Long post warning; updated 10/27/2021 to add information about not diluting minority voting strength

DC is undergoing a redistricting process following the release of the 2020 Census numbers. A subcommittee of the DC Council Committee of the Whole is responsible for making recommendations for redrawing the boundaries. The redistricting subcommittee consists of At-large Councilmembers Elissa Silverman (chair), Anita Bonds, and Christina Henderson. The subcommittee set up a handy website to explain the process and how to participate at https://www.elissasilverman.com/redistricting. One way to participate is to draw your own map boundaries using the DC Office of Planning’s online redistricting tool and submit it to the subcommittee.

The Council will establish the ward boundaries first and deal with the ANC boundaries later. The subcommittee is currently holding ward-focused roundtables to address the ward boundaries. The Ward 5 hearing was on October 20, 2021. You can view the video on CM Silverman’s facebook page at this link. Recordings of other ward redistricting hearings are also available on CM Silverman’s facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CMElissaSilverman.

The Ward 4 hearing will be on October 28, 2021, starting at 10:00 am. The deadline to sign up to testify for the Ward 4 hearing is Tuesday, October 26, 2021. Follow the instructions in the hearing notice to sign up.

Key dates from this point forward:

October 2021: Subcommittee will hold eight hearings on ward redistricting, one specific to each ward
November 5, 2021: City-wide hearing. Sign up to testify by November 3. See hearing notice.
November 12, 2021: Deadline for submitting written testimony. Submit written testimony to redistricting@dccouncil.us
Mid-November 2021: Redistricting Subcommittee markup of ward redistricting bill
December 7, 2021: First vote by the full Council on the ward redistricting bill
December 21, 2021: Second vote on the ward redistricting bill
December 2021: Ward Task Forces (which provide recommendations on ANC redistricting) start meeting
February 2022: Ward Task Forces report out recommendations
May 2022: Subcommittee mark-up of the ANC redistricting bill
June 2022: Full Council votes on the ANC redistricting bill

Principles of Redistricting

The redistricting process happens every 10 years following release of the Census numbers. The subcommittee is guided by a few principles. One is the principle of one person/one vote. That means each ward should have roughly the same number of residents so that no ward is either too big or too small and each resident’s vote has roughly the same amount of power. Following the 2020 Census, the magic number is 86,193 residents. Each ward can be within plus or minus five percent of this number, so each ward can legally have between 81,883 and 90,503 residents. Based on this range, Ward 6 needs to shrink and Wards 7 and 8 need to grow. All of the other wards are within the legal range, but Ward 5 is knocking at the top of the range with 89,425 residents.

Another principle is to not dilute the power of “minority” voters. The DC Council interprets this to mean not diluting the power of Black and Latino residents in DC, according to CM Silverman.

Another principle is keeping what is called “communities of interest” together. This is a nebulous concept not defined in the DC Code. But the idea is to keep communities that have common legislative concerns together. Historically, this has meant keeping neighborhoods together, but over time we have seen that sometimes it is necessary to split up neighborhoods and to cross natural boundaries. CM Silverman has made it a point to note several times that the subcommittee will be looking at factors such as race and income. This has led to some interesting discussions, with people making diametrically opposed points during the hearings I have listened to so far, but I will save that for another post.

The ward lines must also be contiguous, and CM Silverman stated that the subcommittee cannot split census tracts.

The Council is supposed to abide by all of these principles while somehow minimizing disruption. During a previous subcommittee hearing in September, there was some discussion about whether the subcommittee should try to get all of the wards as close to the average as possible. That could mean moving some residents out of Ward 5, for example. Or the committee could just focus on making sure that the wards are within the legal limits. Theoretically, the subcommittee could redraw the boundaries for Wards 6, 7, and 8 so that each is within the permissible range, and leave the rest of the ward boundaries alone. But the subcommittee has stated that just changing Wards 6, 7, and 8 would lead to some funky maps so they are looking at adjustments to other wards as well.

One factor the subcommittee stated they will not address is parking because there is a good argument for decoupling parking zone boundaries from ward boundaries (and in my mind political boundaries altogether).

