A few of my goals and some of the contest rules
1. A population deviation of 5% was allowed however I decided to work with half of that. 5% felt too high so I went with a deviation of 2.5%; so that would be 53,912 +/- 2.5% to get a range of 52,564-to-55,259
2. Meet the Black Caucus request of 19 Black majority seats
3. Meet the Hispanic Caucus request of 14 Hispanic super majority seats
4. All seats that are majority seats are 60%+ VAP
5. Keep the seats of two specifically mentioned people; Ed Burke and Dick Mell in the 14th and 33rd with minimal-to-no alterations to their seats
Brief notes. I know almost nothing about the neighborhoods in Chicago so my commentary on the neighborhoods will be minimal, some wards I won't have any commentary at all. Like most none-Chicagoans I know about "The Loop" and the beautiful skyline but that is about it, I've never been to Chicago but I want to visit it sometime. Because of my lack of personal knowledge about Chicago I didn't feel compelled to look at communities of interest too much; however that was necessary in order to get both the 19 Black majority and 14 Hispanic majority seats. If someone can get 19 black majority seats while keeping communities of interest together then that person is a redistricting master.
All the population numbers are VAP except when talking about the overall population and population deviation and if there are interesting election numbers I'll include those
Far South Chicago
Ward 10
Hispanic ward 1
Population: 53,448
Deviation: -0.86%
White: 23.0%
Black: 15.6%
Hispanic: 60.3%
Asian: 0.3%
This ward needed some refinement around the edges to get it to the 60% VAP threshold. Other than that this district doesn't change in any significant manner
Ward 9
Black ward 1
Population: 53,754
Deviation: -0.29%
White: 0.6%
Black: 96.8%
Hispanic: 1.2%
Asian: 0.1%
This ward is drawn in this manner to make ward 21 possible; this ward has the distinction of being the most Democratic based on 2008 numbers with 99.3% voting for Barack Obama
Ward 19
Black ward 2
Population: 53,086
Deviation: -1.53%
White: 17.2%
Black: 79.6%
Hispanic: 1.8%
Asian: 0.3%
Like ward 9 this one is drawn this way to make ward 21 possible, by taking in some of the white majority precincts.
Ward 21
Black ward 3
Population: 55,153
Deviation: 2.30%
White: 36.1%
Black: 60.1%
Hispanic: 2.7%
Asian: 0.3%
This ward was very time consuming to make, it gets enough heavily black precincts in the east to make it a black majority ward. I don't know who represented the ward when it was white-majority, but they will not be pleased with this change. However this was necessary in order to reach the 19 black majority wards.
Ward 8
Black ward 4
Population: 53,911
Deviation: -0.00%
White: 14.9%
Black: 80.2%
Hispanic: 3.4%
Asian: 0.3%
Not much to say about this one other than it was clearly drawn in a manner to allow other wards to be drawn how they are
Ward 3
Black ward 5
Population: 53,897
Deviation: -0.03%
White: 1.3%
Black: 92.4.%
Hispanic: 4.5%
Asian: 0.2%
Along with ward 10 this is finally another ward that doesn't look like a squiggly mess.
Ward 18
Black ward 6
Population: 53,792
Deviation: -0.22%
White: 10.9%
Black: 68.4.%
Hispanic: 19.1%
Asian: 0.6%
Another not-so badly drawn ward, although compared to the rest of the wards that isn't saying much
South Chicago
Ward 13
Hispanic ward 2
Population: 54,024
Deviation: 0.21%
White: 33.1%
Black: 5.1%
Hispanic: 60.2%
Asian: 0.9%
Wards 13, 23 and 22 all used to split up a several white majority areas to help reach the desired number of Hispanic wards
Ward 23
Hispanic ward 3
Population: 53,828
Deviation: -0.16%
White: 35.1%
Black: 3.2%
Hispanic: 60.1%
Asian: 1.1%
Ward 23 barely makes the cut to be another Hispanic ward; due to the request to preserve ward 14 as much as possible it would be difficult to increase the Hispanic VAP.
Ward 22
Hispanic ward 4
Population: 54,183
Deviation: 0.50%
White: 26.5%
Black: 3.1%
Hispanic: 69.7%
Asian: 0.4%
This ward was critical to ensuring ward 23 would be a Hispanic ward.
Ward 14
Hispanic ward 5
Population: 54,053
Deviation: 0.26%
White: 10.8%
Black: 2.1%
Hispanic: 84.8%
Asian: 2.0%
One of the two wards that was requested to be preserved. Luckily this one as currently drawn is too high in population so no new voters were placed in the 14th. However some people had to be moved into other wards so I tried to carefully go around the edges.
Ward 16
Hispanic ward 6
Population: 54,081
Deviation: 0.31%
White: 9.2%
Black: 18.2%
Hispanic: 69.4%
Asian: 2.7%
The 16th had to be drawn in this manner around the preserved 14th.
