Report on the People’s Ward Map: Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission
October 1, 2021
The Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission drafted its final October 1, 2021 map for Chicago’s City Council wards using the following process.
The foundational base of the Commission’s map drawing process was the very significant volume of public testimony the Commission received regarding communities of interest throughout Chicago. To hear public testimony regarding Chicago’s communities, the Commission held a series of 31 virtual and in-person public hearings from June 22 to October 1. The in-person meetings were held in diverse geographic locations throughout the city, including in Pullman, Englewood, McKinley Park, Chinatown, West Garfield Park, the Lower West Side, the Loop, North Lawndale, Portage Park, and West Ridge. Members of the public were invited to attend all of these public meetings to observe and to give testimony to the Commission regarding their communities of interest and regarding the ward map drawing process. Additionally, throughout its map drawing process, the Commission received significant written testimony regarding Chicago’s communities of interest and other public feedback through the Commission’s online public submission portal and through Representable.org. During this process, the commission has accepted testimony and map submissions from over 500 Chicago residents from all regions of the city.
The Commission publicly released a first draft ward map on September 10 and a second draft ward map on September 24. The Commission has since revised and updated its draft ward map based on public feedback received during the past three weeks.
When receiving public testimony regarding communities of interest, the Commission worked meticulously to learn about and to solicit the public speakers’ information regarding the geographic boundaries of their communities. Every time public speakers described their communities at the Commission’s hearings, a Commissioner used mapping software to accurately capture the geographic boundaries of each speaker’s community of interest, ensuring that the Commission received meaningful and detailed input from a diverse range of Chicagoans regarding their communities.
The Commission then drafted a map for Chicago’s 50 City Council wards that sought to keep together Chicago’s communities of interest, as described through the public testimony the Commission received. In addition to drawing wards that are based around communities of interest, the Commission also endeavored to draw a map providing racial and ethnic minority communities with an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. Finally, throughout the ward mapping process, the Commission followed basic traditional districting criteria, including population equality, geographic compactness, and contiguity.
The Commission sought to protect racial and ethnic minority communities during the mapping process. These efforts resulted in a draft ward map that contains 15 majority-Black wards and 14 majority-Latino wards (13 of which contain a majority-Latino Citizen Voting Age Population). Additionally, one ward was drawn to intentionally keep the Chinatown community together.
In the South Side of Chicago, the Commission relied upon significant public input and testimony concerning the communities of Bronzeville, Bridgeport, McKinley Park, West Lawn, Englewood, Hyde Park, Woodlawn, West Woodlawn, Washington Heights, Beverly, and South Shore. In understanding South Side communities, the Commission also relied heavily on the personal knowledge of the Commissioners who have lived and worked in the communities, particularly Commissioners Lyzeth Mondragon (Chicago Lawn), Mike Strode (South Deering), and Allen Linton II (Woodlawn).
In the Central and West Regions of Chicago, the Commission relied upon significant public input and testimony concerning the communities of Austin, East Humboldt Park, West Humboldt Park, Kelvin Grove, Hermosa, West Garfield Park, Ukrainian Village, West Town, the Polish Triangle, North Lawndale, South Lawndale, Pilsen, La Villita, the Near West Side, UIC, West Loop, South Loop, Chinatown, the Gold Coast, Streeterville, and Lake Shore East. The Commission also relied heavily on the personal knowledge of the Commissioners who have lived and worked in the communities, particularly Commissioner Deborah Williams (Austin and West Garfield Park).
In the North Region of Chicago, the Commission relied upon significant public input and testimony concerning the communities of Rogers Park, West Rogers Park, Edgebrook, Dunning, Montclare, Jefferson Park, Portage Park, Albany Park, Mayfair, North Center, Lady of Mercy, Andersonville, Uptown, Lakeview, Boystown, Northalsted, Logan Square, Avondale, and Belmont Cragin.
A full listing of the Commission’s adopted redistricting criteria appears on the following page.
Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission Adopted Criteria
The Commission shall propose a ward map for the Chicago City Council using the following criteria:
1. The ward map shall comply with the United States Constitution, Illinois Constitution, federal law, including the Voting Rights Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 1971 et seq.), and Illinois law. Without limiting the foregoing, the Commission shall endeavor to draw a map providing racial, ethnic, and language minority communities with an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and shall not dilute or diminish their ability to elect candidates of choice.
2. Equal Population: The ward map shall consist of 50 single-member wards. Wards shall be drawn on the basis of total population. The total population of each ward shall be of substantially equal population, for which purpose the total population of each ward shall not deviate by more than + / - 5% from the ideal ward population, as measured using Public Law (PL) 94-171 redistricting data from the 2020 Census.
3. Geography and Contiguity: The boundaries of each ward shall follow 2020 Census block geography. Each ward shall be geographically contiguous.
4. Communities of Interest: Wards shall respect the integrity of communities of interest to the extent practicable. A community of interest is defined as an area with shared interests, including but not limited to racial, ethnic, economic, social, cultural, geographic, or historic identities. Communities of interest do not include relationships with political parties, incumbents, or political candidates. To gather information regarding communities of interest, the Commission shall hold public meetings to hear testimony from Chicago residents. The Commission may also consider other established geographic boundaries, including, but not limited to, police districts, primary school districts, and community areas. Even in unpopulated areas, the Commission shall use the same process for considering communities of interest.
5. Compactness: To the extent practicable, and within the limits of the aforementioned criteria, the Commission shall favor geographic compactness when drawing wards. The Commission shall measure the geographic compactness of wards using their Polsby-Popper and Reock scores.