the minutes are far more detailed than the minutes kept by the 2010 Board.  

I'd point to his from the February 26, 2021 meeting about contacts Board members had with members of the public:

"Although it may be helpful for there be a policy for individual board members not to engage in off-record discussions, this is also a valuable way to gain public input.

• Ms. Bahnke suggested that if the board allows itself to individually engage with the public and community groups in their formal role as Redistricting Board members, a record of the engagement activities of each board member should be publicly shared."

It would be helpful to hear from members Binkley, Marcum, and Simpson detailing the contacts they had with people not on the Board concerning advice on making maps, pairing House districts into Senate seats, and allocating senate terms.  After early testimony that voiced concern that partisan politics had played a big role in the early maps, Members Borromeo and Bahnke publicly said they had not had contact with anyone except other Board members and staff concerning how they made their maps.  The other three Board members remained silent on this.

2.  A copy of the Matsu Borough lawsuit 

 

LAWSUIT DEADLINE IS 30 DAYS AFTER PROCLAMATION - BY MY COUNT FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021

 One lawsuit is already in and available at the end of the Board packet.  I believe there will be at least one more filed, possibly more.  So today (Thursday December 9) or tomorrow we should know.

VRA LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR ALASKA BALLOTS 

This twitter thread explains this better than I can.  [Click on the Tweet to get to the whole thread] But I'm putting up the image with the list of Alaska communities required to have ballots in languages besides English.  I had a few questions - still unanswered:

1. Why is there a Yup'ik requirement for Kenai and Kodiak?  
2. My first reaction was why Filipino?  I thought that there were many languages spoken in the Philippines - the main one being Tagalog.  Well, Wikipedia answered my question:

"Filipino (English: /ˌfɪlɪˈpiːnoʊ/ (About this soundlisten);[2] Wikang Filipino, locally [wɪˈkɐŋ ˌfiːliˈpiːno]) is the national language (Wikang pambansa / Pambansang wika) of the Philippines. Filipino is also designated, along with English, as an official language of the country.[3] It is a standardized variety of the Tagalog language,"

NEW: The Census Bureau has released an updated list of state and local governments that are required to provide language assistance to voters who do not speak English very well, per Section 203 of the Voting Rights Acthttps://t.co/OJn5Vfi8Pg pic.twitter.com/jGCDeudY4j

— Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) (@hansilowang) December 8, 2021

AIFF 2021: Captive and Tall Tales [Updated]

My Favorite Doc and Most Powerful Film So Far:

The film Captive is why I like film festivals.  This is not an easy film.  The journalist/film maker, Melissa Fung, is in Nigeria interviewing young girls who have been kidnapped and forced to marry Boko Haram soldiers.  She looks in on them over a couple of years as she reveals to the audience that she too has been captured and raped.  The screenshot gives a sense of the rapport that Fung has with her subject, which is part of why this is such a powerful film.  Given the stories we hear everyday about the US, we have many similar survivors.  And, given the Texas legislature, the rape statistics in the US in general, and the naked power lust of January 6,  we have many men in the U who have no empathy or understanding of women or other human beings.  And while these young women live in comparative poverty, their clothing and beauty are exquisite.  

[UPDATE Dec. 7, 2021 4:13 pm

I couldn't resist this link which showed up today.  The abduction of women is a global and local problem.]

My Favorite Feature So Far                 

Tall Tales.  Hungarian film maker Attila Szasz has had the best film at the Anchorage International Film Festival twice already.  He makes beautiful, tight, thought provoking films. This one takes place at the end of WWII.  Men have been scattered all over the war zone and wives and parents are desperate for word about their husbands and sons who haven't returned.  The main character reads the classified ads seeking information and goes to visit the desperate families and tells them what they want to hear.  But things get complicated.  He's not the only one telling Tall Tales.  The credits and the noirish color add to the that post war period feel.  

What Red Light?

I was on my way home from 80,000 Schnizel at the Bear Tooth.  On La Touche waiting to turn left onto 36th.  It's generally a long light.  I was the second car.  After at least 30 seconds of red light, the car in front of me started to inch forward.  Was he really just going to ignore the light?  I grabbed my phone.  There's no question the driver knew the light was red.  They'd been waiting there for a while. Just didn't feel like waiting any longer I guess.  The phone says I took the pictures at 3:15pm.

