Ranting about MI-13

[Plate]

This sorta has to do with geography I guess, it's a rant about how my congressional district was gerrymandered through packing and cracking.

"How is it cracked?" you may ask. Well, it includes the city of Melvindale, which, like Dearborn, contains a lot of Arabic-Americans. But the Arabics in Melvindale and the Arabics in Dearborn are cracked, since Melvindale is in the 13th, and Dearborn in the 12th. And, speaking of Melvindale and Dearborn, I live in Melvindale and I can see factories in Dearborn from my window! And yes, I know you have to draw the lines somewhere, but I can literally see Debbie Dingell's hometown from my house. The town of the 12th district's representative can be seen from my house in the 13th. And yes, I can see Detroit (Conyer's hometown) as well, but Detroit's a big city, and I'm pretty sure he lives in the north side.

Now for the packing, MI-13 seems to be the Republicans in the legislature's "ghetto pack" so they can keep the unwealthy black Democrats away from the rich white Republicans. It includes the ghetto cities in Wayne county like Detroit, Ecorse, River Rouge, Highland Park, Wayne, Westland, Inkster, Garden City, Redford, Dearborn Heights, Romulus, and Melvindale. Wait wait wait-HOLD THE PHONE! Romulus and Melvindale aren't ghetto! They're comparing Melvindale and Romulus to HIGHLAND PARK! If it's their ghetto packing, why aren't Lincoln Park and Hamtramck in there? And Garden City isn't even that bad of a city-Wait wait wait-HOLD THE PHONE! MORE CRACKING!

Garden City votes Republican, and they're in the district with the most Democratic PVI in all of Michigan? That's more cracking! At least MI-12's congresswoman is kind of a moderate Democrat, but Conyers is perhaps the most hardcore liberal in the House. Look it up on GovTrack or whatever it's called. Conyers is perhaps the furthest on the left.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.

[Plate]

I just realized there's even more cracking!

Highland Park is in the 13th district, while Hamtramck is in the 14th, those cities are pretty similar and are almost identical! I'm sure Hamtramck has more in common with Highland Park than most of the other cities in the 14th district.

When my mom drives to work, she takes the Southfield Freeway, she literally drives through the 13th district TWICE due to its weird shape. This is geographical cracking I guess. Is there such a thing?

This isn't really an inconvenience and it's not hindering anybody's ability to go shopping, but it's kinda bizarre. Melvindale doesn't really have any major grocery stores, just a small local grocery market. But we don't have anything like a Meijer or Kroger, most Melvindalers just shop at the Meijer up on the hill (if you live in the Downriver area you know what I'm talking about) Strangely, for most Melvindalers to go grocery shopping, we cross a district boundary!

Any thoughts?

[dpmapper]

Like you said, lines have to be somewhere.   

[muon2]

Both MI-13 and 14 are mandated by the VRA and must be able to elect the candidate of choice of the black population. It is in part because of this that Highland Park and Hamtramck are in separate CDs. Highland Park was 94% black in the last census and Hamtramck was 19% black. It's also a byproduct of a gerrymander designed to pack the Dems into as few CDs as possible.

As an alternative, a number of us worked on neutral MI maps back in 2015. It is certainly possible to maintain two majority black CDs without such irregular lines. Here is one from that exercise. The Pubs would not be at all happy with this plan.