Ward 12
Hispanic ward 7
Population: 55,204
Deviation: 2.40%
White: 7.5%
Black: 21.5%
Hispanic: 68.1%
Asian: 2.1%
The highest population ward in the city. Although it is moderately compact
Ward 25
Hispanic ward 8
Population: 53,819
Deviation: -0.17%
White: 12.9%
Black: 3.0%
Hispanic: 78.9%
Asian: 4.4%
Not as compact as ward 25 but it is another heavily Hispanic ward
Ward 17
Black ward 7
Population: 53,980
Deviation: 0.13%
White: 1.5%
Black: 80.2%
Hispanic: 17.1%
Asian: 0.2%
This ward is not nearly as bad looking as the next few
Ward 15
Black ward 8
Population: 53,263
Deviation: -1.20%
White: 5.8%
Black: 71.7%
Hispanic: 12.1%
Asian: 1.4%
I did say that this map was not pretty and neighborhoods and communities of interest had to be ignored to an extent in order to hit the districts requested by both caucus's.
Ward 11
Black ward 9
Population: 53,840
Deviation: -0.13%
White: 17.4%
Black: 63.7%
Hispanic: 10.5%
Asian: 7.3%
Unfortunately between wards 11, 20 and 5 quite a bit of the Asian population is divided up. I tried to minimize it but this is the result, maybe someone looking at this part of the map can figure out a way around this. However ward 11 is another black majority ward
Ward 20
Black ward 10
Population: 53,676
Deviation: -0.44%
White: 17.6%
Black: 62.5%
Hispanic: 8.6%
Asian: 9.6%
Not much to say about this one
Ward 7
Black ward 11
Population: 53,791
Deviation: -0.22%
White: 24.9%
Black: 61.9%
Hispanic: 6.9%
Asian: 0.2%
This one looks much better than the rest of south Chicago
Ward 34
Black ward 12
Population: 53,257
Deviation: -1.21%
White: 10.2%
Black: 82.9%
Hispanic: 2.3%
Asian: 2.8%
Ward 5
Black ward 13
Population: 53,704
Deviation: -0.39%
White: 26.0%
Black: 60.9%
Hispanic: 3.5%
Asian: 7.7%
Barely a black super majority. This district is one of four that split up downtown Chicago! It pained me to do that but it was necessary, Grant and Millennium park are in this ward
Ward 4
Black ward 14
Population: 53,752
Deviation: -0.30%
White: 24.9%
Black: 60.9%
Hispanic: 3.3%
Asian: 8.9%
The Loop is also partially in this district.
Central and west Chicago
Ward 6
Plurality ward 1
Population: 54,975
Deviation: 1.97%
White: 49.5%
Black: 7.1%
Hispanic: 6.4%
Asian: 35.3%
I really wanted to draw a 40%+ Asian ward, at first it was about 30% Asian but I was able to go around the edges and expand it however it is not as high as I wanted it. Unfortunately Chinatown is still in more than one district but this has a higher Asian VAP than any current ward. Part of The Loop is also in this ward as well as The University of Illinois at Chicago
Ward 24
Black ward 15
Population: 54,091
Deviation: 0.33%
White: 12.4%
Black: 71.8%
Hispanic: 11.8%
Asian: 2.8%
Mostly in west Chicago, this is another black super-majority district.
Ward 28
Black ward 16
Population: 53,007
Deviation: 0.18%
White: 12.6%
Black: 74.2%
Hispanic: 6.0%
Asian: 5.9%
West Chicago and near west side
Ward 27
Black ward 17
Population: 53,983
Deviation: 0.13%
White: 18.8%
Black: 71.6%
Hispanic: 6.2%
Asian: 2.0%
West Chicago based but it ends right before downtown
Ward 29
Black ward 18
Population: 53,664
Deviation: -0.46%
White: 23.5%
Black: 60.9%
Hispanic: 13.3%
Asian: 1.4%
This borders the city limits on the west side all the way up to the north west part of the city
Ward 37
Black ward 19
Population: 53,976
Deviation: 0.12%
White: 4.2%
Black: 71.6%
Hispanic: 22.9%
Asian: 0.5%
The final black majority ward in the city.