Chatter regarding Ward 5 and Riggs Park

All of the members of the subcommitee, along with Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, were present for the Ward 5 hearing on October 20. At the top of her remarks, CM Silverman stated that although Ward 5 is within the legal limit, that does not mean that the subcommittee will leave the Ward 5 boundaries as they are. CM Silverman said the subcommittee is specifically looking at both the southeast area of the ward around Carver-Langston and the northern portion of the ward, which includes the Riggs Park and Fort Totten neighborhoods.

(For clarity, to me the boundaries of the Riggs Park neighborhood are New Hampshire Avenue to the north, the DC/MD line to the east, Galloway Street NE to the south, and the Metro red line tracks to the west. The Fort Totten neighborhood is west of the Metro red line tracks.)

A handful of residents testified during the hearing. ANC Commissioner Gordon Fletcher (5A08), who is also chair of the Ward 5 Democrats, testified in support of keeping Fort Lincoln in Ward 5. He also advocated for having two ANC commissioners for that neighborhood. It was not clear to me in what capacity he was testifying. Commissioner Fletcher represents parts of the Riggs Park and North Michigan Park neighborhoods, but his testimony focused solely on the Fort Lincoln neighborhood. No other ANC 5A commissioners testified. A couple of other commissioners and residents near the Fort Lincoln area also testified in support of keeping Fort Lincoln in Ward 5. All of these witnesses and CM McDuffie recommended leaving the Ward 5 boundaries as they are because Ward 5’s population is within the legal limit.

One Ward 5 resident, Geoffrey Hatchard, who CM Silverman noted is a cartographer and geographer, advocated shifting the Ward 5 boundaries. He submitted a map recommendation that adjusted the southern part of the ward (moving part of Ward 6 to Ward 5). His recommendation also included moving the northern border of Ward 5 east of South Dakota Avenue NE from Kennedy Street NE to Hamilton Street NE (moving part of Ward 5 to Ward 4). This northern boundary recommendation does not make sense to me. It sounded like Mr. Hatchard said the census tract boundary is Hamilton Street NE, but as CM McDuffie noted during the hearing, that is not correct. And according to CM Silverman, census tract boundaries are sacrosanct. There are already census tracts across the city that are split between wards, but the one thing this subcommittee will try really really hard not to do is split census tracts.

So to me, that means if the subcommittee really wants to adjust the northern boundary, they could move everyone in census tract 95.08 (shown in the image above) into Ward 4. That would keep Riggs Park intact, but split the Fort Totten neighborhood. Or if they are fine with breaking their census tract rule, they could split the census tract along the Fort Totten Park boudary to the west and south and move residents east and north of that natural boundary into Ward 4. Doing this would keep both the Riggs Park and Ft. Totten neighborhoods intact. Looking at previous redistricting committee reports, it looks like part or all of census tract 95.08 was part of Ward 4 at one point and was moved to Ward 5 following the 2000 Census. Currently this census tract consists of the entirety of ANC single member district (SMD) 5A01 and parts of SMDs 5A07 and 5A08. Also Fort Circle Park east of South Dakota Avenue NE is technically part of SMD 5A02, even though it is partly in census tract 95.08. While the subcommittee specifically said they want to only focus on the ward boundaries right now and get those solidified before discussing the ANC boundaries, looking at the current ANC boundaries also shows how difficult this task is.

CM Henderson also stated she was looking at the Ward 5 boundary near Fort Totten Metro station. Unfortunately she ran out of time before the witnesses could answer her question about adjusting the northern boundary. CM Silverman asked the panel what part of Ward 5 should shift if the subcommittee decided the boundary had to change if for example, the subcommittee wanted to move part of Ward 6 or Ward 7 to Ward 5. Some suggestions from the panel included the Benning Road area, Bloomingdale area, Bates area, or the McMillan Park area. But most of the witnesses and CM McDuffie reiterated that Ward 5 does not need to change.

My thoughts

I live on the Ward 5 side of Riggs Park, and I really do not have strong feelings about the possibility of being part of Ward 4. Hard to believe I know, because I have lots of opinions about lots of things. But this is just one of those topics that I feel like I have already spent too much time thinking about for something I am not too concerned about. Simply because random suggestions are being made to move the northern boundary of Ward 5 to accommodate random suggestions about moving part of Ward 6 into Ward 5, when Ward 5 can only add another 1,000 residents before exceeding the legal limit.

