A letter to the editor

The redistricting guidelines passed by the Dallas City Council were excellent. They were simply not followed.

The 6 council members who voted against the adopted map may have remembered the often repeated words during redistricting training: "a plan cannot have the effect of diluting racial, ethnic or language minorities."

There are 50% more white-majority districts (6) than Hispanic-majority districts (4) in the new approved city council map. This is in a city where the Hispanic population is 47% larger than the white, non-Hispanic population.

In terms of voting age population, only 34% of the Dallas voting age population is white but the approved map has 43% of districts, 6 districts out of 14, that are majority white. That same approved map has only 29% of districts, or 4 out of the 14, wherein Hispanics are in the majority. The Hispanic voting age population is 37% of the total voting age population of Dallas.

These numbers clearly document the "diluting" that is happening.

While three majority black districts are in the approved map, with one "winnable" black coalition district, the potential for these to survive the decade are minimal if the 8% average drop in black population over the past decade continues. Two of these four districts are already weak. Gerrymandering only adds to that weakness. Stronger districts are needed, and possible! They were achieved in the wPlan03c Rawlings map that produced three much stronger black majority districts.  These three districts were stronger by an average of 6 full percentage points in the black voting age population. 

While the current 4 black council districts on the south side of Dallas have lost over 16,700 in black population over the past decade, the large majority of that population did not move out of Dallas.  Most of them moved to northern city council districts.  That is where the two growing coalition districts are located in the wPlan03c Rawlings map.  One of those coalition districts can be made to have a black majority, and can be expected to become a stronger black district!

Now is the time to lay foundations for compact communities to develop that will carry electoral traditions forward and nurture more citizen involvement. Gerrymandering does not do that!

The wPlan03c Rawlings map, with 40 fewer miles of gerrymandering boundary lines, shows that a 71% minority city council (10 minority seats) is possible through coalition districts. It has a total of 8 strong minority majority districts and two strong coalition districts.
Redistricting can never guarantee election results, only potential. Results only happen when people vote. But when we start without a level playing field, and with gerrymandering that discourages community development, something is wrong.

Without a change from the City Council, the next hope for progress in Dallas now rests with the Justice Department.  The Justice Department must approve this map before it can be used due to a history of similar voting rights violations in Dallas.

The Dallas City Council must reflect Dallas. That is the law.

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If the adopted map bothers you, write a letter to the editor, and notify your city council member. Council contact data is at http://www.dallascityhall.com/government/council/contact_mcc.html.

Were guidelines followed with the adopted Dallas City Council Map?

Five guidelines were adopted by the Dallas City Council for the 2011 Redistricting Process. The first three were regarding population equality, minority representation and continguity and compactness. It was stated that these “shall be applied as required by the U.S. Constitution, the Voting Rights Act, and other federal and state laws.” The stated goal in the guidelines was that "the voting strength of racial, ethnic, and language minorities in the districts should not be diluted by depriving minority voters of an equal opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice, such as by packing or fracturing districts."

In the eyes of this non-lawyer the first of these guidelines was followed. No map was accepted that did not meet the mathematical requirements of the first requirement for population equality.

The second requirement for minority representation was not met.  Dallas now has a new gerrymandered map that will do well if it produces a 50% minority council in a 71% minority city. The approved map has 6 districts (43%) that are majority white while only 34% of the voting age population is white. That same map has 4 districts (29%) wherein Hispanics are in the majority while Hispanics are 37% of the voting age population. Does it look like some "diluting" is happening? Another more compact map, rejected in the process, demonstrated that a map can be created wherein the potential for 71% of the council seats to be won by minorities exists.

The third requirement for contiguity and compactness was not met.  The chosen map required gerrymandering to avoid greater minority representation. The chosen map had an additional 40 miles of gerrymandering boundary lines.

The final two guidelines were listed as ones “which may be considered.” The first of them regarded “neutrality as to incumbents” with a very clear statement that “districts must not be configured for the purpose of either protecting or defeating an incumbent.” As is shown in the online video documentation of Redisstricting Commission discussions, and City Council discussions, and in the map itself, this guideline was not followed.

The second of these final “may be considered” guidelines was “communities of interest.” While this was the lowest priority guideline, it was the most often mentioned of the guidelines in the redistricting discussions. It appears “communities of interest” were used to avoid meeting the highest priority guidelines number two and three, certainly the more critical guidelines. More has been written elsewhere about this failure.

