City Council on Wednesday approved new boundaries for the city’s 11 districts for the 2023 elections, featuring modest adjustments affecting parts of downtown, Braeburn, Greater Inwood and a few areas in southeast Houston.
The new boundaries aim to balance district populations based on the latest census data.
By law, the most populous district should not have more than 10 percent more residents than the smallest district. Based on the 2020 census, Districts C and G need to give up some neighborhoods. Districts H, I and J, on the other hand, have lost too many constituents and need to expand. Overall, fewer than 3 percent of the Houston’s 2.3 million residents will change districts.
The redistricting plan had gone through several iterations based on months of internal discussions and public feedback. On Wednesday, four council members also offered amendments to the proposal, three of which were successful.
Despite the majority support for the new maps, council had to vote twice to approve them after it was revealed late Wednesday that the city secretary called out the wrong agenda item before the council voted during the morning session.
The council reconvened at 6 p.m. for a public hearing on a proposed bond election. Following the hearing, which drew no speakers, the council confirmed the new maps by a 14-2 vote, with District I Councilmember Robert Gallegos and District E Councilmember Dave Martin dissenting.
“Keep as few people unhappy as possible”
Gallegos submitted an amendment to keep parts of Magnolia Park – one of the city’s oldest Hispanic neighborhoods located near the Houston Ship Channel in southeast Houston – from moving out of his district into the neighboring District H.
As a compromise, he will hand over a downtown precinct to District H.
The amendment came after several community leaders from Magnolia Park showed up to speak at City Hall on Tuesday with signs that read “Keep Our Neighborhood Together.”
One of them, Yvette Arellano, lives in one of the two precincts originally set to change districts and said the proposed change would undermine “my ability to vote to improve my neighborhood.”
Even though the council approved the amendment, Gallegos complained the Planning and Development Department had “worked in silos” and did not discuss these proposed changes with him until staff already had finalized the design.
“Me being the only Latino in this City Council seat, the planning department should have come to me and said, ‘this is our proposal,” he said. “But no, they want to divide our vote, they want to divide our voice, and it’s not going to happen.”
City Demographer Jerry Wood said throughout the design process he had to juggle competing interests from council members and the public and was unable to accommodate some requests.
“If you go into this thinking that you’re going to make everybody happy, you’re going to be sorry for thinking that,” Wood said. “If you go into this thinking that you’re going to make as few people unhappy as possible, then you might have some success.”
Freedmen’s Town avoids a switch following public objection
After much discussion, Freedmen’s Town, a historic Black neighborhood in the Fourth Ward, avoided a switch.
The planning department originally proposed to move the area out of the over-populous District C into the neighboring District H. Many residents, however, did not want the transfer.
Zion Escobar, for example, met with the planning department and had spoken in front of the council to voice her objection.
As the executive director of the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy, she is working on a number of multi-year projects – ranging from housing preservation to technology education for youths – to rebuild the neighborhood. She said she is worried those projects could experience setbacks if her team had to collaborate with a different council member.
“We would have a different political partner that we have to create a completely new relationship with,” Escobar said. “I understand that this is a numbers game, but why is it Freedman’s town that has to get tossed between districts?”
On Wednesday, District C Councilmember Abbie Kamin proposed an amendment to keep Freedmen’s Town within her district. To shed population as required, she will give up Candlelight Plaza, Shepherd Park and parts of Garden Oaks – three neighborhoods in central northwest – to District H.
The amendment went through despite opposition from Wood, who did not want to split up established neighborhoods, and Mayor Sylvester Turner, who said such decisions should not be made based on personal attachment to any council member.
Hispanic representation at the center of redistricting debates
Much of the discussion around redistricting has centered on the lack of Hispanic representation at City Hall.
While about 45 percent of Houston residents are Hispanic, Gallegos of District I is the only Hispanic council member out of the 16, even though the city previously created two other Hispanic-opportunity districts, H and J.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), one of the largest Hispanic civil rights organizations in the country, has promised to sue the city over what its advocates characterize as a gross underrepresentation of Latinos on the council.
The goal of the lawsuit is to replace the city’s five at-large seats, which represent voters citywide, with single-member seats, which cover a certain geographical area, to improve minority representation.
The city has hired a law firm in anticipation of the legal challenge.
“We are asking for equity and fairness, and we just don’t have that with the current districts,” said Sergio Lira, a Houston-based leader with the organization. “That’s why we are filing the lawsuit to push for changes.”
Some are worried that Kamin’s amendment could have an adverse effect on Hispanic votes.
The areas set to move to District H instead of Freedmen’s Town, have high percentages of Hispanic constituents, but are experiencing gentrification and are expected to see a decline in Hispanic populations in the following years, according to Wood.
Gallegos said that he did not originally agree with LULAC’s demand to abolish Houston’s at-large seats, but in light of these new developments, he plans to work closely with the organization to advance its cause.
“After what happened this morning, I agree that we need all single-member districts to make sure that we have the representation we need,” he said.
Keeping neighborhoods together
Besides keeping district populations even, maintaining established neighborhoods is another consideration for redistricting.
The new maps managed to move Braeburn, a super neighborhood on the southwest side, into a single district as well as bring together most of Eastex – Jensen in north Houston and Greater Inwood in the northwest. But Wood said he could not unite Greater Heights in north central or South Belt on the southeast side.
Another community request Wood was not able to grant was putting all of Chinatown into District F, as sought by local nonprofits including Houston in Action, the Chinese Community Center and the Greater Houston Chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans.
Wood said doing so would require him to take lands out of Sharpstown, a super neighborhood just East of Chinatown. Since Chinatown is considered a commercial area, it would not make sense to prioritize its interest over that of a residential area, he said.
For some, however, Chinatown is more than just clusters of stores and restaurants. It is a place of social gathering and community building, said Kelsey Sham, an organizer at Houston in Action who focuses on bringing together Asian American and Pacific-Islander groups.
Many Asian residents already struggle with language barriers and a lack of resources, and dividing the neighborhood between Districts J and F has only amplified their hurdles to political participation, according to Sham.
“If we split Chinatown up into two districts, then their voice as a whole is split in half,” she said. “Those needs are not getting met in full force by one council member.”
