Our contest sponsor
David mentioned the City of Chicago's ward remapping process
in a recent digest. Our second official contest, fittingly, will focus on the Second City. And the best part is that this contest is actually sponsored by
Green's Cakes, makers of the awesome
chocolate baka. Yes, Green's is aware of the special role their babka plays here and will send a
babka basket to the winner! (And yes, we'll be taking care of the winners of our prior two contests this year very shortly.)
Chicagoans—all 2,695,598 of us—are divided into 50 wards. Perhaps more than in other cities, Chicago really emphasizes the ward structure: parties are organized at a ward level, aldermen (Midwestern speak for Councilmen, if you will) and their offices regulate parking permits, and trash pickup is done on a ward-by-ward basis. Given all this, as you would expect, the ward redistricting process has at times been contentious—and the potential to be highly racially polarized.
There's quite an unfortunate history of this on the council—a period in the 1980's known as the Council Wars, where a group of white aldermen led by "Fast" Eddie Vrdolyak faced off against Mayor Harold Washington's allies (who were mostly black, along with several reformist white aldermen from lakefront wards). Washington, of course, was Chicago's first black mayor—it was also during this period that Barack Obama got his start as a community organizer. The Council Wars were resolved after a lengthy lawsuit (that ruled the initial 1980's map in violation of the VRA) in 1986.
The misplaced wrench—further complicating all of this—is that any remap must pass with 41 votes (of 50). This failed to happen in 1990, and voters got to choose between the two proposals in a referendum. (And despite this, the winning map wound up in court anyway.)
The Current Map
The map drawn in 2001 created 20 black-majority wards, 11 Hispanic-majority wards, 13 non-Hispanic White majority wards, and 6 majority-minority but white-plurality wards. The City Council, however, is not as diverse, with 22 whites, 19 blacks, 8 Hispanics, and one South Asian. (Notably, all are Democrats!) Several Hispanic-majority wards are also represented by some (White) machine Democrats, such as the 14th held by Ed Burke and the 33d held by Dick Mell (who also gets the, er, honor, of being Blago's father-in-law).
In city council elections earlier this year, we did sweep out a few old-school Democrats, with, for example, Eugene Schulter losing to upstart Ameya Pawar in the 47th and crusty jackass Bernie Stone (finally) losing in the 50th. In total, a full 30% of the Council is composed of freshman—the Council is, arguably, the most independent it's ever been.
This sets the stage for this year's upcoming redistricting fight (the 2001 process—guided heavily by Mayor Daley—ended up being relatively non-contentious). Rahm's strength in the mayoral election allowed us to avoid significanct racial tension, but the redistricting process may be re-exposing some of these fault lines. Since 2000, the city of Chicago's lost about 200,000 people. The black population has decreased the most (a loss of about 180,000), followed by the white population (-55,000); this was offset by a large increase in the Hispanic and Asian populations.
So, the Contest:
The Black Caucus proposed a map maintaining 19 black-majority seats, while the Hispanic Caucus wants at least 14 Latino-majority wards (with as many as possible being supermajorities at 65% population or 60% VAP). The Asian population has also grown; Chinatown is currently divided between three different wards! Additionally, the machine doesn't want to be upset—Ed Burke and Dick Mell will surely want the 14th and 33rd preserved, respectively.
Obviously, no single map can meet all of these demands. But if any group can draw a map that comes close, it'll be Daily Kos Electioneers! Draw a map (using Dave's Redistricting App) that you think can satisfy as many of these competing demands as possible.
As a starting point, you can download the current Chicago ward map (in DRA format) here. (Note: Census VTD's aren't perfect, and Worth Township Precinct 9 incorrectly includes two census blocks that actually belong to the city of Chicago. However, 14 people live in these two blocks combined, so this shouldn't affect anything meaningfully—please exclude Worth Township Precinct 9 from your maps.)
Racial statistics are available here.
The following criteria will also be considered:
- Population equality—the target population for a given ward is now 53,912. You can deviate from this by up to 5%, so your wards must be between 51,217 and 56,607 persons. However, no systematic overpacking/underpacking will be allowed—e.g., all North Side wards near the minimum, but all South Side wards near the maximum.
- Communities of interest—Are neighborhoods generally kept together? For reference, here is a neighborhood map (PDF) provided by the city.
- Numbering—though the numbering pattern makes no sense, saying you live in the 10th ward, for example, does actually mean something; try to avoid a California-style complete reshuffling of numbers.
To enter, please post a diary with your entry, explaining your map. Also, please email your .drf file to me at [jeffmd -at- dailykos -dot- com].
One entry per person; entries are due Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 11:59pm Central Time.
5:25 PM PT: Some clarifications:
We'll give some points for keeping incumbents (especially Machine-y ones) in their districts. There's no formal point structure anyway, so this is just my way of saying, yes, it's something we'll take into account, but not weight very heavily.
We won't consider Gingles or other such factors - we'll consider racial statistics only and the rough guidelines of 60% Hispanic VAP or 65% total population (which is fairly established precedent and has been cited in both recent IL redistricting cases, Radogno v. IL SBE and Committee for a Fair and Balanced Map v. IL SBE, both in the N.D. Ill.). This may detract from the realistic-ness of it all, but any Gingles-type analysis could constitute a day job in and of itself (and I'm perfectly content with the one I have!).
If you have other questions, please feel free to ask!
Wed Dec 21, 2011 at 9:42 PM PT: Whitty put together a great set of DRA files to help you get started. You can check them out in his diary.