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District 3 lined up to include consolidated Eastlake, lose highrise swath of First Hill in Seattle’s final City Council border tweaks

 

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From the redistricting commission’s amended proposal

D3 is set to gain a consolidated Eastlake and the neighborhood’s ongoing wave of midrise and townhome-style development like this Yale Ave E project in exchange for the “residential towers” of lower First Hill like this project on Hubbell

Final tweaks to the plan to rebalance and redraw the Seattle City Council’s district borders include a swap for District 3 representing the city’s central neighborhoods around Capitol Hill and the Central District that would carve off a chunk of highrise-zoned First Hill in exchange for the still densely populated shores of Eastlake.

Meanwhile, a larger political battle is brewing over a proposed change to the borders around Magnolia that could have important implications for the future makeup of the council.

The Seattle Redistricting Commission last week approved an amended proposal that continues efforts to rebalance the districts by population. The D3 change would lop off areas around 8th Ave and Madison on lower First Hill and send those highrise-zoned — and likely to be heavily populated in the future — blocks along I-5 to downtown’s District 7. The move would be further balanced by moving a chunk of Eastlake fully into D3 — a change that would also unify the neighborhood in a single district.

CHS reported here this summer on the Seattle redistricting process and the mostly unchanged borders of District 3 in the proposal. With the latest amended proposal moving Eastlake back fully into D3, and the First Hill proposal, the only other significant areas of shifting borders left on the table are the neighborhoods along Lake Washington just south of I-90 moving into South Seattle’s District 2.

When initially adopted for the 2015 election, each district was drawn to include roughly 88,000 people. Seattle growth has not been distributed proportionately. Each district is likely to end up with a bit more than 100,000 people. District 3, including Capitol Hill, the Central District, and First Hill, has grown proportionately larger and needed its borders to shrink.

The changes based on demographic shifts and population growth also have important political implications in determining what kinds of candidates can make it through the primary, and who ultimately gets elected.

While the First Hill-Eastlake shifts don’t seem likely to cause major political ripples, the amended proposal to change the borders around Magnolia is shaping up as a fight over concerns that spreading Fremont-area neighborhoods over three districts spreads out more progressive voters while potentially consolidating political strength in an area like Magnolia where more conservative city council representatives could emerge.

“While the move may have placated Magnolia activists, it could also kick up a fresh round of backlash from new quarters,” the Urbanist reports. “The Fremont neighborhood will be divided between D7, D4, and D6 in the new map, since a handful of blocks considered to be part of northern Fremont remain in D6.”

But the redistricting process has been the ultimate Seattle process and more feedback and public comment is being collected through November 15th.

Public comment can be made:

  • In-person, or online at one of three Public Forums
    • Public Forum #3: October 8  – date and time TBD
  • In-person at any regularly scheduled Seattle Redistricting Commission meeting. Check the Seattle Redistricting Commission website for dates and times.
  • In writing using the Seattle Redistricting Commission’s public comment submission form.

For more information or to request interpretation services for any of the public forums, please contact Elsa Batres-Boni at [email protected] or (206) 256-6198.

For more information about the Seattle Redistricting Commission, visit http://www.seattle.gov/redistricting.

The new map will go into effect with the 2023 City Council election, when, after defeating last year’s recall attempt, D3 representative Kshama Sawant next faces reelection.

 

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7 Comments
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Caphiller
Caphiller
1 year ago

D3 gaining part of Eastlake and losing part of First Hill sounds negative for Sawant’s prospects in the 2023 election

Sawant Supporter
Sawant Supporter
1 year ago
Reply to  Caphiller

Gerrymandering Sawant out is such a lowball effort by the city but I doubt it works.

SeattleGeek
SeattleGeek
1 year ago
Reply to  Caphiller

I agree. The Eastlake contingent is wealthier and probably more libertarian / conservative than the First Hill folks. Can we give up the whole Montlake / Broadmore neighborhoods and regain First Hill?

It also seems like splitting up the progressives is the goal of this commission, with the whole splitting of Fremont into separate districts.

JohnS
JohnS
1 year ago
Reply to  SeattleGeek

You have to do the math on the numbers of people involved. I would guess there are fewer people in Broadmoor and Montlake, collectively, then there are in the impacted section of First Hill. Having watched the process from the beginning – respectfully, you have no idea what you’re talking about regarding the “goal” of the commission. They have a very difficult task of providing equally sized districts in a city with very uneven growth.

Glenn
Glenn
1 year ago
Reply to  Caphiller

I think gaining parts of Eastlake benefits Sawant, and those areas of First Hill might be less supportIve of her than the new areas. She is certainly not be gerrymandered out as some suggest. It’s a wash or to her benefit.

Martin
Martin
1 year ago

It looks like Eastlake really got screwed. On the bright side you’ll never see Sawant. She’s too busy with her national DSA stuff to give a rats ass about her actual constituents in District 3.

JohnS
JohnS
1 year ago

Joke about Seattle process, but compared to some of the initial versions of redistricting, I’d argue this outcome is far better for the people we all love to say we’re concerned about than some of the other potential redistricting options. I would have loved to see mention of Redistricting Justice for Seattle in this article, who [along with community groups] have fought long and hard to make things as equitable as possible in this process.