Shaw/NW SMD Map for Discussion

At the ANC 2C Community Listening Meeting, participants discussed how far south and east to extend the boundary of the ANC in the NW portion of Ward 6.

W6TF member Cody Rice prepared the map below showing possible SMD boundaries for an ANC that is bounded to the southeast by North Capitol St NW and Louisiana Ave NW. Extending the boundaries to this area brings the total population of the ANC to 14,185 and makes creating seven SMDs all within the population range of 1,900-2,100 easier. The overall shape of the ANC is constrained by the Ward boundaries, which create a "peninsula" that extends into the NW quadrant of DC.

With the common disclaimer, the W6TF has not made any decisions about ANC or SMD boundaries. All comments are welcome!



There are a number of other possible boundary configurations that would also work for the NW corner of the ANC (the former 2C01, 2C02, and 2C03 shown in red, orange, and green, respectively). The boundaries on this map were primarily drawn with compactness and the population in mind, so alternatives that better recognize neighborhood features would be welcome.

In the SE corner of the ANC, the purple SMD has to be larger than other SMDs to pick up the required population. It has to extend below Massachusetts Ave NW to reach the SMD population target. The light blue SMD is somewhat awkward in shape, but again this relates to how the Census data show population to be distributed.

SMD Populations

Red = 2,074
Orange = 2,093
Green = 1,995
Light Blue = 1,980
Dark Blue = 2,047
Purple = 2,080
Magenta = 1,916

Questions for 6B Community Meeting

We had a great meeting last night with ANC 6D.  We are moving towards our last community listening meeting this coming Monday night with ANC 6B.  The below is the list of potential questions for the meeing.  Are there others?  Do you want to provide an answer to any of the questions??  If so, post a comment.  Regards, Joe Fengler

1)  Do you feel that the current ANC boundaries represent your neighborhood? 

2)  Are there aspects of the current boundaries that present challenges because dissimilarity? 

3)  Should large residential buildings or complexes be dispersed among multiple SMDs? 

4)  Is the freeway the proper north-south dividing line?  For example, is there an opportunity to move part of a western SMD to ANC 6D that uses the Third and/or Fourth street tunnels to “connect” the residents on both sides of the freeway? 

5)  Is East Capitol Street the proper north-south diving line?  For example, is there an opportunity to move part of a western SMD to ANC 6C? 

6)  Do the residents living around the baseball stadium believe their community “core” is located in: (a) Barracks Row, (b) Waterfront Mall, (c) both, and/or (d) neither? 

7)  Should ANC 6B retain both Eastern Market, Barracks Row and the entire Pennsylvania corridor? 

8)  Since at least four of the existing SMDs exceed the 2,000 population target (not including 6B11), how many SMDs should the new ANC have?  Nine? Ten? Eleven? Twelve? Does it matter?

  

Stephens Proposal for Ward 6 ANCs

Rob Stephens, a resident of Rosedale, has requested that the W6TF publish the following Ward 6 ANC proposal for comment and discussion. Mr. Stephens is NOT a member of the Ward 6 Task Force, and the Task Force has not made decisions about ANC boundaries. This proposal is presented for discussion.

The populations and suggested number of commissioners are:

ANC 6A, in orange: 18,111 (9 Commissioners)
ANC 6B, in light blue: 20,217 (10 Commissioners)
ANC 6C, in green: 11,140 (5 Commissioners)
ANC 6D, in dark blue: 14,359 (7 Commissioners)
ANC 6E, in red: 14,185 (7 Commissioners)


Mr Stephens says:

"I offer the Status Quo Plus Version 1 option for those who believe and want to minimize changes to existing ANCs, for those who prioritize an ANC map that will stimulate economic and racial integration in W6 and for those who are concerned about the potential adverse impact of more dramatic changes such as those proposed by the Ronneberg/H St Proposal. The challenge of business licensing on H St should be addressed by new and improved intra-ANC coordination rather than by dramatically changing the ANC map in W6."

