Comments from Concord residents
The undersigned are residents of Maris Grove, a senior continuing care facility of 1600 residents. We are in Concord Township in Delaware County. We have been following Pennsylvania redistricting for several years and now wish to comment on your proposed redistricting plans. Many of us are members of Common Cause Pennsylvania and/or Fair Districts PA. Congratulations on your work so far. You have been open and responsive to Pennsylvania residents. We trust this will continue until your job is done. We have no specific complaints nor suggestions about the proposed HD160 and SD 9. We are pleased to learn that the number of Delaware County School Districts residing in more than one representative district will be reduced from 13 to 9. Ours, the Garnet Valley School District, will now be entirely in one representative district instead of two currently. However, we feel strongly that school districts should not be split, as they are communities of interest. Chester-Upland, Southeast Delco and William Penn school districts in Delaware County are the lowest resourced districts in the county and would be better represented undivided in the house map. Nevertheless, we share concerns that the proposed Philadelphia map has not gone far enough to provide opportunity for a Hispanic senator. The Latino community in Philadelphia, a proposed Latino opportunity district in the FDPA People’s Map, is split between four senate districts in your proposal. If the proposed map is enacted as is, it is very unlikely that PA will see a Latino senator anytime in the next decade. We have seen statements that the mapping has been biased against SE Pennsylvania by making SE districts approximately 3% larger than the state average. Our examination shows that the average district population in five SE counties (Chester, Delaware, Philadelphia, Montgomery and Bucks) is - for the 67 representative districts, 63,869; which is 0.29% smaller than the state average, 64,053 (Table 1); and - for the 16 senatorial districts, 264,109; which is 1.6% larger than the state average, 260,054 (Table 2). At this late date these differences are acceptable. Changes within the SE counties are warranted especially to - provide a Latino opportunity district and - reduce the population ranges. In the House of Representatives district population range is 5034 (Table 1). For the Senate that range is 24170 (Table 2). We will continue to search for opportunities to reduce the ranges. We hope that the new maps will reflect Pennsylvania’s changing demographics and population shifts and not favor one political party over the other. Thanks for your hard work in creating fairer redistricting maps for Pennsylvania. This letter is also signed by Pat Fleury, <pfleurymadison@yahoo.com>, Arlene Greenshields <arlenejenmate@gmail.com>, Jean Holveck <jeanholveck@gmail.com>, Barbara Lorenz <bhlorenz@comcast.net>, Mary O'Neill <moneill120@icloud.com>, DeWitte Shipley <DeWitte,shipley@gmail.com>, Joan Spiegelman <joan.spiegelman@gmail.com>, Walter Weeks <waltweeks@me.com> Sidney Hess <sidhess@comcast.net> TABLE 1 TABLE 1 LRC HOUSE PLAN FOR SOUTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE POPULATION DISTRICT POPULATION DISTRICT # LESS STATE AVG CHESTER 8 DISTRICTS 13 64075 22 26 64162 109 74 64162 109 155 64628 575 156 63235 -818 157 62988 -1065 158 62792 -1261 167 66369 2316 CHESTER & DELAWARE 1 DISTRICT 160 63956 -97 DELAWARE 9 DISTRICTS 159 61801 -2252 161 63804 -249 162 64947 894 163 63755 -298 164 63129 -924 165 62800 -1253 166 63050 -1003 168 62978 -1075 169 64977 924 DELAWARE & PHILADELPHIA 2 DISTRICTS 185 66369 2316 191 64501 448 PHILADELPHIA 24 DISTRICTS 9 62422 -1631 170 62164 -1889 172 62968 -1085 173 62913 -1140 174 64791 738 175 63492 -561 177 64541 488 180 63123 -930 181 63310 -743 182 64526 473 184 64108 55 186 62436 -1617 188 63288 -765 190 61787 -2266 191 64501 448 192 62293 -1760 194 62791 -1262 195 63221 -832 197 62999 -1054 198 62387 -1666 200 63389 -664 201 62053 -2000 202 64695 642 203 61873 -2180 MONTGOMERY 13 DISTRICTS 53 61935 -2118 54 63471 -582 61 62741 -1312 70 65793 1740 146 65943 1890 147 66195 2142 148 63587 -466 149 64410 357 150 63738 -315 151 66170 2117 152 64192 139 153 66327 2274 154 63038 -1015 BUCKS 10 DISTRICTS 18 63773 -280 29 65554 1501 31 66821 2768 140 61806 -2247 141 64322 269 142 65233 1180 143 64682 629 144 65208 1155 145 64212 159 178 65518 1465 67 DISTRICTS TOTAL SE TOTAL 4279218 -12333 SE AVG 63869 STATE AVG 64053 DIFFERENCE -184 -0.29 % OF STATE AVG MAXIMUM POPULATION 66821 MINIMUM POPULATION 61787 RANGE IN POPULATION 5034 7.86 % OF STATE AVG POPUL TABLE 2 TABLE 2 LRC SENATE PLAN FOR SOUTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA COUNTY SENATE DISTRICT # POPULATION DISTRICT POPULATION LESS STATE AVG CHESTER 19 272,156 12,102 CHESTER & DELAWARE 9 252,137 -7,917 CHESTER & MONTGOMERY 44 271,865 11,811 DELAWARE 26 247,986 -12,068 DELAWARE & PHILADELPHIA 8 263,972 3,918 17 268,477 8,423 PHILADELPHIA 1 267,877 7,823 2 270,941 10,887 3 248,915 -11,139 5 253,985 -6,069 PHILADELPHIA & MONGOMERY 4 268,248 8,194 7 263,697 3,643 MONGOMERY 12 265,660 5,606 MONGOMERY & BUCKS 24 270,204 10,150 BUCKS 6 269,699 9,645 10 269,925 9,871 16 DISTRICTS TOTAL SE TOTAL 4,225,744 64880 SE AVG 264109 STATE AVG 260054 DIFFERNCE 4055 DIF FOR 16 DISTRICTS 64880 SE TOTAL IS 64880 MORE THAN STATE AVG 1.6 1.6% ABOVE STATE AVERAGE POPULATION MAX 272156 MIN 247986 RANGE 24170 0.093 9.3 % OF STATE AVG POPULATION