Atlas: Why I don’t support Candi Cdebaca’s Redistricting Map
Kwon Atlas
Many have asked for more information and further analysis into my views on the Denver redistricting process and as much as I want to keep this paper apolitical, in this instance I must explain. The number 1 reason I am against this map is that I believe it will adversely affect Five Points and as the Five Points neighborhood newspaper, I think it is more than appropriate that this debate live here. Here you can find Candi’s youtube video explanation of her map, just for fairness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzKucBC5uKg
In Candi’s map, she proposes that the neighborhood of Five Points be represented by 3 different council people. While she argues that this will give Five Points more power, I believe it will actually confuse and dilute the voters in Five Points. There is no clear reason why Five points is cracked into three and where these lines land don’t fall on any traditional fault lines in Five Points. Neighborhood leaders in Five Points already have to deal with having 2 police and waste districts, so having to deal with 3 council offices would be burdensome. Note, Five Points would be the only neighborhood like this under this map.
The 2nd reason is that it creates several other cracks in other neighborhoods throughout the city: The Central Business District, North Park Hill, Northeast Park Hill, Montbello, Sunnyside, Central Park, Cheeseman Park, Hale, City Park and more. All of these neighborhoods will have two councilpersons while others have 1. It will be confusing and unfair. Neighborhood leaders have been speaking out loud and clear that they don’t want their neighborhoods split but still Candi persists. Notably, for these reasons Councilwoman Sawyer withdrew her map that divided some neighborhoods in the same way.
The third reason is that despite Candi’s claim that her map doesn’t dilute, crack or pack marginalized groups, that is exactly what her map does. In her own explanation video she explains how and why she drew her map to take portions of District 1 and District 8 to make a district that could be won by a person of color. Simply put, however, she feels she better represents latinos and black people than her neighboring council members who happen to be Latino and Black, respectively. If you look at the map below of the Census Data by race and ethnicity, you see that the neighborhoods that are controversially drawn into her district are the areas where there is a majority latino population and a majority black population. She packs all of the north and north east denver latinos into District 9 and cracks the black vote in northeast park hill in District 8. Under her map 100% of District 1 census tracts would be majority white and the black vote in District 8 would weaken slightly even if east colfax is added to the district. It is no secret Denver is getting whiter but Latinos and African-Americans have been successful in winning races citywide like mayor and throughout the various districts. This map overly prioritizes race without input from the leaders of these racial minorities. African-american leaders like Pastor Del Phillips and Latino leaders like Nita Gonzales have spoken out against this map. This map is racial gerrymandering even though the person proposing it is Latina. She is attempting to choose her voters' race because she is unsure if voters will be racing to choose her.
My last point is as a campaigner and community organizer, District 1 and District 9 campaigners over the next 10 years will have to cross the river and the highway to get out the vote, a challenge that should disqualify this map as the river is a clear geographic boundary that should not be crossed. Even if you don’t respect neighborhood boundaries, you have to respect mother nature, at least those were the stated council rules.
City Council should reject Candi’s map in its entirety and her philosophy. Council should listen to communities of color and keep neighborhoods as whole as possible. I understand growth is the primarily cited reason but it is interesting which neighborhoods are proposed to be split and those that aren’t. Many of them fall along the inverted L. Council will choose a map in the next few weeks, let’s hope they choose the right one.
*This is my opinion, not the papers’ other staff or owners.
Yellow - Majority White Census Tracts
Blue - Majority Black Census Tracts
Red - Majority Hispanic/Latino Census Tracts