The committee looked at moving other neighborhoods on the southern edge of District 9 into District 1, but doing so reduced the Hispanic voting strength in District 1 - a move the committee wouldn’t accept. Instead of adding to their population burden, Grizzard said it made sense to give its residents to District 1 to its south, which needs to gain population. But, in the end, District 9 must lose population, and Grizzard felt there were limited options for where they could shed residents.ĭistrict 9 sits on the growing North Side between two other overpopulated areas, Districts 8 and 10. Hollis Grizzard Jr., who also represents District 9, said they listened to the neighborhood’s leadership. “Some of it misrepresented and, upon occasion, certain comments I felt were actually hurtful.” “A good part of this commentary was flatly unfair,” said Larry Lamborn, who represents District 9 on the committee. When District 9 committee members ultimately suggested moving the neighborhood into District 1, it came with an apology to District 1 residents. One District 1 resident said in a public comment they felt their area was being misrepresented by Greater Harmony Hills, saying it was being spoken of as “an overgrown homeless encampment, rather than the friendly, family community with well-kept homes most of it actually is.” “The values of an urban neighborhood are just not the same,” Baamonde said in asking the redistricting committee to keep her neighbors in District 9. At its founding, she said it was a bedroom community with cornfields sitting beyond it - land that’s now been consumed by development and population boom and sits inside city limits.ĭawn Baamonde, another Greater Harmony Hills resident, said the word suburban had come up a lot. Patty Gibbons, president of the Greater Harmony Hills Neighborhood Association, said they did not want to move out of District 9 - which encompasses the North Side from the airport to outside Loop 1604 - into District 1, which includes most of downtown and near North Side neighborhoods like Monte Vista.Īt a meeting last month, Gibbons said Greater Harmony Hills was one of San Antonio’s first suburban areas. Those meetings allowed the committee time to hear from residents, and neighbors in Greater Harmony Hills were some of the most vocal. This time around, City Council members each appointed two people to a committee that has been meeting publicly to draw a new map. Previously, individual City Council members met with legal counsel to work on a new map, largely outside of the public’s view. San Antonio took a new approach to redistricting this decade. Members will gather public feedback on the map in the coming months, with a final City Council vote tentatively scheduled for June.Īfter the map undergoes legal review, the city will post it online for public comment at. The committee can continue to make changes or even develop a second draft. Census data so that each district has roughly equal population. ![]() Federal and local law requires the city to adjust council districts based on U.S. The process, called redistricting, plays out every 10 years. As a committee of San Antonio residents approved a draft map of new boundaries for City Council districts this week, the neighborhood was one of several that would shift.
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