D.C. redistricting nears end with equity debate

The District's months-long redistricting process will wrap up this month after some last-minute fireworks.

Why it matters: Along with local governments nationwide, the District is redrawing its political boundaries in line with new numbers from the 2020 census.

• The biggest changes are touching prosperous Ward 6, currently the largest ward, and wards 7 and 8, two of the District's poorest wards with the smallest populations.
• Ward 8 will gain booming Navy Yard to rightsize the population imbalance. But leaders in Ward 7 have been in an uproar over the proposed map leaving the ward as the smallest in the city.
• Much like Ward 8, the ward is an underinvested, majority-Black community bearing the brunt of sharp inequities in access to fresh food, good schools, and other resources.

What they're saying: "If the pursuit of redistricting is equity, how do we start and end as the lowest population?" said Dionna Maria Lewis, a lawyer and member of the Ward 7 Democrats, who held a press conference last night denouncing the proposal.

• The proposed map is the product of months of hearings held by a D.C. Council redistricting subcommittee.

The full D.C. Council will now take up the map. Council Chair Phil Mendelson yesterday proposed tweaks to the boundaries that were welcomed by Ward 7 leaders.

• His changes would bump up the ward to make it the fourth-largest in the city, Mendelson told reporters.
• It also puts the communities of Kingman Park and Rosedale within Ward 7's boundaries, key "asks" for critics of the original map.
• Council member Vincent Gray said in a statement that Mendelson's map "redraws Ward 7 fairly and equitably."

What's next: Lawmakers may debate for a long while today and propose more changes before taking the first of two votes.