Detroit City Council Considers Redistricting

Detroit is one of the few major cities in the U.S. that does not have council by district. But that may soon change.

Detroit’s City Council has begun the tedious process of drawing voting  district lines for the city. It’s a move that was decided upon by the citizens  themselves and a decision that has been a long time coming.

“This has been the first time in about six decades that the city has been broken down into districts like this so it’s a new undertaking for everybody in  city government,” says council member Saunteel Jenkins. She is one of nine council members tasked with seeing the city through  this process.

Under the directive of the elections commission, the city will be  divided into seven council districts. The planning commission, with the help of  Data Driven Detroit, has taken the city’s population into account and   created four slightly different maps – one of which will be approved by council  as early as February 17th. Future city council members will represent each of  those seven districts, with two council members being elected to represent the  city at large.

Realizing it will be difficult if not impossible to please everyone, and  lawsuits will most likely be filed, specific guidelines have been used to create  the districts. Some neighborhood associations may be disrupted and ultimately  spread out over multiple districts because the criteria for laying district  lines are pretty cut and dry.

Detroit voters overwhelmingly approved the council by district idea in 2009.

Click here to read the entire story on wxyz.com.

Click here to read a Detroit 2020 story on council by district from February 2011.