Bring Out The Maps! Ward Redistricting Starts

This is an exercise of moving the chairs around on the Titanic. The reality is we don't need 30 wards - we need less than half of that number. This is a one horse town. If you don't think the way these people do, your vote doesn't count anymore than a dissident voice is heard and given equal weight in any public hearing.

I hope this committee fails and the Mayor is able to appoint a commission that would hopefully reduce the number of wards from 30 to a number less ridiculous.

Some of these ward lines are ridiculous. They are very similar to the gerrymandering done by Republicans in Republican states.
For a city this size, we have too many wards and too many aldermen.
Let's try something different for an change. Let's try WARD CONSOLIDATION. 15 wards should be sufficient. It would streamline city government, possibly saving the city a lot of money and making city government more efficient.

What's with the two 'tracts of land' with no Ward Affiliation on this map?
(the little triangular patch between Wards 2&22/28 & the patch surrounded by Wards 15, 13, &12)

I have no illusions about the redistricting process - my former office provided tech support for redistricting at the state level. But can we try to get a better match between wards and neighborhoods? East Rock has four or five alders, depending on how you define the neighborhood. The same is true for Fair Haven. This serves neither the neighbors or the alders.

And in fairness to my alder (Eli Sabin), alder Rodriguez, and several of their colleagues, the process should recognize that several areas gained population after the 2020 census. Districts can vary slightly in population, as measured by the census, to reflect this.

why bother in a permanent blue city

One other thing to consider with ward revision is voting districts. Wards as they are defy logic when it comes to facilitating voting, making it very confusing and inconvenient for many voters.
Many voters have stood in line to vote only to later find out that their polling place is some inconvenient distance from their homes.

@BillSaunders1
You have to enlarge the map to see the details of the boundaries.
The first tract of land you referenced is in Ward 21. The second region you mentioned is part of Ward 13.

Each ward should keep its current alder and its current polling place(s) within its new boundaries.
Why do we need to keep the current alder? This does not make any sense, they all fall into lockstep with whatever the leadership wants anyway.

TAP: Reminds me of the Rorschach test-like congressional maps of your beloved neighbor 2the East, NY: ex: NY (newly 'reshaped)10th (West NYC) urrently (& likely will be until his death; or ouster via primary) Jerrold Nadler. 'Jerry' has only represented the area 4 ~30yrs. In my view, he is a poster child for term limits, a topic HVN might want to consider.

I agree with many of the commentators here. It is time for us to reduce the number of Alders.
We have seen how difficult it is to get people to run for office and how many seats go uncontested each election cycle. This is not good for our democracy. Our Alders make decisions that are important to us as residents of the City. They debate and approve the City budget that drives our property taxes. They pass zoning laws that dictate how our City will look.

To do this change correctly we should look at some of the issues that are stopping people from running for office. A few issues come to my mind quickly:
1) Long hours at night - an Alder can be at meetings most weeknights. If you sit on the Finance committee you are looking at meetings going for 4-5 hours.

2) Lack of financial incentive. An Alder gets around $2,600 per year. There is zero financial incentive to be an Alder, unless you are using the position as a stepping stone to garner higher office.

3) Large size of the Board - in some ways a large Board is good as an Alder will (hopefully) be more in touch with their constituents. Yet with that said the low interest and low pay attract few people doing it for the sake of the City. Many do this job because they have specific outside interests that will be well represented if they have an Alder from their camp. A large board gives these groups opportunities to run multiple candidates who become a voting bloc that dictates policy.

If we want people who are committed to the job we need to stop these perverse incentives for those that run and build a board that is molded to the best and highest standards.

@Thomas Alfred Paine: both parties have gerrymandered. Look right here in CT. Maybe it cheers up the Farmington Valley when its having a bad day, but there is no reason for the 1st Congressional district to be giving the 5th a hug. Hopefully when we finish redistricing this year some social distancing is put into practice.

As far as New Haven, how off balance would the wards be if the map didn't change? I'm sure this is mostly an exercise in getting a consultant, who runs in the same circles as the Alders, paid.

With such small Ward populations, the 5% rule is silly. It should be more like 20%. Having neighborhoods in a single Ward is more important.

@ Bill Saunders - that triangle is part of Ward 21. You can’t see the opening on the small map but if you expand - you can see where it comes thru on Henry Street.

There are some crazy borders here. In my neighborhood, look at Ward 29 and Ward 27. I would be in favor of fewer wards, better consolidated, as many of the previous commenters have suggested.

Please undo the gerrymandering that UNITE engineered when they stuck a peninsula of East Rock into Ward 21 to dilute Ward 9s voting power.

TAP Agreed!

In fairness to the alders, redistricting is tough even when done on a non-partisan basis. As the story notes, there are federal and state requirements. Meeting them all is like threading a needle.

And I believe there was a miscommunication on one point. The goal of redistricting should not be incumbent protection (although it often works that way). But there is a legitimate public interest in not redistricting an alder out of their ward. My alder lives on a boundary of our ward. Whether he is re-elected should depend on the voters, not on being moved into another alder’s district.

Virtually none of these considerations seem to have been taken into consideration in the past. Hopefully they can make them as equitable as possible.

@thomas Alfred Paine, All one needs to do is take a look at New Haven's and CT's history and districts to see how democrats have gerrymandered the city and state, but feel free to continue your bias against Republicans.