There are more maps to draw in Detroit. The City Council has always consisted of nine members, but for the past few years, seven of them have been elected by district.
Supposedly this makes City Council more responsive to individual residents. I’m not seeing it. In my case, I live in District 6 and Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero doesn’t give a damn about any of the problems I tell her about. When I try to talk to the two at-large councilmembers, I get no response whatsoever.
At least council by districts gives the mapmakers a lot of work. Based on the 2020 Census numbers, each City Council district would ideally have exactly 91,450 residents. There are other constraints, of course, so a variance of up to 5%, plus or minus, is allowed.
Districts 3 and 4, which border the various Grosse Pointes on the East, lost the most population, they stand at 80,928 and 79,203 respectively. The latter needs 7,675 more residents just to reach the negative 5% variance.
Earlier tonight I attended a meeting for District 6 residents on this topic at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 58. The information was presented to us through the lens of how this will affect District 6.
Five maps have been drawn up and councilmembers have asked for a sixth option. All five options and likely also the sixth option involve District 6 engaged in some give and take with District 5, some of the options also involve give and take with District 7. It looks like District 6 will have to lose at least two thousand residents but no more than four thousand.
Santiago-Romero said she likes the first two options best. The first option prioritizes even boundaries rather than getting each district as close as possible to 91,450. The second option has slightly more jagged boundaries but it gets more districts closer to 91,450.
None of the options made everyone at the meeting happy, and it was a small group. With the first option, District 6 would lose the Wayne State University campus. “Option 2 tears our community apart,” said a resident who lives near a rectangular area that would be ceded to District 5.
The third option, which seemed to have the least support, is said to split a Yemeni community. But that’s a community that’s already split between Detroit and Dearborn, countered an expert from the City Planning Commission.
The fifth option, which allows District 5 to expand more to the north, also would mean the biggest loss for District 6, ceding almost four thousand residents.
The slides from the meeting are available online on the City Planning Commission’s website.
To my knowledge, City Council districts have no measurable impact on federal or even state elections. The people who want a Trump dictatorship would prefer that Detroiters cast their ballots into trash cans.