US House Redistricting: Texas

[Sbane]

Are two Hispanic districts going to be required in Houston? I drew a 60% Hispanic district, but it was still 58% Obama. The rest of the Hispanics I put in Republican districts. I turned the 18th into a lean Republican district that voted 51-49 Mccain. It contains Hispanic areas and north Harris county suburbs, and is about 32% Hispanic. My 8th consists of Montgomery county and then a sliver down into Harris to pick up some Hispanic areas. That district is 29% Hispanic, but still voted for Mccain with 69% of the vote. I suppose that could be considered diluting the vote, and might not get past the courts.

I put all Houston Blacks in one district, which voted about 90-9 Obama. Republicans will definitely try to draw that district, and it's only 60% black so I don't know if that will be considered packing. You definitely can't draw two Black majority districts there. But how good of an argument is to say that Blacks need two opportunity districts? I suspect Hispanics will get another district but Blacks won't. 

I split Austin in four, but I fear I may have drawn too few Hispanic districts overall. I am guessing Austin Hispanics get put into a district with South Texas, though the courts frowned upon that last time, right?

[Sbane]

Yup, Dallas was very easy to draw. Just draw the new Hispanic district and everything falls in place.

[Sbane]

IMHO there's a difference between uniting technically separate but similar areas on the west side of the city of Chicago (plus a couple inner burbs), which looks ugly but is not as ugly as it looks, and uniting downtown (and south) Dallas with downtown Forth Worth - let alone doing so twice.
Which, of course, is why I drew my districts in Dallas and its immediate suburbs alone. Though I did cross the county line.
But yeah, to get the Black district over 50% you need to draw it first and put all the Black-and-Hispanic areas in it. Drawing a Hispanic district from what's left after that requires heading to Fort Worth, I think.

I suspect that the two neighborhoods linked in Chicago are just as politically and culturally distinct as the two linked in my Metroplex map.

The two neighborhoods aren't even the same nationality, right? IIRC one is mostly Mexican while the other is predominantly Puertorican.

I guess that's how it used to be, but now Mexicans are predominant in both areas. Muon might know better though.