Commission meeting summary

Friday’s special hearing on Miami’s commission district boundaries revealed key information for the first time.  Miami’s previously split neighborhoods could be reunified by any of several alternative plans, testified mapping consultant Miguel DeGrandy.  Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Christine White was cited as saying there was no ‘hard and fast’ requirement to redistrict quickly; waiting ‘would be well worth it’.  Citizens from throughout Miami asked the commissioners to take advantage of the rare opportunity the census redistricting presented to strengthen neighborhoods and prepare for Miami’s growth, while compensating for the high growth rates in the downtown and mid-town areas of the city. 

Four of the five commissioners, led by Commissioners Carollo and Reyes, refused to consider the alternative proposals and pushed for the earliest possible changes in the district boundaries, March 11.

Currently about ten Miami neighborhoods have been split by previous districting exercises.  North and South Shenandoah straddle Districts 3 and 4.  Flagami is split between D1 and D4.  The Pines/Douglas Park neighborhood includes both D2 and D4.  Others include Wynnwood, Morningside and the area around Jackson Memorial Hospital.  The proposal approved by the commission vote would add Coconut Grove to that list and uniquely split that oldest Miami neighborhood between three different commissioners.

96 Grove residents testified against the proposal, declaring that all Miami neighborhoods deserved coherent representation.  Suggestions that the commissioners pause to examine inclusive alternatives were explicitly rejected during the preceding special session of 2/7—when the fastest possible timetable was adopted—and again during the 2/25 meeting.

Mr DeGrandy also testified that he had held multiple conversations with each of the commissioners and had received from each commissioner specific guidance when creating the boundaries proposed.  Both Commissioner Russell and independent citizen groups presented alternative district maps that reunited split neighborhoods and bettered the numeric criteria by which districts are evaluated.  The city’s approved map presented the most divergent populations of the four alternative maps.

The second and final vote on new district maps is scheduled for Friday, 11 March.

 


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