Get ready for some public hearings.
The City Council of the City of Houston, Texas, will hold the following public hearings in the City Council Chamber, City Hall, 2nd Floor, 901 Bagby, Houston, Texas 77002. The purpose of the hearings is to receive comments, suggestions, and alternate plans from the public regarding the Proposed City Council Redistricting Plan, in accordance with the City Charter, Article V, Sec. 3:
Wednesday, July 13, 2022 at 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday, July 13, 2022 at 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, July 20, 2022 at 9:00 a.m.
All persons desiring to be heard at any of the public hearings must reserve a specific amount of time (up to 3 minutes) by contacting the City Secretary’s Office at 832-393-1100. Details for signing up to speak in-person or virtually are posted at https://www.houstontx.gov/council/meetingsinfo.html(External link). Reservations for each hearing will be received up to 3:00 p.m. the day before each hearing is scheduled to begin.
See here, here, and here for some background. The current map is here and the proposed new map is here. As expected, the changes are fairly minor, to correct population imbalances. The Let’s Talk Houston redistricting page has more details, both overall and for each district. I don’t think this is going to be particularly eventful, but it’s redistricting so there’s always the potential. The question of whether we should get rid of At Large seats will need to be a separate discussion; it may come up here, but it’s not in the scope. Look for a lawsuit down the line. What do you think of the new map?
In an apparent effort to undervalue conservative and Republican and Anglo influence on the selection of council members, Districts A, C, and G are overpopulated, while districts in other more liberal, Democrat and minority sections of town are purposefully underpopulated. There is no reason given existing precincts and technology that a set of districts closer to one person, one vote mathematical equality cannot be achieved. District D is an outlier, also overpopulated.
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