"If having ANCs that do not have dramatic population differences is a priority for the W6TF, then a Status Quo Version 2 could be produced that tinkers with this map by adding more residents to the smallest ANC (i.e. ANC 6C) from one or more of the following ANCs: 6B (the largest ANC), 6A and/or 6E. ANC 6A should, however, have enough of a population buffer in case Kingman Park (pop 1,774) is not allowed to join a Ward 6 ANC. "

"Do it Yourself" Maps, Part II

OK.  I finally sat down and followed Cody's directions.  Let me give you a few tips on what we need to post a map proposal on the blog.  I will walk you through the steps of what I did (my map will be posted soon.  All maps required the Cody "special" sause to make them look good on the blog).

1.  Go to the great tool JDland built for us - Ward 6 map tool.  When you go to this page, make sure you have the latest browser.  How will you know?  If you go to this web page and DO NOT see a map, your browser needs to be updated (this happened to me).  I recommend Mozilla Firefox (free).

2.  Just click on the census blocks you want to include in your draft ANC.  As you click on census blocks, you can see the cumulative population count of your decisions. 

3.  Once you are done selecting census blocks, click on the phrase "Show Map with Selected Blocks Highlighted".

4.  Then look in the URL (where you see http:jdland.com...).  Copy that entire URL and paste it in an email.  Here is an example of a hypothetical New Northwest ANC:

http://www.jdland.com/dc/ward6smd.cfm?blockid=48.01%201002,48.01%201001,48.01%201000,49.01%201003,49.01%201002,49.01%201001,49.01%201004,49.01%201000,48.01%201005,48.01%201007,48.01%201008,48.01%201009,48.01%201010,48.01%201006,49.01%202003,49.01%201005,49.01%201006,48.01%201019,49.01%202002,49.01%202001,49.01%202000,48.01%201018,48.01%201017,48.01%201011,48.01%201012,48.01%201013,48.01%201014,48.01%201015,48.01%201016,48.01%201020,49.01%202006,49.01%202005,49.01%202004,49.01%202010,49.01%202011,49.01%202012,49.01%202008,49.01%202007,48.01%201021,48.01%201022,48.01%201023,49.02%201001,49.02%201000,48.02%202001,48.02%202000,48.02%201000,49.02%202000,48.02%202002,48.02%202003,48.02%201001,48.02%201007,46%202016,46%202018,48.02%201002,48.01%201025,46%202017,48.02%201003,48.02%202005,48.02%202004,48.02%201005,48.02%201004,46%202020,47.01%202002,47.01%202001,47.01%202000,47.01%201001,47.01%201003,47.01%201002,47.01%201000,47.01%202003,47.01%202004,47.01%202006,47.01%202005,47.01%202009,48.02%202007,48.02%201006,48.02%201008,48.02%202006,47.01%202007,47.01%202008,47.02%201023,47.02%201021,47.02%201020,47.02%201000,47.02%201001,47.02%201003,47.02%201002,47.02%201018,47.02%201019,47.02%201022,47.02%201017,47.02%201016,47.02%201015,47.02%201004,47.02%201005,47.02%201014,47.02%201013,47.02%201012,47.02%201006,47.02%201007,47.02%201011,47.02%201008,47.02%201010,47.02%201009,47.01%202010,&popnumber=13393

5.  Send the email to ward6rd@gmail.com.  It may take us 36 to 48 hours to flip this into the nice pretty map you see on the blog. 

6.  In the email, please provide your name and description of what your proposal is doing.  We prefer not write text to explain what your map is trying to accomplish. 

7.  If you want to submit SMD boundaries for an ANC, please use the ANC process above - but for each SMD, send a URL.  We then will stitch an ANC map that shows your SMD recommendations.

I hope this helps!  Regards, Joe.

Reference Boundary Maps - Old and New

To provide a visual reference of the scope of redistricting effort, Cody built these maps for reference. Also, the DIY post below has some new instructions for creating a map via spreadsheet. Regards, Joe.