Dallas Morning News Editorial was too gentle

The Dallas Morning News Editorial: Hits and Misses was too kind about the usage of the term "communities of interest" during the Dallas City Council redistricting process. This three word phrase was used to hide some of the worst actions taken during the redistricting process. Those actions too often achieved the same goal as the usage fifty years ago of another three word phrase: "separate but equal."

Too often (once is too much) the difference from a "separate but equal" effect is minimal. This most clearly happens in statements as to why certain, usually higher percentage white, "communities of interest" should not be included in a, usually lower percentage white, City Council District.

One example is the gerrymandering Councilman Caraway wisely objected to during the tragic 10-5-11 meeting.  He objected to a gerrymandered appendage from District 1 that crossed I-35 into District 4 and was ultimately eliminated in the "final" map. But too many other such "community of interest/separate but equal" amendments remained in the final map that was approved.

In the Dallas redistricting process it was proven beyond doubt that the most compact districts can also provide the highest level of minority representation. But that was not allowed to happen in the map approved on 10-5-11. There were other priorities.

We now have a map that we can only hope the Justice Department rejects. Dallas is a much better city than the one reflected in the gerrymandered map approved 10-5-11.

Why Dallas City Council had no winners on 10-5-11

10-5-2011 was a terrible day at Dallas City Council! We showed the world a side of Dallas that was not pretty.

There is no evidence to indicate that what happened yesterday in the Dallas City Council was any "prettier" than the same redistricting processes 10 or 20 years ago, except for the critical factor that now this process happens in the open, the way it should.   In the long run it is certain this transparency will improve the process.  It will lessen gerrymandering. 

Voters hate gerrymandering. Such hatred of gerrymandering is readily evident at any redistricting hearing. Almost all speakers at all redistricting hearings, at all levels, talk of the desire to keep their neighborhood/city/county together. The same testimony was the most common testimony at the Dallas City Council redistricting hearings. Then it was ignored, just as it was ignored in the Texas Legislature.

Almost all of the maps submitted by the public to the Dallas Redistricting Commission were more compact, with smaller average district perimeters, than the 35.60 mile average perimeter map that was approved yesterday. If you study the list of 21 maps submitted by the public, and summarized at http://dallasredistricting2011.blogspot.com/2011/07/comparisons-of-21-dallas-city-council.html, you will see that almost all the average perimeters were less than 35.6 miles.  These maps were more compact than the map approved 10-5-11.

Gerrymandering will be less and less acceptable to the public as knowledge about gerrymandering grows. Strangely shaped districts are almost never misshapen so as to maximize minority representation. They are almost always formed only to help in the re-election of either an incumbent, or a person they want to follow them.  It is the reason for the legislative gridlock plaguing our nation! 

Legislators fear no negative consequences from voters they have selected themselves during redistricting.  They know they will be re-elected no matter what they do or fail to do. 

Some could say that the obvious winners yesterday were the large majority of the Anglo council members who will probably keep their city council seats, something totally inconsistent with being only 28% of the population. But the price they, and all of us, pay is a less than efficiently functioning city government due to the unnecessary gerrymandering and misleading representation.  We all loose!

Others may claim that our Black Community is the winner. But, with the more compact wPlan03c Map presented by Rawlings, the Black Community would have had three much stronger Black majority districts.  The average Black voting age percentage in the three Black majority districts was over 6 percentage points higher on average in the wPlan03c map presented by Mayor Rawlings than in the map finally approved on 10-05-11.  Also, due to population movement patterns that appear to have been ignored in the approved map, in the 18 months since the 2010 census, the black population in District 7, 50.76% in the approved map, has probably already fallen below 50%.  District 7 lost 20% of their black population since 2000.  Similar patterns in District 4 indicate it will be below a 50% black population within the next 5 years.  The approved map may leave only one district with over 50% black population by the start of 2017 in Dallas.

The Rawlings wPlan03c map also has two coalition districts that could each have produced another Black council member.  With minor amendments, both of these coalition districts could have even been made significantly stronger to increase this "winnable" potential.

The Dallas Hispanic community, now the largest group in our city, is generally acknowledged as the most overt loosers in yesterday's process. They will do well to achieve 4 positions on the next Dallas City Council when, just by the numbers, they should comfortably have had 5 strong seats.

In summary it appears we now have an approved Dallas City Council Map, with over 40 unnecessary miles of boundary lines in it, that significantly weakens any potential we may have had for the minority composition of the next City Council to reflect that of our city.

Consequently thousands of us will be joining together in making valid claims to the Justice Department against the imposition of the Dallas City Council redistricting map selected on 10-5-2011.

