This is the size I believe it should be, at the least. I also ignored the VRA, since California elects minorities consistently (Cruz Bustamante, John Chiang, Kamala Harris).
The final outcome of the map was 90 Dem, 36 GOP, 23 Tossup. I averaged the Brown and Obama numbers to come up with a competitiveness index (NOT a PVI, thanks 270).
Northern California:
1st (Blue): The northern part of the current CA-1 in the US House. It takes Del Norte, Trinity, Humboldt, and Northern Mendocino to form an illicit substance and hippie COI. It's D+13.
2nd (Green): This is a Northern Sierra Nevada COI. It includes Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen, Plumas, Sierra, most of Nevada, and some of Shasta, Butte, and Tehama. It's incredibly rural and R+7.
3rd (Purple): Not the best COI, but I couldn't do better here. It's most of Shasta Co (including Redding) combined with some of the Central Valley and much of Lake, which didn't fit anywhere else. R+10.
4th (Red): An excellent COI, it includes Chico, Paradise, and most of Yuba Co (but not Yuba City). R+2, our first toss-up, although probably Tilt R when it comes down to it.
5th (Yellow): Some of the rural Central Valley, the towns of Woodland and Yuba City, and an R+4 district.
6th (teal): The Tahoe district. Basically every ski place in NorCal except Mammoth plus some foothills terrain. R+4 as well.
7th (gray): The Placer County suburbs of Rocklin, Roseville, Loomis, and Lincoln. R+8
8th (periwinkle): More suburbs. Folsom, El Dorado Hills, Cameron Park, Fair Oaks, Granite Bay, Orangevale. R+9
9th (light blue): Inner suburbs. Citrus Heights, North Highlands, Foothill Farms, Rio Linda, and Antelope. D+2 but no Dem infrastructure makes this a Toss-Up.
10th (pink): More inner suburbs. Arden, Carmichael, Rancho Cordova, and Walsh Station. D+7
11th (light green): Northern Sacramento and West Sacramento. D+21.
12th (medium blue): Sacramento and Parkway. D+22. One of the few districts where Brown did better than Obama
13th (tan): Florin, Elk Grove, and some of Sacramento. D+14; Brown also beat Obama here. Four racial groups at 14% or higher, very diverse.
Breakdown for this region: 5-6-2
The North San Joaquin Valley:
14th (gross color): Lodi, Northern Stockton, and some rural territory in this R+4 district.
15th (orange): Stockton and Stockton only, which Stockton deserves. America's most miserable city needs some happiness. D+15 and plurality Hispanic.
16th (green): This one isn't really on the map, but it's basically the Sierra Nevada south of Tahoe district. Calaveras, Tuolomne, Inyo, Mono, Mariposa, East Fresno, East Madera, East Tulare, and a slice of the valley in East Stanislaus to get to population (including Oakdale). R+10.
17th (purple): South San Joaquin: Manteca, Tracy, Lathrop, Ripon, and some rural territory. D+0.
18th (yellow): Modesto and Riverbank. D+2
19th (olive): Most of rural Stanislaus, Ceres, Turlock, and a bit of North Merced. R+1
20th (pink): Merced, Atwater, Los Banos, Gustine, Chowchilla, and rural territory in this D+1 Hispanic district.
Total for region: 1-2-4
The Bay Area and Monterey Bay:
21st (maroon): Centered around Rohnert Park and Petaluma, it also includes rural North Sonoma, S Lake, and S Mendocino. D+21.
22nd (brown): The Marin district. D+26.
23rd (light blue): Santa Rosa, the other half of Petaluma, and some mountains in between. D+22.
24th (purple): The ugliest district in Northern California; it's basically a filler district. Stretches from Davis and Dixon in the Central Valley over the hills into Napa County and the town of Sonoma. D+17.
25th (pinkish): The Solano County district. This is the awkward part of NorCal that's kind of in the Bay Area but kind of not. It contains Vacaville, Fairfield, and Suisun City. D+8.
26th (gray): The bridge district. Vallejo and Benicia in the North Bay and Pinole, Hercules, Rodeo, Crockett, and Martinez in the East Bay. D+22
27th (aqua green): Richmond and affiliated areas (San Pablo, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Kensington) in Contra Costa plus Albany and North Berkeley. An insane D+39 for a white plurality district.
28th (light pink): Eastern Contra Costa. Oakley, Antioch, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, and most of Pittsburg. D+13.
29th (sea green): Concord, Pleasant Hill, Clayton, and West Pittsburg. D+15.
30th (coral): Walnut Creek, the LaMOrinda area, and Alamo/Danville/San Ramon. D+7. Big Obama overperformance here.
31st (light yellow): South Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, Piedmont. I now live in this district (for college). D+42 while 48% white.
32nd (reddish orange): much of Alameda and the rest of Oakland. Hispanic plurality, but Black plurality under CVAP. D+40.
33rd (blue): the other half of Alameda, the Oakland Airport, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, and Castro Valley. D+25.
34th (green): Eastern Alameda County plus a slice of Hayward to meet population. D+9.
35th (purple): Hayward, Union City, and Newark. D+25 and plurality Asian (although Asian includes many varieties that wouldn't really consider themselves the same group: Indians, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, some Pakistani/Afghani)
36th (orange): Fremont and Milpitas. D+17, majority Asian.
37th (dodger blue, ironically): The home of the World Champion San Francisco Giants. This is the most dense part of San Francisco, the Northeast quadrant. D+33
38th (aquamarine): The wealthier, less touristy (except Golden Gate Park) western half of San Francisco. D+31.
39th (pale): The poorest, least white part of San Francisco: the Southeast. D+39.
40th (brick): A slice of San Francisco plus heavily Filipino Daly City and the tiny communities of Brisbane and Colma (100:1 dead to alive ratio in that town. It's all cemeteries). Also goes down the coast to take in Pacifica and Moss Beach. D+27, plurality Asian (Filipino)
41st (metallic bluesilver): South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame, Hillsborough, San Mateo, and, across the mountains, Half Moon Bay. D+19.
42nd (light green): Foster City, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, East Palo Alto, Atherton, Woodside, and Portola Valley. Huge income disparities in this district. D+20
43rd (magenta): My other home district. Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, and northern Sunnyvale (partially for population and partially to keep the NASA COI together) D+22
44th (black): San Jose suburbs of Cupertino, Saratoga, and Campbell plus some slices of the most suburban portions of San Jose. D+14.
45th (turquoise): most of Sunnyvale plus Santa Clara. D+19 and plurality Asian.
46th (tomato): The huge rural precinct in East Santa Clara County plus actual people in East San Jose. Plurality Asian and very Vietnamese. D+18
47th (light pink): Mineta San Jose Airport, much of Central and East San Jose. D+23 plurality Hispanic.
48th (sand): South San Jose. D+16 plurality Asian
49th (clay): This is my other super awkward district, along with the 24th. South San Jose, then follows 101 through Morgan Hill, San Martin, and Gilroy. It also takes in Hollister. D+11
50th (light blue): To separate Watsonville from Santa Cruz (they're EXTREMELY different), I went across Hwy 17 and took in Los Gatos, adding it to the rest of Santa Cruz County. D+22
51st (brown): The perfect COI district: poor Hispanic populations in Watsonville and Salinas get their own district. D+20 and majority Hispanic
52nd (olive): The rest of Monterey County, non-Hollister San Benito, and a few precincts in SLO. D+12