It was at least another 30 seconds, maybe more, before the light changed to green.  These are low res pictures because even on my phone the license wasn't legible. It was either really dirty or even a paper dealer's license.  I'd like to think this was someone trying to get to Providence Hospital and decided it was safe to go.  

Once at this intersection, the light had turned green and I was just starting to go, when I realized a car was speeding down 36th from the east and wasn't planning to stop.  

 

AIFF 2021Lune- Fascinating Film Covering Many Issues

 The Bear Tooth was practically empty today.  The film was huge.  It quickly expanded from a mother/daughter relationship into mental health, race, art, parent/child relations in general, money wealth and love wealth, South African elections, dance, Judaism, Palestinian/Israeli conflict.  I'm sure I'm missing something.  I think a great editor could have trimmed it back a bit - it says it was 113 minutes, but seemed longer.  The actors were outstanding - all of them.  Watching someone off their meds is disturbing, but the actor was so good!

The only thing that bothered me, may not be an issue except my ignorance. The main actor was a white, South African who'd emigrated to Canada.  She sounded a lot more than a woman I know from London than a white South African woman emigrant to the US.  But perhaps whites in South Africa have different accents.  

I want to reiterate that there are quite a few films that will be shown live this week, as well as the whole online array of films.  I know.  We've all gotten comfortable with our various streaming subscriptions and the comfort of staying home to watch.  And it's cold out, etc.  

But seeing the last two films on a big screen was great.  And it's really safe if you're fully vaccinated.  Everyone is masked (except when eating).  They block out the two seats on both sides of your party when you reserve online at the Bear Tooth.  Far more space from others than we just had on the airplane from Seattle.  And the ceiling is much higher than in a plane.  And the food is better.  Though I was disappointed to learn that if you order from the restaurant, they no longer bring it to you.  They treat it like any other to go order.  They text you that it's ready.  Really that's what they said.  They are getting lots of take out orders and it takes up to 45 minutes they say.  But who wants their phone to ping during a movie?  Who wants to get up and leave the movie to pick up their food?  Only the person who was dragged to a movie she hates and would love the excuse to leave.  Otherwise, no one.  

This is a customer service and management inflexibility problem that's easy to fix.  They can text the Bear Tooth Theater food staff and have them pick it up and deliver it.  It's not hard.  

But other than that, pick a couple of films and get yourself out of the house and into a theater.  If you've already bought a pass for the online, still do it.  Yes, it will cost and extra $10 plus service fee, but just do it.  

And now that there are no 'films in competition' it's harder to figure out which ones you want to see.  Even then, there were films I thought were better than the films in competition.  In any case I invite, implore, folks who are watching films at home to share your favorites so others can find them.  Use the Festival's FB page or even leave comments here.  

And with all the trees decorated with ice today, it was worth being out in such a magical natural wonderland.  

OnThese Grounds is playing at 6pm tonight at the Museum

80,000 Schnitzels is playing at 1pm at the Bear Tooth tomorrow (Sunday)

For Ticket Information: www.anchoragefilmfestival.org.  That's really not that helpful.  For the Bear Tooth, go to their site and you can buy tickets online or at the theater.  For the Museum, not sure you can get them online.  Same with  E Street.  Just go.  

Run Raven Run - Roma Musicians Open AIFF2021

 Lots of firsts lately.  First plane ride in almost two years and tonight we were at the Bear Tooth for the first time in two years at the Anchorage International Film Festival Opening.  The Festival is both live and online.  

Masks are required except while eating and drinking and two spaces are left open between your party and the next.  We decided to try it because when I went online to buy your ticket I could see there were mostly empty seats.  

And a pass to the online festival doesn't get you into the theater free, so I'm guessing lots of people are staying home.  But if you're fully vaccinated I'd encourage you to come.  The big screen was a great change.  And while everything seems new and different, it quickly seems like normal again.  The biggest shock was that the Bear Tooth orange cones are a thing of the past.  With reserved seats, the wait staff doesn't have to go looking for your cone.  They have your seat number.  

And there are lots of films that are scheduled live.  And they have printed programs at the Bear Tooth.  Here's a couple of pages so you can see there are live films all week.  Some at the Bear Tooth, the museum, and the E Street Theater.  

