At Redistricting Hearing, Residents Make a Case for Staying in their Wards

Once every ten years the District reacts to new census data and adjusts ward boundaries to meet federally mandated population maximums and minimums. Monday, the District Council gave residents the opportunity to discuss their views on redistricting and the impact it will have on their communities.

The District population grew to 601,723 over the past 10 years, but that growth was concentrated largely in Wards 2 and 6. In a perfect world, each ward would be 75,215 or one eighth of the total population, but there are neighborhoods and people behind those numbers. That's where Monday's hearing came into play.

To start off the meeting, Councilmember Jack Evans addressed the crowd at the Wilson Building, saying " redistricting makes people very, very angry." He would know, having participated in both the 1991 and the 2001 redistricting processes.

Just the same, Evans emphasized, redistricting is federally mandated. Evans will see some changes to his Ward 2, which is over the five percent of wiggle room by 939 people, putting him at 76,154 residents. Ward 7 is below the five percent deviation by 386 and Ward 8 is below by 742.

Evans said to the extent they can, the Council members try to keep neighborhoods together, even if it means splitting census tracts.

But there were residents on hand who were vocal about their desire to return to Ward 6 after having been redistricted to Ward 7 even though the community is west of the Anacostia River. Similarly in the last process former residents of Ward 3 were moved to Ward 4 and, according to an advisory neighborhood commissioner, those residents have mixed emotions still about the move.

Council member Marion Barry is pushing to have sections of Southwest D.C. including the Nats Ballpark and the federal Department of Transportation building added to his ward. Residents from that neighborhood, which are currently in Ward 6, objected to being moved to Barry's Ward 8.

Barry argued that Ward 8 could benefi from the diversity and prosperity of the Southwest Waterfront neighborhoods, but residents argued that they were diverse economically and racially, already "we worked hard to make it so," said one woman.

No residents from Ward 2 joined the discussion Monday, however interested parties can attend a second meeting Wednesday at 10 a.m. to hear testimony from more D.C. residents. The deadline to sign up to testify has already passed.