Is it always bad to split cities? I'm not saying that cities should be split in such a way that diminishes their power maliciously, but it would seem that there are a lot of cases where a city is better off being the plurality in two districts rather than 100% of the population in one district.
The polarized situation in Congress, especially the House, is partially a result of cities not being split. Most of the remaining moderate Republicans live in urban areas where there is no chance of electing a Republican, and moderate Dems in rural areas where the reverse is true.
The opposite of splitting big cities is to create a map like IL. Tentacles extend out from the city well into the suburbs and even to some exurbs so that a population insufficient for 4 CDs has 7 instead. The result does nothing to create moderate districts.
CD 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 are anchored in Chicago. Population 2.7 M. CD size 713 K.