New Ward 6 boundaries

Current ANC boundaries

Current SMD boundaries

Revised Ronneberg

The revised proposal from Commissioner Ronneberg places the baseball stadium in the southwest ANC, but keeps the portion of Barrack's Row south of the freeway in the proposed 6B. This change helps balance the number of commissioners in each ANC -- the smallest ANC has 7 commissioners, while the largest ANC has 9 commissioners.  This revised proposal does not reflect any decision made by the W6TF.  To be clear, this is posted at the request of Commissioner Ronneberg to generate discussion of potential ANC boundaries for Ward Six.  Commissioner Ronneberg is not a member of the W6TF.  If folks want to submit other proposals for discussion, please follow the instructions under the "Do it Yourself" post below and mail the URL to ward6rd@gmail.com.  If you have any questions about how to use the self-help tools, send an email to the same address.  Just be patient as the task force members are volunteers.  Regards, Joe.

The new population totals are:

Red = New Shaw ANC, Total population: 14,185 (7 commissioners)

Orange = ANC 6A/6C Consolidation, Total population: 18,514 (9 commissioners)

Blue = Expanded ANC 6B, Total population: 16,058 (8 commissioners)

Green = New Hill East ANC Total population: 15,572 (8 commissioners)

Purple = Consolidated ANC 6D, Total population: 13,683 (7 commissioners)

ANC 6A - The King's Option

Based on ANC 6A Community Listening Meeting, one of the options discussed was to add Kingman Park to the existing ANC 6A boundaries. This map is an ANC 6A that is similar to current boundaries, except the western boundary above H St NE is 8th St NE instead of 7th St NE (minus 451 residents) and Kingman Park is included (plus 1,774 residents). The total population is 18,111. An attempt was made to make SMDs more compact while trying to maintain continuity of representation. Block populations and the target of 1900-2100 residents per SMD constrained this effort. SMD numbering is similar to current system. (Click on any group of blocks in the map to see the SMD assignment and block population.) Kingman Park becomes 6A09 and adds two census blocks to the south from 6A08 to bring population within target range. This option is posted to facilitate discussion and was generated by Cody Rice with some "text" support by Joe Fengler. With the common disclaimer, the W6TF has not made any decisions about ANC or SMD boundaries. All comments are welcome!



SMD populations
6A01 = 1,920
6A02 = 2,087
6A03 = 2,017
6A04 = 2,028
6A05 = 2,087
6A06 = 2,024
6A07 = 2,098
6A08 = 1,901
6A09 = 1,949

Of note:
1) Due to loss of residents between 7th and 8th St NE, 6A01 expands to the east north of H St NE and must pick up a block south of H St NE. The block containing the H St Connection could be swapped for other blocks in 6A02 and still hit the population range in both SMDs.
2) By including Kingman Park with ANC 6A, it is possible to add two additional adjacent Census blocks to bring the former SMD 7D01 within the acceptable population range.
3) If Kingman Park were not able to be included in ANC 6A, 6A08 would only need to add back 2 census blocks with a total population of 175. This would still be within the acceptable range.

The ANC 6D Meeting

Tomorrow night, the task force heads south to ANC 6D. One of the things I personally observed at the Shaw discussions and several of the comments on this blog, is that it might be important for the redistricting plan to look at the map from the individual's perspective. Meaning, attempting to account for the "sense" of where residents associate their daily living could be an important criteria. I am using the phrase "core neighborhood" for the lack of anything better. Again, this is my thought and not an official task force decision. Just more food to fuel discussion. So, to get prepared for the ANC 6D meeting, the below questions have been included on the draft agenda. Does anyone want to start answering them on the blog? Are there others that should be added? If so, post them in the comment section and we can add them to the final agenda. Regards, Joe Fengler


ANC 6D Community Meeting Questions:
1) Do you feel that the current ANC boundaries represent your neighborhood?
2) Do the current boundaries present challenges because of dissimilarity?
3) Should large residential buildings or complexes be dispersed among multiple SMDs?
4) Is the Southeast/Southwest freeway an appropriate dividing line between ANCs? For example, is there an opportunity to create SMDs that use the Third, Fourth, Sixth and Eighth streets tunnels to “connect” the residents on both sides of the freeway?
5) Is South Capitol Street an appropriate dividing line between ANCs or SMDs to the east and west?
6) Do the residents living around the baseball stadium believe their community “core” is located in: (a) Barracks Row, (b) Waterfront Mall, (c) both, and/or (d) neither?
7) How many SMDs should the new 6D have? Five? Seven? Does it matter?
8) The U.S. Capitol falls in Ward 2. Do the events around the U.S. Capitol impact 6D residents?
9) While needing to build SMDs with a population of 2,000 residents - are there any creative ways to account for the hidden census? Either those people that are now living in ANC 6D (around the baseball stadium for example) that were not there at the time of the census. Or those empty buildings or pending constructions that will drive a significant increase in density over the next few years?

