The Ward 6 ANC Redistricting Task Force (TF) has completed its work and will now be reporting back to Councilmember Wells, who appointed its members. At this point, ANC6B has not fared very well, to say the least. Several blocks north of Independence Avenue SE have been given to ANC6C, and the TF has created a Single Member District (SMD) boundaries map for what remains of 6B (without a formal vote on it by 6B Commissioners).
The TF map is here: http://bit.ly/q9RGlO It places current 6B01 Commissioner David Garrison within 6C while reducing 6B from 10 SMDs down to 9. [Artifact: Since the 2000 Census redistricting, 6B has had 11 SMDs but one of them is the DC Jail so it effectively has been a 10-member commission. During the 2010 Census Ward redistricting process, the jail ended up in Ward 7.]
According to the TF approved map, I live in SMD06. If I run again in 2012 and win, I would represent an area bounded by 11th (on the west), 15th (east), C (north), and G (south) Streets SE and including a strip I find difficult to even describe. Only 4 blocks of my current SMD04 are included in this new SMD06. Thus, many of the residents I have come to know and issues I have worked on for the last 4 years (such as, Marine Barracks, Lower 8th, Hill Center, Barracks Row, Performance based parking, and so on) would be outside my district, beginning in January 2013. The same type of situation exists for just about every other current 6B Commissioner’s SMD. In two cases, existing Commissioners would have to run against one another in 2012.
If 6B has to live with the borders voted on by the TF, I prefer this 6B alternate SMD map which was also prepared but rejected by the TF. It does not change the SMD in which I live so radically but does create a 9-member commission. I have not analyzed how the other current 6B SMDs are affected by this map.
I do not know how the other Ward 6 ANC’s & their SMDs have fared in this process but I suspect better than 6B has.
But, the game is NOT over. It is now Ward 6 Councilmember Wells turn to have his say on how he thinks the ANCs in his Ward ought to be organized. At this point, I do not have information on how his process will unfold.