Hudson, NY is baaaaack!

[Torie]

Yes, you may have heard of it. If not, you have now!  

The white blob is where the prisoners live, that cannot be counted for redistricting under New York law. An interesting thing is that because two wards or precincts (actually they are called voting districts in NY) were not divided by something tangible, as opposed to a conceptual extrapolated line (what idiot did that I wonder?), the census apparently threw up its hands, and just combined the two precincts into one! That’s not nice. And why that weird triangle of a block, when it really is a square block defined by streets? The angled line runs right through a housing structure or two. Anyway, it appears the lines will have to be redrawn, but that remains to be seen as to whether that 75 figure has changed (inferred from the number of housing units), and whether any of those 84 people in the white blob are other than prisoners.
(Under NY law, prisoners must be counted for redistricting not where incarcerated, but where they live or lived when not behind bars.

The demographic figures are also a fascinating tale of demographic change, and explain a lot about the underlying tensions in the city and animus in the pubic square. Working class whites and blacks out, and Bangladeshis and Woke white liberals in. Anecdotally, gays are out too, but that is another story. Many have discovered the town of Hillsdale, the new gay mecca.

https://davesredistricting.org/join/2def4418-0155-4d04-b617-cb3927c390f1








And now the map you have been waiting for - a least change map that makes it legal. The bifurcated census block is gone, Ward 4 gains one census block, and the flat we live in, which is right up against Rope Alley* (yes we live on an ally, who knew?), is no longer sitting right up against the ward line, and Ward 2 grabs a census block from Ward 1, that in the 2010 census combined with the census block to the north (Hudson Terrace Apartments), and thus had been bifurcated in the existing map (and in the map before which had not been changed  since 1885 - Hudson went the weighted voting route when SCOTUS mandated equal populations, which I a lot to do with jettisoning, as some of you well know). I now accept my accolades.





*which alley got its name because in the early 1800's, that was where rope was fabricated (right on the alley - they needed a very long and linear space to make very long ropes, to use as rigging for whaling ships (Hudson was founded in 1785 as a port for whaling ships by a group that decamped from Nantucket, because they had been traumatized by the destruction of the Revolutionary War, and wanted a safer harbor (those chains blocking off the Hudson at West Point from British Warships really worked - chains by the way that were fabricated right down the road in Ancram), but that is another story.

[jimrtex]

Yes, you may have heard of it. If not, you have now!  

The white blob is where the prisoners live, that cannot be counted for redistricting under New York law. An interesting thing is that because two wards or precincts (actually they are called voting districts in NY) were not divided by something tangible, as opposed to a conceptual extrapolated line (what idiot did that I wonder?), the census apparently threw up its hands, and just combined the two precincts into one! That’s not nice. And why that weird triangle of a block, when it really is a square block defined by streets? The angled line runs right through a housing structure or two. Anyway, it appears the lines will have to be redrawn, but that remains to be seen as to whether that 75 figure has changed (inferred from the number of housing units), and whether any of those 84 people in the white blob are other than prisoners.
(Under NY law, prisoners must be counted for redistricting not where incarcerated, but where they live or lived when not behind bars.

The demographic figures are also a fascinating tale of demographic change, and explain a lot about the underlying tensions in the city and animus in the pubic square. Working class whites and blacks out, and Bangladeshis and Woke white liberals in. Anecdotally, gays are out too, but that is another story. Many have discovered the town of Hillsdale, the new gay mecca.

https://davesredistricting.org/join/2def4418-0155-4d04-b617-cb3927c390f1








And now the map you have been waiting for - a least change map that makes it legal. The bifurcated census block is gone, Ward 4 gains one census block, and the flat we live in, which is right up against Rope Alley* (yes we live on an ally, who knew?), is no longer sitting right up against the ward line, and Ward 2 grabs a census block from Ward 1, that in the 2010 census combined with the census block to the north (Hudson Terrace Apartments), and thus had been bifurcated in the existing map (and in the map before which had not been changed  since 1885 - Hudson went the weighted voting route when SCOTUS mandated equal populations, which I a lot to do with jettisoning, as some of you well know). I know accept my accolades.





*which alley got its name because in the early 1800's, that was where rope was fabricated (right on the alley - they needed a very long and linear space to make very long ropes, to use as rigging for whaling ships (Hudson was founded in 1785 as a port for whaling ships by a group that decamped from Nantucket, because they had been traumatized by the destruction of the Revolutionary War, and wanted a safer harbor (those chains blocking off the Hudson at West Point from British Warships really worked - chains by the way that were fabricated right down the road in Ancram), but that is another story.

The Census Bureau is publishing general quarters populations. The prison block was drawn to encompass the prison, since LATFOR had a hard time handling mixed population blocks and actually moved civilians into the prison. Since you will have a population for the Firemen's Home, you could conceivably place that in Ward 5 (though it would require a deviation from pure metes and bounds.

New York also moves prisoners back in to there former residences. This will boost the population of Ward 2 a bit, particularly the tower.

With differential privacy, the Census Bureau suggests not using Census Blocks for districts. I would definitely avoid using alleys. The block populations are non-reliable.

The states define their VTD boundaries. "voting districts" is Census Bureau terminology. The "T" stands for tabulation which has been dropped from Census Bureau terminology, but still remains in the acronym. The Census Bureau tends to use "tabulation" for areas that don't actually correspond to the underlying entity. This is done for Zip Codes. Zip Code areas are actually composed of mail routes, and mail routes often include both sides of the street. The Census Bureau defines the boundaries of the Zip Code Tabulation Areas with streets and other visible features

Since 2010 the Census Bureau has permitted use of artificial boundaries for VTD's. This is in recognition that election precincts have a legal function, and it desirable that legislative and congressional districts not divide election precincts. If an election precinct did not follow streets (out in the country it is quite logical to include both sides of a road in the same precinct). If a legislative or congressional district followed the road it would split the precinct.

But using artificial boundaries for VTD's would require someone to advocate for it. LATFOR certainly does not care, and they will be annoyed that the Columbia CBOE sent them maps that didn't follow visible lines. Someone redid the VTD's because they dropped all the identification and now are just numbered sequentially within the county.

One prescient idea you had was to not try to redistrict for the '1' year election.

Redistricting does not count as the one change in the election of a government. They can still switch to proportional representation this decade.