Shaw Proposal by Commissioner Padro

Message from Commissioner Padro to w6rd@gmail.com:

I've been actively engaging ANC 2C residents about their feelings
about the size of the redistricted commission since my return to town
earlier this week and the consensus I've gotten is that there is much
support for a smaller, rather than larger, number of SMDs going
forward.  A North Capitol Street eastern boundary has been supported
by no one I've spoken with.  Fourth Street or the freeway have been
the preferred eastern boundaries supported, except for the eastern
part of the 'chimney' north of New York Avenue.

Can you prepare a map that would have 10,000 people or five SMDs, by
adding to the ANC 2C blocks that are moving to Ward 6 the blocks south
of New York Avenue to Massachusetts Avenue (North side)?  The eastern
boundary south of New York Avenue would be Fourth Street between New
York and K Street, and Third Street between K Street and Massachusetts
Avenue.  Could that be ready for discussion tomorrow night?

Commissioner Padro's Map proposal has a total population of 10,099 residents, which at the macro level, would translate into five Single Member Districts.

(Fengler note:  If you look down two posts, you can see the current Shaw ANC under the new Ward 6 boundaries.  This provides a good visual from the as-is to the proposed to-be).

Do you like to "do it yourself"?

The Ward 6 Task Force has been asked to recommend new boundaries that create Single Member Districts with 2000 (+/- 100) residents, and then combine them into several Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. As you can imagine, there are many possible ways to accomplish this.

The Task Force has been wrestling with the Census data to understand the implications for redistricting. The previous blog posts share some of our thoughts and observations so far, as well as ideas from the listening meetings and emails.

If you would like to explore the Census data for yourself, you have several options:

1) If you are most comfortable with pen and paper, the Office of Planning has provided a variety of maps in PDF format that you can print out and mark up.

2) The JDland blog has what is (quite modestly) called a rudimentary Ward 6 map tool. You can use this tool to click on blocks that you think should be in the same SMD or ANC, and have the populations summed up for you. You can then use the URL to share a map with others showing just those selected blocks.

3) NEW! If you are comfortable with spreadsheets, you can export to Excel from this Google Fusion Table in .csv format. Then, in the spreadsheet, change the ANC assignment for each Census block that is switching from one ANC to another in the column labeled "ANC2012." I find it helpful to do this in conjunction with the JDland map tool.

Since this spreadsheet was used as the basis of the second proposal from Commissioner Ronneberg, the following assignments are used in the "ANC2012" column:

1 = Shaw
2 = 6A/6C
3 = New Hill East
4 = 6B
5 = 6D

Then, import back into Fusion Tables. In the Map visualization, you will need to "configure styles" to create "Buckets" for each of the ANC assignments in the "ANC2012" column. Look at the map to make sure you got it right. Once you have a working map, we can use the "Get embeddable link" to create the code to drop it into the blog.

4) If you are comfortable working directly with spreadsheets and databases to create web maps, you may find the following links helpful. They are shared via Google Fusion Tables.

Ward 6 Census block data

Draft 2012 Ward boundaries

2002 Ward 6, 2C, and 7D ANC boundaries

2002 Ward 6, 2C and 7D01 SMD boundaries

Have fun and let us know if you have suggestions!

Posted by Cody Rice

Ward Six Proposal by Commissioner Ronneberg

Commissioner Drew Ronneberg (ANC 6A02) has requested the following Ward Six ANC proposal be published on the blog for comment and discussion.  Commissioner Ronneberg is NOT a member of the W6TF.  He has submitted this proposal to the W6TF for potential consideration.  Again, to be clear, the W6TF has not made any ANC boundary recommendations as we are still in the listening tour of the new Ward Six.  If others folks have any ANC boundary proposals they would like to have posted for discussion, send them to ward6rd@gmail.com.  That being said, here is a summary of Ronneberg's proposal:

