District map proposals see complex lines

Gerrymandering — an infamous tactic used by politicians to hold onto their positions — has become the focus in the latest round of Philadelphia’s redistricting efforts.

Philadelphia City Council members introduced two redistricting maps on Sept. 9, following the presentation of citizens’ own redistricting proposals at a public hearing last week.

None of the new proposals affect the third district, where Penn is located. However, there is dispute over the ultimate division of Northeast Philadelphia.

Philadelphia-based lawyer John Attanasio, who won the grand prize in an online competition that let Philadelphia citizens create their own district maps, created a map that was far cleaner than either of the council’s proposed maps.

However, both efforts are “a vast improvement over the last set of maps that council developed from the 2000 census,” according to geospatial analysis firm Azavea president Robert Cheetham, who was interviewed on WHYY’s It’s Our Money podcast on Sept. 12.

“Looking at the [proposed] maps … it looks like a big motive for the most bizarre district was to provide a Hispanic seat,” commented Political Science professor Jack Nagel.

City Council President Anna Verna and a group of five members introduced one plan, while council members Frank DiCicco and James Kenney produced another. They are almost identical, except for the lines drawn around the 56th ward in Northeast Philadelphia — an area where the Hispanic population has grown in the past decade.

“Sometimes to get a politically desirable result in terms of representing a minority, you actually have to draw lines that don’t look so nice on the map,” Nagel said. Because the Hispanic population is relatively dispersed throughout the city, the Council may have complicated the borders to create a district that could put a Hispanic leader in the Council.

If minority representation is truly first priority, mentioned Nagel, the city could also elect a Hispanic representative to one of the 7 at-large council seats. Those seats are voted on by party rather than by district. Unfortunately, “politics is more individualistic and decentralized [now]”, so it may be difficult for groups to raise enough support to win an at-large seat, he said.

Activists and citizens alike have raised concern about the way this year’s district maps were drawn up — behind closed doors and without public contribution. According to Mayor Nutter’s press secretary Mark McDonald, the mayor is considering some sort of independent council to advise on redistricting in the future.

“Non-partisan non-legislative independent redistricting commissions [is] the most common way of handling redistricting around the world and outside the United States,” added Cheetham on the air.

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