This is the first rough approximation of what Whittier's next Council district map might look like. It is a rough approximation because it was created using congressional blocks since council blocks were not available for the mapping process.
What we found was that when map drawers ignore race and ethnicity, they will naturally end up with 3 council districts that heavily Hispanic majority. But when race and ethnicity are accounted for, Hispanics get gerrymandered into just one or two districts.
In this rough map there are no White majority districts as it should be since Whites now make up less than 25% of Whittier's population. The top 3 racial groups for each district in the first map are:
District 1: Hispanic 78%
White 17%
Asian 4%
District 2: Hispanic 64%
White 29%
Asian 6%
District 3: Hispanic 47%
White 44%
Asian 8%
District 4: HIspanic 77%
White 19%
Asian 3%
Other 3%
In terms of party allegiance, we found that at least 3 districts will be majority Democrat. A more precise proposal will become available once an app that includes local election blocks is made available.
One thing we found is that the next map could pit one sitting councilmember against another sitting councilmember.
Geographically speaking, the smaller and more compact the district, the bigger the population concentration in that part of Whittier. That would be where most of Whittier's population currently lives.
In the second map we attempted to equalize the populations which is impossible when you are using the wrong electoral blocks. The top 3 ethnicites in the second map are:
District 1: Hispanic 82%
White 13%
Asian 5%
District 2: Hispanic 69%
White 24%
Asian 5%
District 3: Hispanic 50%
White 42%
Asian 8%
District 4: Hispanic 63%
White 32%
Asian 5%
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