1.  Expands the new Shaw ANC east to N. Capitol and south to Constitution
2.  Combines ANC 6A and 6C into a new ANC with an H Street focus

3.  Creates a New Hill East ANC (Rosedale, Kingman Park, Hill East)

4.  Expands ANC 6B north to Stanton Park and south to the baseball park
5.  Consolidates ANC 6D to the western and southwestern waterfronts

Here are the new proposed ANCs:

Red = New Shaw ANC, Total population: 14,185 (7 commissioners)
Orange = ANC 6A/6C Consolidation, Total population: 18,514 (9 commissioners)
Blue = Expanded ANC 6B, Total population: 18,149 (9 commissioners)

Green = New Hill East ANC Total population: 15,572 (8 commissioners)

Purple = Consolidated ANC 6D, Total population: 11,592 (6 commissioners)

Again, posted at Ronneberg's request, Joe Fengler

The Shaw Challenges - Expansion? and Large Residential Buildings

Tomorrow night, Monday, July 25 at 6:30pm, we will be holding the Shaw ANC Community Listening Meeting. There have been two themes of discussion regarding Shaw's ANC boundaries: (1) expand to more than 4 SMDs and (2) retain 4 SMDs.

The Current SMD 2C boundaries within new Ward 6:
2C01 = red
2C02 = orange
2C03 = green
2C04 = blue

Some observations based on the maps:

1. Shaw has a density challenge with several large residential buildings that are driving two existing SMDs to exceed the target of 2,000 residents.

2. 2C03 has lost most of its SMD to Ward 2 and can really only expand east into high density census tracks.

3. The existing Shaw ANC in the new Ward Six only has 7,299 residents - 701 short of supporting 4 SMDs. So, there appears to be little choice but to expand the existing Shaw ANC.

4. So, if the Shaw ANC has to be expanded, where are the new boundaries?

5. Would the Shaw residents rather have residents from Stanton Park / H Street on Capitol Hill make zoning and liquor license decisions for areas south of New York Avenue and west of North Capitol Street?

6. Given the 10 year window and the pending development, does the Shaw Community see any benefits and synergies in expanding to the NoMa community?

Population density within 2C

Red = no residents on block
Darker green = more residents on block, range from 1 to 707
Populations of current SMD boundaries within new Ward 6
2C01 = 2,006
2C02 = 2,272
2C03 = 739
2C04 = 2,282

Just to be clear, there is no preordained Shaw solution. However, if Shaw remains small (4 or 5 SMDs), the other ANCs more than likely will be larger (8 or 9 SMDs). As the city bases the ANC budget on total population, that means Shaw will get roughly one-half the budget the rest of the Ward 6 ANCs receive.

In close, there are no right or wrong answers. But, these are some of the questions and challenges that will need to be addressed in creating the new Shaw.

Regards, Joe Fengler

Whither ANC 6C?

As you can read in the Meeting Notes page, one of the ideas discussed at the ANC 6C Community Listening Meeting on July 21 was to move the current ANC 6C SMDs 01, 02, 03 and parts of 08 and 09 to what is currently ANC 2C. This would create a larger Shaw ANC that would generally deal with the community issues west of Union Station. This would create an new Shaw ANC with approximately 14,190 residents. That would translate into 7 SMDs.

Expanded Shaw ANC. Everything in new Ward 6 west of Union Station, railroad tracks and Delaware Ave NE. Composed of all of ANC 2C in new Ward 6, plus ANC 6C SMDs 01, 02, 03, and portions of 08 and 09. Total population = 14,190.




For the sake of argument, if the Shaw ANC expanded as outlined above, the "remains" of ANC 6C would have 10,684 residents. So, that begs the question, what do we do with ANC 6C? Under the this Shaw ANC scenario, there are at least five options for ANC 6C:

1. Leave ANC 6C with 10,684 residents that would translate into 5 SMDs (2,000 per SMD). This is what the map below shows.

2. Expand the ANC 6C eastern boarder from 7th/8th Streets to 9th Street, NE to add approximately 2,880 residents from ANC 6A. That would translate to an new ANC 6C with approximately 13,560 with 7 SMDs (within the acceptable 5% deviation)

3. Expand the ANC 6C southern border from East Capitol Street to C Street, SE (retain the 7th/8th Street eastern border) to add approximately 2,000 residents from ANC 6B. That would translate to a new ANC 6C of 12,670 residents with 6 SMDs.

