The Denver City Council approved a new map Tuesday night that will set council district boundaries for the next three city elections starting in 2023.
Before the deciding votes were handed down, a handful of Denver residents blasted the redistricting process as unfair and the map as inequitable.
The city’s 10-year redistricting process dates back to last spring but moved into the public input and council debate phases this February. Using 2020 U.S. Census data and precinct maps redrawn by the city clerk last year, councilmembers submitted six maps for public scrutiny.
By Tuesday night, just Map D, originally sponsored by councilmembers Jolon Clark, Chris Herndon, Paul Kashmann, Chris Hinds, Kendra Black and Council President Stacie Gilmore, was left standing. With Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer withdrawing her own map during committee-level debates and throwing her support behind Map D, it already had the seven votes necessary for adoption heading into the meeting. It passed on a vote of 12 to 1 with just Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca voting no.
CdeBaca has been the most forceful voice against the map throughout the process. CdeBaca represents District 9, home to some of the city neighborhoods deemed most vulnerable to gentrification and economic displacement. She submitted a map, Map A, that would have grown District 9 to the east to absorb potions of Northeast Park Hill, another vulnerable neighborhood. The map approved Tuesday puts Northeast Park Hill in District 8 while putting most of North Park Hill and South Park Hill in District 9.
“I think it breaks up Park Hill in the wrong places and cracks a community of interest,” CdeBaca said of Map D at a committee hearing on March 14. CdeBaca argued her map “would create more collective power for our Black and brown voices across the city in a time when they are losing ground in this city” as it ensured a district where a majority of residents were nonwhite.
Her map was defeated at committee but she direct filed it to last week’s City Council agenda where it was defeated again. During the six community meetings held this year to gather input on the maps, Map A got the most first-place votes on preference surveys with 72. Map D came in second with 40.
Six Denver residents spoke Tuesday night and five of them blasted the final map and the process that led to its creation.
District 10 resident Shannon Hoffman demanded an independent commission be in charge of map making and sarcastically thanked the council members supporting Map D for “prioritizing yourself and your reelection.”
“Unbelievable this is the map we are looking at,” David Hagan said. “This is not equitable. This is how we whitewash Denver.”
Herndon was part of the working group that handled the redistricting process in 2011. He said the process this year was much more robust than that one. He and other council members lauded Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval for leading the process as committee chair. He expects the new map to result in racially diverse and representative councils in the elections ahead.
“No map is perfect,” Herndon said. “I am proud of the map we have before us.”