North Chicago
Ward 30
Hispanic ward 9
Population: 53,922
Deviation: 0.02%
White: 31.5%
Black: 3.7%
Hispanic: 60.3%
Asian: 3.5%
I like this ward because it doesn't look badly drawn. Most of north and northwest Chicago does look a lot cleaner than some of the southside wards
Ward 36
White ward 1
Population: 53,531
Deviation: -0.71%
White: 73.1%
Black: 0.8%
Hispanic: 20.7%
Asian: 4.4%
Ward 31
Hispanic ward 10
Population: 53,682
Deviation: -0.43%
White: 34.1%
Black: 2.1%
Hispanic: 60.0%
Asian: 2.9%
Ward 35
Hispanic ward 11
Population: 53,280
Deviation: -1.17%
White: 25.7%
Black: 3.4%
Hispanic: 60.0%
Asian: 9.1%
One of the uglier wards in this part of the city
Ward 38
White ward 2
Population: 53,523
Deviation: -0.72%
White: 73.2%
Black: 1.4%
Hispanic: 17.1%
Asian: 6.8%
Ward 41
White ward 3
Population: 54,158
Deviation: 0.46%
White: 83.8%
Black: 1.0%
Hispanic: 9.0%
Asian: 5.2%
This is an interesting ward because there is the possibility of a Republican winning it! I did not do that on purpose, I did not draw wards with the 2008 numbers in mind. The 2008 election numbers show Barack Obama with 55.5%, John McCain with 43.2% and other with 1.3%
Ward 45
White ward 4
Population: 54,009
Deviation: 0.18%
White: 57.9%
Black: 2.3%
Hispanic: 18.3%
Asian: 19.1%
All the wards around ward 33 had to be drawn to ensure 33 stayed the same.
Ward 33
Plurality ward 2
Population: 54,032
Deviation: -0.22%
White: 36.3%
Black: 3.5%
Hispanic: 48.5%
Asian: 9.6%
This was the second of two wards that were specifically requested to be preserved. Unlike ward 14 this one needed to increase its population slightly to get to the ideal population. A single precinct in the east was added. By the end of the decade this ward may be a Hispanic majority ward
Ward 1
Hispanic ward 12
Population: 54,389
Deviation: -0.88%
White: 32.2%
Black: 3.5%
Hispanic: 60.1%
Asian: 2.8%
One note of all these Hispanic wards is that the Hispanic VAP will only increase as time goes by, not just in this ward but all the Hispanic super-majority wards. So even though the past few have barely made it to 60%+ VAP that shouldn't be much of a problem
Ward 2
Hispanic ward 13
Population: 54,024
Deviation: 0.88%
White: 30.4%
Black: 5.5%
Hispanic: 60.8%
Asian: 2.0%
Ward 26
Hispanic ward 14
Population: 54,180
Deviation: 0.50%
White: 25.7%
Black: 10.8%
Hispanic: 60.3%
Asian: 1.9%
The least crazily drawn Hispanic ward in the state
Ward 39
White ward 5
Population: 52,835
Deviation: -2.00%
White: 71.4%
Black: 3.4%
Hispanic: 19.1%
Asian: 4.5%
Ward 32
White ward 6
Population: 54,296
Deviation: 0.71%
White: 80.6%
Black: 2.7%
Hispanic: 10.5%
Asian: 4.6%
Ward 47
White ward 7
Population: 53,639
Deviation: -0.51%
White: 76.8%
Black: 2.6%
Hispanic: 13.1%
Asian: 5.7%
Ward 40
White ward 8
Population: 54,104
Deviation: 0.36%
White: 54.0%
Black: 6.2%
Hispanic: 19.6%
Asian: 17.6%
Ward 49
Plurality ward 3
Population: 53,701
Deviation: -0.39%
White: 46.3%
Black: 23.5%
Hispanic: 18.6%
Asian: 9.0%
Ward 50
Plurality ward 4
Population: 54,280
Deviation: 0.68%
White: 44.4%
Black: 14.7%
Hispanic: 20.0%
Asian: 17.9%
Ward 48
White ward 9
Population: 53,939
Deviation: 0.05%
White: 55.9%
Black: 16.5%
Hispanic: 11.4%
Asian: 13.6%
Ward 46
White ward 10
Population: 54,033
Deviation: 0.22%
White: 62.6%
Black: 16.2%
Hispanic: 10.6%
Asian: 8.4%
Ward 44
White ward 11
Population: 54,939
Deviation: 0.05%
White: 83.3%
Black: 2.9%
Hispanic: 6.0%
Asian: 6.1%
Ward 43
White ward 12
Population: 53,541
Deviation: -0.69%
White: 85.2%
Black: 3.6%
Hispanic: 4.3%
Asian: 5.4%
The whitest ward in the city
Ward 42
White ward 13
Population: 54,355
Deviation: 0.82%
White: 74.5%
Black: 6.0%
Hispanic: 5.1%
Asian: 12.6%
Total breakdown
19 Black super-majority wards
14 Hispanic super-majority wards
13 White majority wards
4 Plurality wards
My Conclusion
What I liked the most about this map was being able to get 19 black super-majority wards. My least favorite part is having to divide up the loop and south loop in order to get to the requested number of minority wards. I have a feeling that many people from Chicago would look at this map and explode, hit their computer screen, etc and that would be justified because this map to me as a non-Chicagoan is crazy!