4. Expand ANC 6C both the eastern/southern borders under some other configuration to absorb approximately 1,500 residents from each of ANC 6A and ANC 6B.

5. Or, there may be another alternative?

Hypothetical ANC 6C (without any eastern or southern expansion). Current ANC 6C east of Union Station, railroad tracks and Delaware Ave NE. Composed of 6C04, 05, 06, 07, and portions of 08. Total population = 10,684.




To be clear, the W6TF has not made any decisions regarding the new ANC boundaries. Making the hypothetical assumption of a larger Shaw ANC to discuss potential impacts to ANC 6C, along with the secondary impacts to ANC 6A and ANC 6B, is the goal of this post.

Posted by Joe Fengler with a map assist from Cody Rice.

New Ward 6 map with Census data

Here is a map of areas under consideration for redistricting of ANC and SMD boundaries by the Ward 6 Task Force.

In this map, areas in red are unpopulated. Areas in green are populated, with darker green signifying larger populations on that block. Click on any of the green areas for estimates of 2010 Census total population provided by Office of Planning. The target population for each SMD is 2,000 residents, with an acceptable range of 1,900-2,100.


Note: Kingman Park in Ward 7 is also displayed on this map as it is an area under consideration by the Task Force as explained in an earlier post.

Full screen version available here.

Posted by Cody Rice

Kingman Park Move to ANC 6A?

The W6TF has received letters requesting that Single Member District 7D01 residents be included in ANC 6A (see links below). That means residents will be represented on the DC Council by Councilmember Yvette Alexander; but be represented by ANC 6A for local community issues. At the July 11th W6TF meeting, the Office of Planning and the Office of ANC stated there was nothing prohibiting the W6TF from making that recommendation.


Map of Kingman Park (7D01) area

What are some of the advantages and/or disadvantages of this recommendation? And, for the sake of argument, if this comes to pass, in order to absorb these additional residents, ANC 6A would grow to 9 SMDs (or more). So, a follow-up question, assuming Kingman Park is added to ANC 6A (again for the sake of the argument), should the western border of ANC 6A move east to 10th Street/12th Street?

And to be clear - no W6TF decision has been made - this is just to open up discussion. Regards, Joe Fengler

Kingman Park Residents Letter Supporting Participating in ANC6A
Petition Supporting 7D01 Participating in ANC6A
ANC6A Letter Supporting 7D01 to Participate in Ward 6

Shaw Community Advisory Neighborhood Commission Option

One of the biggest challenges for Ward 6 will be incorporate the Shaw community within its new boundaries.  To start the discussion, here are a series of questions for folks to comment on:

Question #1 – Should the Ward Six Task Force consider the northern boundary of the Shaw community to be Florida Avenue?  That would mean Single Member Districts 5C01 and part of 5C02 would be included in a Shaw Ward 6 Advisory Neighborhood Commission. 

Question #2– Should the Ward Six Task Force consider the eastern boundary of the Shaw community to be Union Station rail road tracks?

Question #3– Should the Ward Six Task Force consider the south eastern boundary of the Shaw community to be Delaware Avenue? 

Question #4– Should the Ward Six Task Force consider making the Single Member Districts on a east-west or north-south orientation?

To provide a visual perspective of these questions, go to this mock outline of the new Shaw community – Mock Shaw ANC Map

Posted by Joe Fengler

What ANC redistricting guidelines should the task force use?

The general guidance provided relates to the construction of Single Member Districts. There is little to no guidance on how to craft Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. That means each Ward will be able to craft thier own guidelines - if they choose to do so. In no particular order of priority, here are some potential ANC Ward 6 redistricting guidelines we have heard:
1. Ward 6 should have five ANCs
2. Ideally, each ANC should have between 7 to 9 SMDs
3. While not a guiding factor, the Police Service Areas should be accounted for
4. While not required, anticipated population growth should be accounted for

What do you think? Are there others to add to the list for consideration? And to be clear, no decisions have been made by the task force. Please be considerate of others in your commentary. Regards, Joe Fengler