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Reading Redistricting Commission recommends minimal change to City Council districts

A recommended change to Reading’s six City Council districts would achieve a more equal population balance with minimal revisions to current district lines.

Brian Kell, chairman of the nine-member redistricting commission, recently presented the commission’s recommendation to City Council.

Kell said more than a dozen alternatives were reviewed before the options were narrowed to three: keeping boundaries as they are; making major alterations to achieve the most equal population distribution; or changing lines minimally to avoid neighborhood disruption.

The latter option was chosen.

The goal is to ensure each council district contains about 16.67% of the city’s total population, or about 15,800 residents.

The commission proposes that a small area bounded by the Schuylkill River and Penn, Spruce and Fourth streets be moved from District 6 to District 1.

The change would affect about 1,000 residents and put District 1 slightly over and District 6 slightly under the baseline.

The move has the added benefit of containing all of Reading Area Community College’s campus in a single district, commission member Wayne Bealer said.

Councilwoman Brianna Tyson, who represents District 1, asked if there had been consideration of potential development that might increase the population of her district.

The city charter calls for a review of district populations, based on U.S. census data, every 10 years, said Michael Golembiewski, a county planner, who provided support to the commission.

Projections of possible future populations cannot be considered, he said.

Politics also do not play into how districts are drawn, as they can in the process to redraw state representative and congressional districts.

Councilwoman Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz thanked the commission for its work and asked if ethnicity is equally represented in all the districts.

“Every single district has a Latino majority,” Golembiewski said, noting that has not changed since the 2010 census. “There is a relatively fair representation of racial diversity throughout the city. However, federal voting law prohibits us from taking that into consideration.”

Reading’s population increased from just over 88,000 residents to more than 95,000, about 10%, from 2010 to 2020, according to census data.

Formed in November, the commission had four months to analyze the data and present a plan to City Council.

The commission found the populations of Districts 1 and 4 fall below the baseline of 15,800 by 730 and 652 residents, respectively.

Districts 2, 3 and 5 are above by 389, 151 and 49, respectively.

District 6 shows the greatest deviation with 793 more residents than the baseline.

Council is composed of seven members with a representative elected from each of the six districts and the council president elected citywide.

Action on the recommendation would bring the two most widely divergent districts closer to the ideal.

District 1 consists of south Reading; District 2 consists of east Reading; District 3 consists of center city; District 4 consists of northeast Reading; District 5 consists of northwest Reading; and District 6 consists of downtown Reading.

Public hearing

City Council will hold a hybrid public hearing to discuss the redistricting commission’s recommendation March 21 at 5 p.m. in Council Chambers with the option to attend via Zoom.

The hearing also will be livestreamed on City Council’s Facebook page.

This map and graph show the six City Council districts and disparities in the districts.(COURTESY OF READING REDISTRICTING COMMISSION)
This map and graph show the six City Council districts and disparities in the districts as they would appear if City Council acts on the redistricting commission’s recommendation. (COURTESY OF READING REDISTRICTING COMMISSION)


Source: Berkshire mont

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