As a small bit of the evidence to be submitted, here is a comparison of the approved 10-5-11 map with the wPlan03c map by Mayor Rawlings.  It shows what could be possible:

Click on the above chart to enlarge it.

There were no winners

Here is the map, and the demographic report it produces, that was approved by a 9 to 6 vote during the tragic city council meeting yesterday.  A copy of the approved map, and the demographics, have just now been posted on the City of Dallas web site at http://www.dallascityhall.com/Redistricting/planReview.html.

Click on the above map to enlarge it.

Click on above chart to enlarge it.

The average district perimeter for the approved map is 35.60 miles.  This is a significant improvement from the current average district perimeter of 43.52 miles for our extremely gerrymandered city council districts.  But it still remains more gerrymandered than almost all of the 21 redistricting plans designed by the public and submitted to the Redistricting Commission.  It is obvious that the public wants less gerrymandered districts.  They do not want their neighborhoods broken up.

What will the Justice Department say?

What will the Justice Department say about a Dallas City Council Redistricting map they must approve that does not follow the guidelines passed by that same Dallas City Council? What will the Justice Department say when it is obvious there are other maps that provide a more complete minority representation, with more compact, less gerrymandered district lines?

Gerrymandering is mandatory if you want to design districts that will continue to produce an Anglo majority city council in a town with a population that is over 71% minority.

(The above comment was left under the 6th Dallas Morning News editorial urging the Dallas City Council to approve a less gerrymandered map for Dallas.)

October 5, 2011 Final City Council Amended Maps

Since last week three new "final" amended maps are now posted at http://www.dallascityhall.com/Redistricting/planReview.html .  Two are under the "October 5, 2011 Final City Council Amended Maps" heading and a third is posted below that with "October 5, Proposed Floor Amendment Map" in the heading.  A statistical report on each map is given.

With these maps, a total of 14 maps have been considered since the redistricting process left the Redistricting Commission and went before the Dallas City Council. The third alternative map for consideration 10-5-11 is by Council members Atkins, Caraway and Davis.  It is also the fourth map of these 14 considered by the Dallas City Council that has two minority coalition districts. (Minority coalition districts are those districts wherein no single ethnic group has a voting age population majority.)

Only one of these four, 2 coalition district, maps also has 8 majority minority districts. That is wPlan03c presented by Mayor Rawlings. The other three only have 7 majority minority districts, and too many of those majority districts are very weak.

Only one of these 14 maps also has three majority Black districts that are also all above 52% Black voting age. That is wPlan03c presented by Mayor Rawlings that has all three Black voting age districts above 55%. This map also has a 30.7% Black voting age coalition district that could easily be amended to be above 35% Black voting age without affecting the other strong majority Black districts.

Only one of these 14 maps also has five majority Hispanic districts that are above 54% Hispanic voting age. That is wPlan03c presented by Mayor Rawlings that has all Hispanic voting age majority districts above 57%. Four of those 5 districts are above 62%!

Only one of these 14 maps also is the most compact of all maps being considered. That is wPlan03c presented by Mayor Rawlings.  It has an average district perimeter that is 32.64 miles, several miles shorter than the other maps.

The normal result of having the most compact redistricting map in a town that is over 71% minority is that you will also have the highest minority representation, especially when it seems the other maps were designed to minimize minority representation. The days of an Anglo majority on the Dallas City Council should be coming to an end unless there is a refusal to follow the redistricting guidelines we are supposed to be working under, and the laws of this great nation.

Eight minority seats should be almost certain, but that is only true with the plan by Mayor Rawlings. With Mayor Rawling's plan, not only is an 8th district an almost certainty, but a 9th, and maybe even a 10th minority seat, are real possibilities due to the two minority opportunity districts.  Here is a chart that documents these differences between the plans:

Click on chart to enlarge it.

The exception to the representation predicted above is that candidate competence may overshadow all other variables in voting. Hopefully such visible competence and dedication will become increasingly common as more candidates of all races file for office in more compact districts on all sides of Dallas.  Dallas is in a place to become a truly great American City as a more truly representative city council helps that happen.

Another positive note about progress in Dallas relates to the stories that have been floated about Dallas loosing Black population.  While this is true, it represents a loss of less than 6/10 of one percentage point in the Black population.  The redistricting agony in finding a 4th Black district is due to the 16,000 Blacks who moved out of the four Black majority districts in Dallas.  However, over 11,000 of this population did not leave Dallas.  Most of the Black population movement appears to have been to the north within Dallas.  Many of the northern districts grew significantly in Black population.  An increasingly inclusive Dallas is certainly not a problem!