Politics & Government

City Council Hears from Public on Redistricting

A special hearing was held Tuesday morning.

City Council held its first Tuesday morning, hearing input from citizens, community groups and Mayor Nutter’s Chief of Staff, Suzanne Bie Miller.

Miller gave three points that Nutter’s administration wanted Council to consider as it remaps the city’s council districts: make sure districts are drawn equally, that they are not gerrymandered and that community cores and interests are kept intact.

“Slay the gerrymander. We should strive for districts that are compact and make sense. Compact districts are those with a fairly regular shape. The 3rd District is an example of a compact district while the 7th is largely considered one of the most gerrymandered districts in the state,” Miller said.

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Council President Anna Verna began the hearing by explaining that Council has until Sept. 9 to pass a redistricting plan. If it fails to do so, council members will not receive their salary until it is passed.

She added that council was facing a particularly difficult redistricting process this year.

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“This year’s redistricting process has a very difficult starting point. While the population of the city has not changed significantly in the last ten years, there have been dramatic shifts in many districts,” Verna said, noting that districts in the western half of the city have lost population, including the 8th and 4th districts.

“Redistricting cannot be accomplished by tweaking a few districts here and there. Redrawing parts of the map is inevitable,” she said.

Several witnesses spoke about fair boundaries to the districts. Jose Oyola, of the Latino Lines Redistricting Coalition, gave testimony on the 7th District, and how it has been gerrymandered to divide the Latino population in the city.

Other speakers did not give commentary on how the districts should be drawn, but instead on the process itself.

Laura Dijols, a resident of the Wynnefield section of Philadelphia, pointed out that Council has had since March, when the U.S. Census data on Philadelphia was released, to begin the process.

“Now here we are today, Aug. 16, and this is the very first public redistricting hearing. Sadly, we are less than one month before the Sept. 9 deadline for completing the plan,” Dijols said. “Is it possible that City Council does not want input from the voters of Philadelphia?”

After testimony from the nine speakers, Verna concluded the hearing. She said that it was Council’s plan to present a plan at the Sept. 8 City Council meeting.


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