Proposed redistricing map: 5 white districts, 5 Hispanic districts, 3 black districts, one tossup (not really)

Proposed map of Dallas City Council districts

Dallas City Council member Vonciel Jones Hill cannot be a happy camper right about now. In the redistricting map that is being sent to the City Council by the Redistricting Commission, her District 5 has a 69 percent Hispanic population and a 22.5 percent black population. That does not bode well for a black seeking re-election to that district.

Newly election Anglo council member Scott Griggs will, if this map is approved, represent a district that is 58.8 percent Hispanic.

Only two districts, D-Wayne Carriedaway’s 4, and Tennell Atkins’s 8 can be considered absolutely safe districts for African-American representation. Caroline Davis’s District 7 has populatation that is 48 percent black, which should be good for a black candidate for now.

Other than 3 and 5, the predominantly Hispanic districts are the same as before: 1 (Delia Jasso), 2 (Pauline Medrano), and 6 (Monica Alonzo).

Angela Hunt’s District 14 (she is term limited so couldn’t run under any new map) which now stretches to Love Field on the west side of Highland Park, now only borders its ritzy neighbor on the south and the east. It is the whitest district in the city with an Anglo population of 69.3 percent.

Interestingly enough, the only district that does not have over 50 percent of either black, Hispanic or white citizens is mine, District 10. Hooray. I now live in the most diverse section of the city. I imagine however white candidates will still be elected to represent 10, although with a voting age population that is 42 percent white, 31 percent black and 20 percent Hispanic, that candidate might gave to be more liberal than those who represented this area in the past.

Of course, the City Council hasn’t gotten its grimy hands on this thing yet. The steam you see coming from the council’s chambers is probably emanating from Hill’s offices and she seeks ways to sabotage what the Redistricting Commission took great pains to accomplish.

Incidentally, if you want a comparison, here’s how the council districts are currently gerrymandered configured.