DC redistricting specifically for Ward 6

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What would happen is that there would be no council member that cares about what happens in that area. Basic things like snowplows and pothole repair would happen less. School districting and parking concerns would be ignored. That area would be a sacrificial lamb to whatever city wide balance of power negotiations happen on big issues. It's not about money. It's about differing interests and representation. The area would be too small to have any influence on its Council race and would thus have its neighborhood interests ignored just like happens to Shaw and Hawthorne now.

Shaw isn't neglected and I've actually been totally fine despite being redistricted. Snowplows, potholes, etc -- those things are happening centrally. Are you saying that -- Ward 8 is poor, so they don't get resources like snowplows, schools, and pothole repairs? Are you saying that you only get services based on how wealthy your ward is?

Come on - this is just plain silly fearmongering.

I mean, kind of. If a city agency isn't doing a good job in a certain ward, whether it gets better depends on the political/media savvy of the councilmember.

If there's a question about where to allocate funds through the budget (like which schools to renovate first) it gets decided based on the political savvy of the councilmember and what he or she can trade off via the committee he controls (and the council chair gives out committee seats, and doesn't give important committees to people he thinks are too dumb and/or disagreeable to his agenda for him to get what he wants).

So being represented by someone who isn't liked or respected by the other councilmembers (and some are respected but not liked, or vice versa) can be challenging. It's also important for the councilmember to be able to effectively manage his or her staff and make sure they are doing good constituent service work. Some councilmembers are better than others at attracting, hiring, and supervising people who get the work done.

This is true. Harry Thomas Jr. got elected in Ward 5 based on his father's name. His incompetence and financial negligence went largely ignored. The chair of the parks committee managed not to notice there weren't parks in his own ward. Vincent Orange, anyone? Kwame Brown? The history of incompetent councilmembers is far longer than that of those with any merit. It's one of the reasons DC doesn't deserve statehood. Our local representatives are so grossly incompetent that they cannot be allowed to have influence at the national level.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Do we really think the big developers of the Wharf + owners of Nats Stadium and Audi Field will be represented by Trayon White in the Council? The Lerner family taking meetings with that fool?!?

No way in hell. They will remain Ward 6.

Hill East is gone, tho. They better get accustomed to calling Council Member White's office.

How far into hill East? I own a house there. What blocks are they going to take?

All the way to lincoln park?!

Fk that sht. Take one of the poorer places please. I like being able to email Charles Allen, even though he doesn’t do sht on crime.

Assuming that happens I'd also be worried about school zone like Maury getting gerrymandered far into Ward 7...

That's a realistic and logical, in fact very likely concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do we really think the big developers of the Wharf + owners of Nats Stadium and Audi Field will be represented by Trayon White in the Council? The Lerner family taking meetings with that fool?!?

No way in hell. They will remain Ward 6.

Hill East is gone, tho. They better get accustomed to calling Council Member White's office.

How far into hill East? I own a house there. What blocks are they going to take?

All the way to lincoln park?!

Fk that sht. Take one of the poorer places please. I like being able to email Charles Allen, even though he doesn’t do sht on crime.

Assuming that happens I'd also be worried about school zone like Maury getting gerrymandered far into Ward 7...

That's a realistic and logical, in fact very likely concern.

ward redestricting has nothing to do with school zones. I think Maury already has some Ward 7.

[Anonymous]

I like being repped by Allen but if we get absorbed into Ward 8 any nuisance of poor constituent services would be offset by how enjoying how apoplectic and unhinged my neighbors will become.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:OP, your post is kind of gross. I think you don’t want to be represented by an AA council member. I’m in Ward 6, also wealthy (not just UMC) and could not care less if I am redistricted (I’m in Eastern Market).

Oh, I’m racist? I’m just concerned “Jews control the weather” white may detrimentally impact my ward. I’m not racist you idiot.

To follow up what I meant is Trayvon white said grossly anti-Semitic and ignorant comments about Jews. I’d rather not be represented by that person.