The Festival directors and some board members were on stage to greet folks.


Run Raven Run took place mostly in Romania as film maker Michael Rainin takes us into the lives of different Gypsy musical traditions.  We skip around from one family to another with bits of history and geography thrown in.  That probably sounds a bit tedious, but the people in the movie pulled us into their lives and their world view.  Credit has to go to the film maker, but even more so, I'm guessing, to the people who took him into their homes and shared their lives with him.  We went from traditional oriental Gypsy music to violins to rap.  We saw beautiful rural villages and horrible Bucharest slums.  We traveled to Europe from Rajasthan, India.  We encountered Nazi concentration camps, and see Ceaușescu's trip to North Korea and his overthrow.  We even see some American jazz musicians and a great Louis Armstrong imitation.  

Ida Theresa Myklebost, Festival Co-Director
interviews Run Raven Run Director Michael Rainin

The director of the film, Michael Rainin, talked about the film and making it at the end.  Part of the discussion was about the acceptability of using the word Gypsy.  As you might assume by its use here that he felt the people in the film used it and didn't seem to have any objection to its use.  

Go online and check out the long list of films.  Tomorrow Lune plays at 1pm at the Bear Tooth, A family Shorts Program plays at 4pm at the Museum, and A Sexplantion plays at the Museum at 8pm.

Or just watch it all whenever you can online with a festival pass.  Or pay to watch individual films.  

But do try to go to at least one live event.  

Some First Quick Thoughts On The Matsu Suit Against The Redistricting Board's Plan

Tthe first suit against the Alaska Redistricting Proclamation Plan has been filed.  By Matsu.  Back in September when all the alternative plans came in, there was one from Matsu.  But when I asked about it, the Board's Executive Director told me 

"The one wrinkle that has emerged is that Mat-Su and AFFER’s plans appear to be identical."

I assumed that's why we never saw that map again.  But I can't find it on the Board's map page, so I can't compare.  AFFER is the group that Randy Ruedrich makes maps for - a very Republican leaning group.

Anyway13. According to the 2020 United States census, Alaska had a population of 733,391 residents, an increase of 23,160 residents. The MSB had a population of 107,081, an increase of 18,086 residents, representing 78 percent of the statewide population growth. 

 the Alaska Landmine put up a link to the suit.  

A quick perusal suggests two major grievances:

1. Getting paired with Valdez in one district
2. Being overpopulated

AFFER made a big deal about keeping district deviations low.  But as I looked at the suit, I found these statements surprising:

13. According to the 2020 United States census, Alaska had a population of 733,391 residents, an increase of 23,160 residents. The MSB had a population of 107,081, an increase of 18,086 residents, representing 78 percent of the statewide population growth. 

30. Every House District within the MSB (25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30) exceeds the quotient for the ideal House District. Combined, the total overpopulation of the districts is 13.75 percent. This represents the most significant deviation of any geographic area in the State of Alaska as proposed in the Final Plan. 

31. Comparing the MSB to Anchorage, Anchorage has 18 House Districts included in the Final Plan, of those 18 only two are overpopulated, thus the Anchorage House Districts are underpopulated by 10.02 percent. 

They seem to be monkeying around with percentages to make the Matsu grievances seem terrible.

In 13) they tell us that Matsu had 78% of the growth in the state.  OK, so what difference does that make?  That was, in people, not percentages,18,086.  That's about 269 people under one new ideal House  district.  And Matsu got  a new district..  

In 30)  they again play with percentages.  This looks so obvious that I'm wondering if I'm missing something.  You can't add up percentages to get the cumulative percentage.   Lots of people make this kind of mistake apparently.

"The common error is taking the percentages at face value and adding them together to get the overall percentage change."

Each of these percentages represents district deviation / total district population.

So you have to add up the numbers, not the percentages.  First add the number of people over or under the ideal district size for each district.  Then divide that number by the ideal district size (18335) * 6 (districts)..  Then you do the math to get the percentage of the six districts altogether.   

If you add the number of people above the ideal number (18,335) of people per district, it comes to 2520.  

