Officials redraw boundaries for City Council's 7 districts
By Chip Drago
Mobile Bay Times
A proposed redrawing of the boundaries of the Mobile City Council's seven districts would dramatically reduce the variance in populations among the districts.
In redrawing the lines, officials were able to reduce the variance in populations from 9.4 percent to 4.6 percent, according to Jim Rossler, the city council's attorney.
The council is expected to consider the newly-recommended district lines during its regular weekly meeting on Tuesday.
Once adopted, the plan would then be submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice for its approval. Federal authorities have 60 days to act on the proposal.
The seventh set of city elections under Mobile's mayor/council government format are set for Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009.
Among the notable trends and factors:
- The continued westward migration of Mobile's population, further enhanced by recent annexations of additional western areas.
- District 4 sprawls Texas-like from Eslava Creek at Halls Mill Road south well beyond the intersection of Hwy. 90 and I-10. Like west Texas, District 4 in the recent annexation gained huge unpopulated tracts. District 4 had to grab a big chunk of southeastern District 6 at Lloyds Lane and Cottage Hill Road to regain population it lost in surrendering territory along Dog River to District 3.
- District 7 would stretch from I-65 at Moffett Road to Schillingers Road just north of Airport Blvd.
- District 3 would spill over Dauphin Island Parkway at Robinson Bayou and take in residents along Dog River.
The populations of each district are as follows:
- District 1 (Fred Richardson, Toulminville), 28,421;
- District 2 (William Carroll, downtown), 29,245;
- District 3 (Clinton Johnson, Down-the-Bay), 29,070;
- District 4 (John Williams, southwest Mobile), 29,795;
- District 5 (Reggie Copeland, midtown to University Blvd.), 28,772;
- District 6 (Connie Hudson, west Mobile south of Airport Blvd.), 28,418;
- District 7 (Gina Gregory, another sprawling district encompassing the I-65 commercial corridor above Dauphin Street, Spring Hill, northwest Mobile and a large swath of newly-annexed west Mobile to Schillingers Road), 29,506.
Demographics of the proposed new districts are as follows:
- District 1 - 25.3 percent white, 73.5 percent black and 1.2 percent other;
- District 2 - 25.4 percent white, 73.0 percent black and 1.7 percent other;
- District 3 - 25.2 percent white; 72.5 percent black and 2.3 percent other. (The district previously was 80.1 percent black.)
- District 4 - 69.6 percent white, 27.8 black, and 2.7 percent other;
- District 5 - 60.9 percent white, 33.2 percent black, and 5.9 percent other;
- District 6 - 80.4 percent white, 13.4 percent black, and 6.2 percent other;
- District 7 - 65.4 percent white, 31.2 percent black, and 3.4 percent other.
