Decatur City Staff Proposes Moving Three Areas into Southern Voting District
Decatur Metro | June 2, 2011
In an effort to comply with the federal government’s “one person/one vote” standard in Decatur’s northern (District #1) and southern (District #2) voting districts, the City of Decatur is proposing to the City Commission that three areas currently residing in the northern district be shifted to the southern prior to the upcoming elections in November.
As you can see from the map above, they include the area around East Decatur Station west of Columbia Drive, an area north of College Ave between Church Street and McDonough, and the area immediately west of Commerce and Electric Ave (which includes Swanton Heights). To view a map with greater detail than the one above, see this PDF.
According to the city’s website, “the City Commission will hold public hearings and will consider the charter amendments at the June 6, 2011 and Jund 20, 2011 City Commission meetings. Meetings are held in the City Commission Meeting Room, Decatur City Hall, 509 North McDonough St, Decatur, Gerogia beginning at 7:30 p.m.”
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Well, I wasn’t sure how they could redistrict in a way that wouldn’t affect either city or School Board politics but I think they did. The areas moving are mostly non-residential areas in which the scattered residents probably don’t form a cohesive neighborhood that would vote as a block or even have a strong influence on a vote. In fact, I’m surprised the area to be moved can yield the ~800 residents need for “one resident/one vote”.
I’m entirely naive to how voting districts influence government and politics but I suspect this change will have little effect other than comply with the law.
For some reason I thought that the areas in Swanton Heights and the area around East College Station were already in District 2. No?
In any event, the senior citizen tower at the corner of Trinity and Church would be included in District 2 under this proposal. That would be at least a couple of hundred voters just right there. If you are counting the inclusion of the Talley St Lofts and some of the apartments/townhomes in the Swanton area, I wouldn’t be suprised if you could get 800 or so registered voters.
The Decatur Housing Authority Homes already are in District 2. How do I know? The Gateway parents were all against the closing of Westchester which is where their kids used to go. But in the next election, they couldn’t vote in the District 1 School Board election with the rest of the Westchester parents. If you look carefully, what’s being redistricted is what’s next to the DHA developments.
Without seeing the numbers of people on the map, it’s hard to analyze. If contiguousness is important (hell, if that’s a word), I wish we could unify the “extrusion” into the north side. For example, it appears to drop down Ridley in that westernmost addition. What if more of the houses along Howard were picked up instead of the homes along the North Candler/condos at Ponce & Church area? I have no preference for one area or the other, but think it works better if there’s as much of a unified area as possible instead of being spread apart as they are now. Again, though, I don’t have the population numbers that have to drive much of this.
“an area north of College Ave between Church Street and McDonough” is actually between N Candler and McDonough.
I’m not happy that the houses and condos on the west side of N Candler could be sliced off of the rest of the “Old Historic Decatur” neighborhood. We’re a small, but motivated group of neighbors that would prefer to gang up on a single city council member when we get riled up.
I’d like to see the line moved west of the residential property lines in the middle of the block — maybe 32 potential voters back into District 1.
You’ll have an opportunity to voice your concerns at public hearings on June 6 and 20.