Here's an interesting proposal from some Seattle-area activists: a majority-minority district in the Seattle area.
That could be done, just barely, by combining Southeast Seattle with the suburbs south of the city, where the minority population has exploded over the past decade.
The Win/Win Network, a nonprofit group, drew up the potential "majority people of color" district and plans to submit it to the Washington State Redistricting Commission, the bipartisan panel charged with redrawing the state's political map this year.
It isn't as convoluted-looking as you'd think, but it would violate tradition (and usual redistricting commission policy) by splitting Seattle down the middle. (You can see the map at the link.) While north Seattle -- maybe the likeliest place outside of Sweden to see a Volvo-on-Volvo traffic accident -- is what makes Seattle one of the whitest major cities, south Seattle is very diverse and if you add in its close-in southern suburbs, you literally get to 50.1%. Whether this actually gets forced into being is a big VRA-related puzzle, though; while recent case law (like Bartlett v. Strickland) has dealt with districts where a minority's share doesn't reach 50%, I'm not aware of any cases on the issue of creating minority districts where the share tops 50% but it's a tossed salad of all possible minorities. The implications of that issue could be huge, especially for redistricting California this year.
If you haven't seen the New York Times' newest version of its remarkable Census map (now updated with 2010 count data to replace '05-'09 ACS data), the Seattle example is a neat place to start, especially if you're having trouble conceiving of the Seattle area as diverse. Go to the dot-based racial distribution map, and find Census tract 281, just north of the airport. This may actually be the most racially balanced tract in the whole nation, more so than anything in Queens or the East Bay, based on my puttering around the map: it's 26% white, 24% black, 19% Hispanic, and 22% Asian. In fact, here's a challenge/rainy day activity for you all: if you can find anything more balanced, let us know in comments! (Sorry, no babka.)
This opens up a can of worms in terms of what's most "balanced," though, depending on how many races you want to talk about. Tract 919 in Flushing, Queens, is 27% white, 33% Hispanic, and 33% Asian (but only 4% black)... or if you want to go with a 5-way split, check out Tract 9603 (Nanakuli, on the west shore of the island of Oahu), which is 12% white, 18% Hispanic, 17% Asian, 30% multiracial, and 20% Native Hawaiian! I don't want to limit how you define "balanced," so feel free to point out any interesting tracts that you find.
UPDATE: I've found at least one that seems to beat that Seattle-area tract: it's Census tract 355108 in Antioch, California (in Contra Costa County): 25% white, 24% black, 24% Hispanic, and 20% Asian. |
