Neutral map series

[palandio]

https://davesredistricting.org/join/6b19b071-bb75-42b5-8dd4-89e99ceb271c
While I don't think this is a viable replacement because of some issues (such as the lines in Wake County) this is what the NC map would look like if it was prioritizing what Sol was talking about.
Btw, please never change. Your nitpicking is nice to see.

Interesting solution for a sandhills district. My solution looked like this, there is a district entirely within Wake County that contains Raleigh and Cary and the rest of Wake is headed south/south-east:
https://davesredistricting.org/join/072dde14-c651-43d0-a716-43766faea2a7

[palandio]

https://davesredistricting.org/join/6b19b071-bb75-42b5-8dd4-89e99ceb271c
While I don't think this is a viable replacement because of some issues (such as the lines in Wake County) this is what the NC map would look like if it was prioritizing what Sol was talking about.
Btw, please never change. Your nitpicking is nice to see.

Interesting solution for a sandhills district. My solution looked like this, there is a district entirely within Wake County that contains Raleigh and Cary and the rest of Wake is headed south/south-east:
https://davesredistricting.org/join/072dde14-c651-43d0-a716-43766faea2a7

That map is really nice, but I think there'd be reason for legal concern around the 1st and the VRA.

I think that it is not as bad as it looks. It's 0.1% or 0.2% less Black than Tim Turner's 1st district and 0.3% or 0.4% less Biden and more Trump. You could add Washington County and cede some of the whitest quarters of Greenville to get a district that even is 0.3% more Black than Tim Turner's 1st district, but sadly still has a lower Biden percentage. But yes, the 1st is really a block for everything else if you want to keep it out of Wake and Durham.

[palandio]

https://davesredistricting.org/join/6b19b071-bb75-42b5-8dd4-89e99ceb271c
While I don't think this is a viable replacement because of some issues (such as the lines in Wake County) this is what the NC map would look like if it was prioritizing what Sol was talking about.
Btw, please never change. Your nitpicking is nice to see.

Interesting solution for a sandhills district. My solution looked like this, there is a district entirely within Wake County that contains Raleigh and Cary and the rest of Wake is headed south/south-east:
https://davesredistricting.org/join/072dde14-c651-43d0-a716-43766faea2a7

That map is really nice, but I think there'd be reason for legal concern around the 1st and the VRA.

It is possible to cut the Rockingham arm and turn the 1st more Black and more Biden than in Tim Turner's maps, but then the 3rd cuts too far into Raleigh exurbia in Johnston County for my personal taste:
https://davesredistricting.org/join/fd7991e8-8885-41ec-a714-fd7a1b708e29

[palandio]

https://davesredistricting.org/join/6b19b071-bb75-42b5-8dd4-89e99ceb271c
While I don't think this is a viable replacement because of some issues (such as the lines in Wake County) this is what the NC map would look like if it was prioritizing what Sol was talking about.
Btw, please never change. Your nitpicking is nice to see.

Interesting solution for a sandhills district. My solution looked like this, there is a district entirely within Wake County that contains Raleigh and Cary and the rest of Wake is headed south/south-east:
https://davesredistricting.org/join/072dde14-c651-43d0-a716-43766faea2a7

That map is really nice, but I think there'd be reason for legal concern around the 1st and the VRA.

It is possible to cut the Rockingham arm and turn the 1st more Black and more Biden than in Tim Turner's maps, but then the 3rd cuts too far into Raleigh exurbia in Johnston County for my personal taste:
https://davesredistricting.org/join/fd7991e8-8885-41ec-a714-fd7a1b708e29

https://davesredistricting.org/join/d4c3a124-1a6a-4e0f-ae6f-943b949bf59c
Thoughts on this?

Judged by purely geometric compactness (and splits of administrative divisions) this seems like a very good map, better than mine. If you go by geometric compactness you could also rearrange the 3rd and 7th, it's just that personally I like a whole-county almost entirely coastal 7th so much.