Moving the Ward 5 side of Riggs Park, which sits at the tip of the ward, to Ward 4 would reunite the neighborhood in one ward. Right now the neighborhood is split between Wards 4 and 5 in kind of a ridiculous way because of the way the census tracts are drawn. The northern boundary of Ward 5 is Kennedy Street NE east of South Dakota Avenue NE and Riggs Road NE west of South Dakota Avenue. Having the neighborhood split between two wards can be a bit of an annoyance when advocating for neighborhood interests because we have to deal with two Council offices, two ANCs, and two sets of mayor’s office/DC agency ward liaisons. But it’s just that, a bit of an annoyance, not the end of the world. School boundaries and police district boundaries are not ward-based. Children in Ward 5 in Riggs Park attend Ward 4 schools. It makes advocating for schools interesting if you live in Ward 5, but again I do not think that it is a super big deal to have to talk to the Ward 4 councilmember when discussing schools (I also do not have children though so maybe parents feel differently).

That said, inertia is real. I really do not mind remaining part of Ward 5, and I cannot say I am yearning to be in ANC 4B (no shade, seriously). I have heard an argument about public safety in certain parts of Ward 4 that currently requires a lot of attention from the Ward 4 councilmember. The idea is that this need leaves less time for addressing issues in other parts of Ward 4, so moving part of Ward 5 into Ward 4 would leave the new Ward 4 areas feeling overshadowed. That may have some merit, but I am not sure. I realize I can afford to be sort of unbothered about being in either Ward 4 or Ward 5 because I do not think the councilmember for either ward is terrible. I do realize the Ward 5 councilmember will change with the November 2022 election so maybe I will end up eating my words. As of right now though, my reaction is a bit of a shrug. I would probably feel differently if there were a possibility of moving to a ward with a terrible councilmember who is not up for election until 2024. I just personally care more about the ANC boundaries (I realize the ANC boundaries go hand in hand with the ward boundaries).

The one thing I would strongly advocate for is not splitting up the neighborhood in a way that is more ridiculous than it is now, so to me that would mean not following that Hamilton Street NE boundary recommendation. I watched a recording of the Ward 3 hearing. During that hearing, CM Silverman stated she thought there was one good map that was presented during the Ward 5 hearing that generally abided by the redistricting principles. I do not know which map she was referring to, but I hope the subcommittee is not seriously considering shifting part of the northern boundary to Hamilton Street NE east of South Dakota Avenue. I happen to live on the south side of Hamilton Street, so I would still remain in Ward 5, but it still does not make sense to me. Also, during the Ward 3 hearing, there was some discussion about moving a few of the split neighborhoods in the northwest part of Ward 4 (Chevy Chase, Barnaby Woods, Hawthorne) back into Ward 3. Doing so could free up some space to move all of of Riggs Park into Ward 4, but then Ward 3 would be over the legal limit and adjustments would have to be made elsewhere to make Ward 3’s population size legal.

I do not know how serious the discussion about adjusting the northern Ward 5 boundary is. Neither CM McDuffie nor any of the ANC 5A commissioners have discussed the issue with residents or the leadership of the Lamond-Riggs Citizens Association (LRCA). Compare that silence to plenty of discussion taking place with residents of and near the Ft. Lincoln and Carver-Langston neighborhoods. CM McDuffie dropped in on the Ward 7 hearing that took place on October 23 to recommend not extending Ward 7 into the Ft. Lincoln neighborhood (apparently more than one person in Ward 7 thinks making Ft. Lincoln part of Ward 7 is a good idea and makes sense).

If you care about this issue, consider signing up to testify at the upcoming Ward 4 hearing or submitting written testimony. Be sure to send a copy of your testimony to your councilmember.

A representative of CM Silverman’s office is on the agenda to discuss redistricting at ANC 4B’s meeting tonight.

The topic is not on ANC 5A’s agenda for the meeting on October 27, but the ANC tends to add items to the agenda during the meeting, so it very well could end up being discussed at the meeting.

A representative from CM Silverman’s office is scheduled to appear at the LRCA meeting on November 1, 2021.

If you are interested in serving on the ANC redistricting taskforce, contact your councilmember.