City redistricting committee to meet at Resource Center Dallas on Thursday night

While the Texas Legislature is handling redistricting of state and federal legislative districts, a local committee will make recommendations for the City Council map.

That committee will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at Resource Center Dallas. Openly gay former Mayor Pro Tem John Loza is a member the committee.

The main topic of discussion will be Districts 2 and 14. Loza said one proposal will split Oak Lawn from East Dallas. Each would have its own seat. The objection to that would be the loss of a Hispanic seat. District 2, currently represented by Pauline Medrano, has been a Hispanic seat since its creation when the city was divided into 14 districts for the 1993 election. Before Medrano, the seat was held by Loza and Chris Luna.

Loza said the meeting is open to the public and is a good way to learn about and have input in the city redistricting process.

5 Comments

John Loza on May 4, 2011 at 5:56 pm

Thanks David for the post – one correction, though. I am not chairman of the city’s Redistrricting Commission, the chair is Dr. Ruth Morgan. I am Pauline Medrano’s appointee to the Commission.

I hope to see many of you at the public hearing tomorrow night!

John Wright on May 4, 2011 at 7:01 pm

Thanks, John. We have corrected this.

preppystudent on May 4, 2011 at 8:36 pm

So then what about the people here in the Grove? Do we get our own seat to? 🙂 No, I’m not mad with the comment.

David Taffet on May 5, 2011 at 9:32 am

Preppy: Open meetings will be held around the city to discuss other districts. Residents who are interested in keeping all of Pleasant Grove together in one district should attend and voice their concerns. I’ll get a schedule of meetings from John and post additional information.

Bill Betzen on May 5, 2011 at 6:04 pm

It is certain that two Dallas City Council districts can be created in the south east side of Dallas, all on the east side of the Trinity River and White Rock Creek. One will only have 49.7% of the voting age population who are Hispanic, but that will change over the years as 55% of the population is Hispanic. The other has a population that is 64% Hispanic. You can see the details and statistics at https://dallasredistricting2011.blogspot.com/ I welcome any questions and hope others will come to work at City Hall on their own versions of these plans. Change is needed.