You can vote him out if you are redistricted. Get over yourself.

Except they’ve already explicitly stated they are redistricting with an eye to not diluting the power of minority voters. They will never loop in enough parts of UMC Capitol Hill for us to vote out his anti-vax, anti-Semite, useless @$$.

But in this case, a national minority is the majority. Is that even legal?

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. When I was playing around, it ended up being 2 strong majority white, 2 overwhelming majority black, 2 slight majority (one of each), and 2 plurality (one of each) wards. The demographics have changed significantly.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if it’s legal, it shouldn’t be, to me it seems like yet another form of racist gerrymandering. But what’s clear from watching the rest of the country is it doesn’t matter if it’s legal, gerrymander away.

[jsteele]

FYI:

[Anonymous]

The maps and rationale are all very interesting and I would be very concerned if I lived in SW or Navy Yard.

[Anonymous]

Looks like this will be Trayon White’s last term on the Council.

[Anonymous]

It's going to be Map 3. Navy Yard & the Lerners are kept in Ward 6. All of the SW quadrant will be together in Ward 8. Lots of federal government land is in SW and won't really be affected by have Trayon as their Council rep.

It's an easy story to sell: "all of SW will be together in the same Ward."

[Anonymous]

I live in SW and am not pleased by this. Seems like a terrible plan bound to make a lot of people unhappy in the end. Though the upside is that my family was already looking to move out of DC for other reasons, so hopefully we'll be gone before it actually takes effect.

Realistically speaking, map 3 is probably the best option in terms of community cohesiveness. With the big exception of the Wharf, I always felt like SW had a nice laid back feel, with a lot of middle class residents in addition to the public housing community, so I'm guessing a substantial cohort of the neighborhood won't be so put off by the change (even if I personally am). But still, all three options seem very artificial and designed to ensure that whatever appendage is tacked on to W8 will get zero attention from their council representative, not to mention residents being denounced as gentrifiers every time they show up at a public meeting. I can't imagine that the current residents of W8 are thrilled about this either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in SW and am not pleased by this. Seems like a terrible plan bound to make a lot of people unhappy in the end. Though the upside is that my family was already looking to move out of DC for other reasons, so hopefully we'll be gone before it actually takes effect.

Realistically speaking, map 3 is probably the best option in terms of community cohesiveness. With the big exception of the Wharf, I always felt like SW had a nice laid back feel, with a lot of middle class residents in addition to the public housing community, so I'm guessing a substantial cohort of the neighborhood won't be so put off by the change (even if I personally am). But still, all three options seem very artificial and designed to ensure that whatever appendage is tacked on to W8 will get zero attention from their council representative, not to mention residents being denounced as gentrifiers every time they show up at a public meeting. I can't imagine that the current residents of W8 are thrilled about this either.

Apparently something like a total of 5000 people votes in the last council race in Ward 8. The SW Ward 6 sections joining Ward 8 will likely be able to elect their own rep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, your post is kind of gross. I think you don’t want to be represented by an AA council member. I’m in Ward 6, also wealthy (not just UMC) and could not care less if I am redistricted (I’m in Eastern Market).

Oh, I’m racist? I’m just concerned “Jews control the weather” white may detrimentally impact my ward. I’m not racist you idiot.

To follow up what I meant is Trayvon white said grossly anti-Semitic and ignorant comments about Jews. I’d rather not be represented by that person.

Why live in a city where many of its residents have antipathy to Jews. Trayvon White only says what most believe. There is a long history of bad relations between blacks and Jews even though we saved them with pushing for their civil rights.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Here's the proposed map that they'll be voting on. Gotta love DC's requirement that no maps can impact "minority voting strength" even though DC has lost minority voters over the last 10 years -- gotta Gerrymander it to keep them with outsize influence on city government.

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/silverman/pages/1548/attachments/original/1637254286/2021-11-18_Final_Subcommittee_Map.pdf?1637254286