What is a more valid COI?

[lfromnj]

What do you all think is a more valid COI?

[SevenEleven]

Three rings is a circus.

People living in Purcellville don't travel to Falmouth for work or recreation. They don't read Falmouth newspapers or root for their sports teams. They don't build transit lines to take people from Purcellville to Falmouth.

[EastAnglianLefty]

I'm not sure there's a hard and fast rule. It would depend upon, amongst other things, how much economic activity is concentrated in the central hub vs. the suburbs; what the lateral transport links are; and how big the demographic differences are between the central hub and the suburbs.

[Former President tack50]

Like SevenEleven said, 3 concentric rings is a joke. I get the argument for 2, like if you have to partition a big city it is probably better to have a ring of suburbs and a core urban district.

But if you have 3 districts for the city+suburbs, do a core district and then split the suburbs into 2  (North-South, East-West or whichever is the best combination for that particular area)

[Tintrlvr]

Three rings is very unlikely to make sense, although it is context-dependent. For example, if you have a large metro in an extreme corner of a state where the urban area is directly on the state border, it might make sense to have an urban district surrounded by a suburban district on two sides (with the other two sides being other states) surrounded by a rural district on two sides (again, with the other two sides being other states). The best example I can think of is the Cincinnati metro, but that would only work if Dayton didn't exist (so a rural district surrounding the suburban district was plausible).

However, I think one central district with two half-rings or two half-circles with one surrounding ring would both nearly always be better than three slices.

You might also have a circle mostly but not completely surrounded by a maybe 3/4 suburban ring that is then completely surrounded by a rural "ring" (the goal being that the rural district is large enough that it doesn't have a "ring" shape even if it has a hole in the center). The Pittsburgh metro could work with something like that, as an example.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

It completely depends. Some cities are more defined by corridors than others. Since this was obviously inspired by the NoVa discussion, I will say that the Washington metropolitan region is more defined by corridors radiating out from the beltway than any other metro region in the country. This is reinforced by density, minority populations, transit lines, and freeways all following the same lines with lower density areas in between. Outside NoVa, you also see this on Maryland's I-270 corridor from Bethesda to Fredrick.

[SevenEleven]

It completely depends. Some cities are more defined by corridors than others. Since this was obviously inspired by the NoVa discussion, I will say that the Washington metropolitan region is more defined by corridors radiating out from the beltway than any other metro region in the country. This is reinforced by density, minority populations, transit lines, and freeways all following the same lines with lower density areas in between. Outside NoVa, you also see this on Maryland's I-270 corridor from Bethesda to Fredrick.

I'd say these matter about as much in LA, NYC, and Houston to name a few off the top of my head.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

It completely depends. Some cities are more defined by corridors than others. Since this was obviously inspired by the NoVa discussion, I will say that the Washington metropolitan region is more defined by corridors radiating out from the beltway than any other metro region in the country. This is reinforced by density, minority populations, transit lines, and freeways all following the same lines with lower density areas in between. Outside NoVa, you also see this on Maryland's I-270 corridor from Bethesda to Fredrick.

I'd say these matter about as much in LA, NYC, and Houston to name a few off the top of my head.

Perhaps. In LA and NY, there are so many districts you can't contain a corridor within one. LA's real defining lines come from topography and valleys, which transportation corridors often naturally follow. As for NY, I can't think of too many examples after minority concerns are taken into account. Perhaps in Westchester and Essex/Morris counties?

[SevenEleven]

It completely depends. Some cities are more defined by corridors than others. Since this was obviously inspired by the NoVa discussion, I will say that the Washington metropolitan region is more defined by corridors radiating out from the beltway than any other metro region in the country. This is reinforced by density, minority populations, transit lines, and freeways all following the same lines with lower density areas in between. Outside NoVa, you also see this on Maryland's I-270 corridor from Bethesda to Fredrick.

I'd say these matter about as much in LA, NYC, and Houston to name a few off the top of my head.

Perhaps. In LA and NY, there are so many districts you can't contain a corridor within one. LA's real defining lines come from topography and valleys, which transportation corridors often naturally follow. As for NY, I can't think of too many examples after minority concerns are taken into account. Perhaps in Westchester and Essex/Morris counties?

At the congressional level, sure. For smaller districts, Arcadia to Glendora makes more sense than Arcadia to Monterey Park. LA is huge and has a lot of other concerns besides identifying COIs, but when applicable, that's how you'd split things up.

[lfromnj]

It completely depends. Some cities are more defined by corridors than others. Since this was obviously inspired by the NoVa discussion, I will say that the Washington metropolitan region is more defined by corridors radiating out from the beltway than any other metro region in the country. This is reinforced by density, minority populations, transit lines, and freeways all following the same lines with lower density areas in between. Outside NoVa, you also see this on Maryland's I-270 corridor from Bethesda to Fredrick.

I'd say these matter about as much in LA, NYC, and Houston to name a few off the top of my head.

Perhaps. In LA and NY, there are so many districts you can't contain a corridor within one. LA's real defining lines come from topography and valleys, which transportation corridors often naturally follow. As for NY, I can't think of too many examples after minority concerns are taken into account. Perhaps in Westchester and Essex/Morris counties?

Italian King district should be made in Long island.Italians have always been oppressed minorities.