Mr. Illini's Chicagoland Township Map Thread

[muon2]

Thanks, Green Line!

I've merged my city-by-ward and suburb-by-township maps for a full map of Cook County.

Such a beautifully Democratic county. Outliers are Barrington in the NW - a rural wealthy suburb. Lemont and Orland in the SW - rural and white working class.

Other than that a whole lot of Democratic red. Biggest change since the 80s is in the northern portions. Skokie, Evanston, New Trier, Northfield, Wheeling, Schaumburg, etc would have been mostly to solid GOP 30 years ago - now solid Dem.

Lemont and Orland are not rural in any sense. Orland has very little farmland and is as suburban as any township in DuPage (There is actually more ag land in Cook than in DuPage). Lemont has a bunch of Forest Preserve and golf course open space, but it's not rural.

[muon2]

Its population is only 21k. The only townships smaller are Barrington + others that are significantly smaller in land area and closer to the city.

Ok, you called it rural, that's what I was responding to.

You tell me. That's the town of Lemont in red.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Cook_County_Illinois_incorporated_and_unincorporated_areas_Lemont_highlighted.svg/800px-Cook_County_Illinois_incorporated_and_unincorporated_areas_Lemont_highlighted.svg.png

Yes, im aware... That map shows nothing which proves your point. What am I supposed to be seeing

That area of Cook County is disproportionately sparsely populated. Perhaps it depends on what you consider "rural."

The population is sparse because the township has a lot of dedicated open space. The Forest Preserve of Cook has a lot of land in Lemont and there are major golf courses including Cog Hill. The situation is similar to Winfield township in DuPage where half of the land is held by Fermilab or the DuPage Forest Preserve. Having land held for preserved open space does not make an area rural, especially when the remaining area is as built up as other neighboring suburban areas.

Unincorprated areas do not define rural either. Chicagoland has quite a few fully developed unincorporated areas. They were built at a time when no municipality could reach the developer's area. Subsequently the residents didn't want to annex. Just because residents don't want to annex into a neighboring municipality doesn't make them rural.

I get that different people may choose to define rural different ways. But let's not be arbitrary with those definitions. The Census Bureau defines urban vs rural areas throughout the country.

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Based on the detailed definition in the Census link, there are maps delineating urban and rural. In Lemont township only some parcels on the eastern edge that are part of Saganashkee and Tampier Sloughs (Forest Preserve) are not considered urban areas. Palos township has a higher percentage of land in that category, but that doesn't make it rural either.

[muon2]

This chart shows the relationship between Rauner%, and Turnout%. The bubbles are colored based on Rauner%, and bubble size is based on registration.

It may be easier to see this chart directly in the spreadsheet.

Cook County Rauner 2014

There is a bit of optical illusion. The countywide turnout was 48.5%, and Proviso and Worth are just below that, with Thornton, Bloom, Bremen, and Niles a couple of points lower. There is a lot of overlap in the blue cluster around 60% Rauner (Ormond is hidden behind Palatine, for example), such that some of the lower turnout areas such as Schaumberg may have more visual weight, with their turnout perceived as being at the lower end of the circle, rather than as its center.

Overall, the more Republican townships have a bit higher turnout than most of the more Democratic townships, and there are some very low performing Democratic areas. I would interpret the turnout in Rich, Thornton, and Proviso as indicating that black turnout is less tied to economic status than that for white and Hispanic voters.

The turnout measure highlights the drop off among Hispanic voters. Cicero is almost 90% Latino, Berwyn is over half, and Leyden, Stickney and Hanover are about one third Latino. Those are the only townships with significant Latino population.

[muon2]

2014 Gubernatorial as well

Notice all of those north suburban townships that went for Obama twice went for Rauner. Also notice a ward in the city going for Rauner.

In the city, Quinn was largely able to hold Obama's numbers among African Americans. The Hispanic and white areas are where we saw sharp R swings.

What is the ward that voted for Rauner?

42nd Ward, which covers Streeterville, River North, the Loop, and parts of the Near West Side.

And he just barely lost the 43rd Ward (which includes Lincoln Park), by a mere 0.7 percent. The 41st Ward, on the far northwest side, was the only other close one, with Quinn prevailing, 50% to 47%. Rauner's next-best ward was the 2nd, on the near west side, where he got 44%.


It drops off quickly from there

Ah, okay thanks; that's what I figured, because if I were to guess anywhere in Chicago voting for any Republican, it'd be that area.

The far northwest side wards are typically much more Republican than the River North ward, but this election also illustrated that they are much more inelastic than River North as well.

Obama's margins in the Rauner ward were considerably higher than the wards on the far northwest side, yet Quinn maintained Obama's margins on the far NW side (at least to more degree) while the River North/Gold Coast saw a massive swing from Obama to Rauner - so much that he was able to win it.

The union vote is big in the NW wards. Some of the inelasticity was probably Rauner's unpopularity with union voters.

[muon2]

Do you know where I could get a statewide map?

Of what exactly - townships, precincts, counties, localities, etc?

Townships and/or precincts.

The IL State Board of Elections collects pdfs of precinct maps from each county. Usually it's by township. Some cities have independent election commissions so they are separate from the county. The collection can be found at

http://precinctmaps.elections.il.gov/

[muon2]

Do you know where I could get a statewide map?

Of what exactly - townships, precincts, counties, localities, etc?

Townships and/or precincts.

The IL State Board of Elections collects pdfs of precinct maps from each county. Usually it's by township. Some cities have independent election commissions so they are separate from the county. The collection can be found at

http://precinctmaps.elections.il.gov/

How close would the 2010 census VTD's be?

The law requiring election authorities to report their precinct boundaries went into effect early this year. The goal is to have the precinct maps in advance of each election, but there is no requirement to report historical boundaries. Most counties will have submitted boundaries used for the 2014 election, and most of those would have last been adjusted in 2011 after the 2010 remap.  Some made no changes at all and they will match precincts from the 2000's including those on DRA. A few, including DuPage, made major changes this year in advance of the 2016 elections, so they will be no help for 2012 or 2014.