The Bay Area Equity Atlas, Bay Rising and Urban Habitat are hosting a webinar Tuesday exploring the latest data on the diversity of the region’s elected officials.
For the past several years, the Equity Atlas has researched and compiled the data, which shows that people of color continue to make modest gains in the halls of power but are still generally underrepresented across the Bay Area.
For example, in 2019, people of color held 29 percent of the region’s elected positions — a number that rose to 34 percent in 2021 and to 37 percent in 2023 — but account for 62 percent of the Bay Area’s population.
“Before the Bay Area Equity Atlas started tracking this data, there was very little information on who holds political power locally,” said Michelle Huang, who leads the data collection and research efforts on the topic. “It takes a lot of work but having this data for all 101 cities and nine counties enables our region to have more robust and intentional conversations about building a democracy that both includes and serves us all.”
How to register for the webinar
The webinar, which starts at noon, will feature discussions on the barriers to full-participation, strategies to remove those barriers and efforts to advocate for more progressive policies at the local level.
Speakers include Oakland Unified School Board member Valarie Bachelor, who is also an organizer with the California Federation of Teachers; Richmond Rent Board member Tomasa Espinoza; Judith Guerrero, chairperson of the Farmworker Advisory Board; Bay Area Equity Atlas associates Huang and Simone Robbennolt; and Shaketa Redden, executive director of Causa Justa::Just Cause.
People can register online to attend the webinar, “Moving Beyond Representation: Championing Progressive Policies in the Bay Area.” The webinar will be in both English and Spanish.
The Bay Area Equity Atlas is built and maintained via a partnership involving PolicyLink, the University of Southern California’s Equity Research Institute and the San Francisco Foundation.
