Districts Drawn

EFFECTIVE

February 17, 2012

Past Due

An Impassioned Plea for District Democracy

Alexander Derdelakos
Tuesday, February 7, 2012

I just left a stirring public hearing of the Detroit City Council where the topic of discussion was centered on the elusive district maps currently being deliberated across town. The district system has twice been approved by Detroit voters (once in Proposition D in 2009 and more recently in the approval of our new City Charter in November 2011) and The City Planning Commission recently released 4 maps to Citizens for discussion. Or at least we thought they were for discussion.

Citizens of Corktown came out in droves tonight to present their support for a newcomer to the race. Data Driven Detroit last week released a new map that seems to do a much better job at protecting one of the strongest resources in Detroit, our community spirit. This is the second such hearing I have attended and the same impassioned cry has wailed through both venues, “Do Not Break-Up Our Neighborhood”. Over and again Citizens stood up to the microphone to voice this merciful sentiment.

Members of City Council at both hearings responded by reminding their constituents that the new districts are merely invisible lines used to distinguish one City Council member’s voting ward from another, they are not walls that will split up the bonds of a community. While this may be true, a strange irony exists in the suggestion.

Let’s go back and investigate the impetus for the proposed maps. Michigan State Law determines the criteria by which the maps must be drawn and states that the districts; (1) must be contiguous (all parts of the district must be connected), (2) must be of equal population (in Detroit’s case approximately 100,000 residents), (3) must preserve existing city and county boundaries (not a problem for city districting), (4) must be compact (as close to a circle or square as possible – you can throw this one out the window; have you seen our congressional maps lately?), (5) must be competitive (have a balanced percentage of Republican and Democratic voters – good luck with this one in Detroit) and (6) must preserve communities of interest (this one talks about minority neighborhoods in the city – think Southwest Detroit).

The other criterion set forth by the Planning Commission was to preserve the voting precincts currently established in the City. Representatives of the law department are standing firm that they must abide by this for approval by the state, ultimately transforming the “discussion” maps into “this is it people” maps. Data Driven Detroit on the other hand has proposed a map that ignores the voting precincts and instead preserves the integrity of established neighborhoods throughout the city.

Now let’s go back to the idea of invisible lines. Have you ever heard of anyone fighting for the strength and importance of their voting precinct? If you were given a map and told to draw the borders of your voting precinct would you even know where to start? Me either. On the other hand could you map out your neighborhood boundaries?

Maybe it’s time for the Planning Commission to roll up their sleeves and put some serious thought into these maps. And maybe they should talk to the people at Data Driven Detroit for inspiration.

Check out the City Council Proposed maps below as well as the Data Driven Detroit Proposal. Then make sure you make it to one of the Public Hearings listed or visit the DetCharter WatchDog page and send City Council a message with your preference. It's time for a little civic engagement, no more sitting on our hands waiting for change to come to us. Let's change things ourselves!