[palandio]

Virginia

This is the first one I made. What made me pass on it was the seemingly low compactness score...just about 44 or something. For comparison, I looked at the OTL court master map and I saw it scored only 46. Upon redrawing, I ended up with 47, which is not too bad.

In the redraw, I changed the Hampton Roads area the most, seeking to boost compactness by giving the Delmarva Peninsula to VA-01. This is not unpecedented, though it has not been normal in this century. In the 1980s, Accomack and Middlesex counties were in the same district, and this seems to have been normal until recently. My redrawing of the Hampton Roads allowed me to get rid of a county split, creating a whole-county CD in the Richmond area. I'm aware that there is no seat that is over 40% black, but there are in fact four seats that are over or almost 30% black and D-favoring, which should in practice serve as black-influenced seats. Thus, I am not concerned about minority representation here.

As for the Shenandoah Valley, while I admire the VA-06 on the OTL map, it's unfitting for this series because of how narrow it is. The northern parts of it go in with VA-10, while it becomes more box-like with the addition of Nelson, Amherst, and Bedford counties, as well as Lynchburg City. This whole-county CD, one of three on the map, helps improve overall compactness scores and county integrity at the same time.

VA-05 remains centered on its particular stretch of VA. It takes generally whiter parts of Chesterfield County to boost the black % in VA-03 and create a compact border between the two districts. It continues to stretch from Northern Virginia to the North Carolina border, and it continues to lean Republican, though under these borders it becomes significantly more winnable for Ds in a good year. The Chesterfield County territory not only makes VA-03 blacker, it makes the trends in VA-05 better for Ds, as this is a D-trending county. This is even more beneficial for Democrats considering rural VA's trends opposite to the state as a whole - and VA-05 has a ton of these rurals, and VA-03 is seeing black population drain from rural areas.

In Northern Virginia, there is a nesting for 4 districts that I created, and kept in both maps. The main difference was how I drew the outer suburbs - Prince William, Loudoun, and Manassas. In this second map, I have a more box-like VA-10 with Prince William and Loudoun being entirely separate. The "tail" of the county cluster ends up with the former, the best option. Since VA-10 is just under, and Fairfax+independent cities within its borders is just over two seats, it is natural for a very small share of the latter to be paired with the former. McNair's population meant it was just right for this.

There are eight Biden seats and three Trump seats. However, in 2021, Youngkin won six seats, the median seat actually voting for him by a larger margin than the state as a whole. If I had to guess, it would split 7D-4R, with Sparnbarger still running (and winning) in VA-07 and Wexton narrowly losing VA-10 because of the conservative Shenandoah Valley territory added in. Three districts are majority-minority, two of them in NoVa, though I did not consider the creation of majority-minority seats in how I drew the region.

VA-01 (Newport News): 54W, 33B; 52-46 Biden, EVEN
VA-02 (Virginia Beach): 52W, 31B; 58-40 Biden, D+6
VA-03 (Petersburg): 49W, 39B; 54-45 Biden, D+2
VA-04 (Richmond): 55W, 30B; 62-37 Biden, D+10
VA-05 (Charlottesville): 70W, 19B; 51-47 Trump, R+5
VA-06 (Roanoke): 77W, 13B; 59-39 Trump, R+13
VA-07 (Dale City): 44W, 23H, 22B, 10A; 58-40 Biden, D+6
VA-08 (Alexandria): 46W, 19A, 19H, 16B; 72-26 Biden, D+21
VA-09 (Blacksburg): 83W, 10B; 69-30 Trump, R+22
VA-10 (Leesburg): 63W, 15A, 12H; 51-47 Biden, D+2
VA-11 (Arlington): 53W, 22A; 16H; 74-24 Biden, D+23

DRA link

I have to admit that I find DRA's compactness score quite nonsensical, but if you really find it relevant, then the following map has a score of 56, although it has slightly more county splits. And it doesn't split the Richmond metro and the Hampton Roads core cities three ways:
https://davesredistricting.org/join/20183a8c-ca54-41d3-a30a-76722a45b308
(Just a sketch, not something I really put effort in.)