Critical Information: Dallas City Council Redistricting Forum, 8-20-11 at 2 PM, City Council Chambers
Provided by Bill Betzen August 17th, 2011
We are now at a critical point in the Dallas City Council Redistricting process. An original plan that placed BTW and the States/Thomas area, including Freedman's Cemetery, into the Black voting age majority district (over 65% Black), City Council District 4, has been changed. States/Thomas and Freedmans Cemetary has been moved back into District 14. Is this what you would want? Does it make any difference?
Last night the Redistricting Commission narrowed down the selection to the final 3 maps. These three maps will have updates for minor amendements made last night and will be online soon. They must be available for final comment from the public this Saturday, 8-20-11, 2 PM. The plans selected are the Option 1 forms of each cPlan05a, cPlan16a, and wPlan03b which can be seen in details at http://www.dallascityhall.com/Redistricting/planReview.html. Here are some of that statistical details comparing these three plans:
As the above chart demonstrates, wPlan03b Option1, has the strongest Black representation by over 3 full percentage points! That lessens the potential for a seat to be lost. Also, since this plans is one of the most compact, it will be easier for local leaders to rise up and win elections in the more neighborhood-centered districts. As a teacher, I see this leadership potential growing in our classrooms every day. We need to pave the way for them if we can.
If you want the heart of the former Freedman's town to be in a City Council District that almost certainly be led by a Black leader who may even have ancestors burried in the holy ground of Freedmans Cemetary, please help us to both pass wPlan03b into law, and amend it so that States/Thomas area returns to be in that district.
(Note: the number for District 4 will change to a 7 in the new map Saturday, and District 7 in wPlan03b will change to 4. Do not let that confuse you. That is only happening so that both new districts continue to have some of the citizens within them that are represented in the current city council districts by that same number.)
A history of the many changes in this mapping process since April 2011 can be seen at http://dallasredistricting2011.blogspot.com/.
Please share the above post with anyone you think may be concerned about these issues here in Dallas.
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