If you divide that 2520 by the whole population of the Matsu's six districts which they tell us is 107,081 (2520/107,081) the Matsu area is over populated by 2.4%, not 13.75%.  I know Randy Ruedrich is smarter than that, so someone else must have done it, or he must think that the judges would be fooled.  No, he's smarter than that too.  So who did the math

I did not go through all the Anchorage districts to add all the numbers, but the same rule of math applies - you can't add the percentages, you have to add the numbers for each district and then divide the sum, by the total ideal population of all the districts.  

But look again.  They say that Anchorage has 18 House seats.  Throughout this process everyone has always said that Anchorage has 16 House seats.  And when I look at the final map of Anchorage I can only count 15 seats, because the 16th, District 24,  is north, off the map.

That's just a quick look.  These are pretty glaring errors that may torpedo this challenge.  

I do think that fact that Matsu altogether is overpopulated is a legitimate issue.  In urban areas, the deviations should really be about 1% or less  But only tiny parts of Matsu could be considered mini-urban areas.  The rest is more rural, so higher deviations are more acceptable because the population is so scattered.

And pairing Valdez with Matsu is also a potential problem. But finding the right place to put Valdez is hard, because you have to keep the deviations down.  

The issue of taking just Cantwell out of the rest of the Denali Borough is also a reasonable complaint.  The Board did this, as I recall, to include it with other Ahtna region villages.  

The argument that some people made at public hearings - that Matsu is the fastest growing part of the state, so it should be underpopulated to allow for growth - goes against the basic rule of redistricting.  That rule is that the numbers you use are the Census data numbers you are given.  Not some future expectation.  Who know for sure that Matsu will continue to grow into the future?  It has grown in the last two decades and may again.  But it may not.  While the suit points out Matsu's large population increase, I didn't see them making this argument.  

I'm waiting for someone to tell me I'm wrong.   These errors seem way too basic.   It would be embarrassing to be wrong about my math when criticizing someone else's math.  But I do acknowledge that possibility.   I must be missing something.  I have a toothache, so maybe it's messing with my mind.  

Started Day In Bainbridge, Ending In Anchorage

The day began on Bainbridge Island walking my granddaughter to school.  She had on a backpack and a yam (rising tone, like you're asking a question).  That's the Thai name for the shoulder bags you see on the left.  Those are from a blog post in 2008.  I told my granddaughter I'd bought the yam for her mother long ago.  

She said I sounded like I was asking a question and I responded that in Thai each word, actually each syllable has its own tone and yan is rising town.  In English the tone goes with the sentence, so that's why you think it sounds like a question.  When I was studying Thai, at the very beginning, we were just being taught how hear the different tones and then repeat them.  The teacher would say "mea" very flat tone and we would say it adding an English question to the word and changing the tone to a rising tone, which meant dog instead of to come.  

She was quiet for a while and then she said, "Grampa, if Thai words all have tones, how to they make songs?"    She's eight, going on nine.  Good question.  I wonder how much her piano lessons helped trigger that question.  

Then we got a ride to the ferry.  Actually, it was balmy, if cloudy, about 60˚ F.  We'd usually walk, but our daughter offered us a ride.  

I did walk around the deck, but it was very windy.  Here's a picture just as the ferry was leaving Bainbridge.  Downtown Seattle is in the middle, just to the right of the trees.  I thought about it.  Why do we think of the tall cluster of skyscrapers as an image of Seattle.  It's just a tiny fraction of the city.  

COVID and warnings about jammed TSA lines at SEATAC put us into a taxi instead of the train to the airport.  It's really fast that way - about 20 minutes instead of over an hour.  Because of the long lines, they've set up a system where you can make a reservation for a spot in the line.  Ours was for 11:15 (you get 15 minutes period).  Turned out there was no line whatsoever.  And we were in the terminal waiting for our flight.  

I thought this was an interesting sign.  Not sure where they store all the water.  Do they collect it from the roofs of the terminal buildings?  

Our flight was uneventful - the best kind - and were in Anchorage a little early.  We had a great Somali cab driver.  Hope to see him again.  You know, maybe people are afraid of immigrants because they know they are smarter and willing to worker harder than they are.  

And here's the back yard.  

I'll shovel tomorrow.  Nice to be back and to be greeted by much warmer temperatures that we were hearing about.  Our outdoor thermometer says 20˚F.    Didn't feel cold at all.  But we didn't spend that much time outside.  But not the shock that it sometimes can be when it's below 0.