During their vote on February 6, the Detroit City Council swiftly selected “Option 6.” It was the last requested council redistricting map option that creates the least amount of change, but meets the bare minimum of the redistricting requirements for population distribution. The most populous, District 1, will still have 8% more people than the least populous District 3. I’m not sure that the council has truly taken on the task of redistricting adequately. The new districts will take effect on January 1, 2026 after new city council members will have been elected based on the new districts in November 2025.

During the January 16th City Council Public Hearing on Council Redistricting, Council President, Mary Sheffield asked the City Planning Commission (CPC) whether they had considered the impact on “neighborhoods” or neighborhood groups that might be split by the new boundaries. Jamie Murphy, CPC staffer, responded that they had not considered that because the city’s neighborhood layer didn’t correspond with what residents felt their neighborhood boundaries were.

Residents of Grixdale Farms came out in force to the public hearing and other meetings to voice their opposition to being removed from District 2. The Lower Eastside Action Plan (LEAP) at Eastside Community Network (ECN) advocated for a boundary that kept their members together. The HOPE Village initiative also submitted a map that would keep their focus area from being split. If you ascribe to the city’s definitions of neighborhoods, there is a lot of significant change. Notably, “The Villages” are split down the middle and Wayne State moves from District 6 to District 5.

Besides an imbalance in population across the districts, there is also an imbalance of voter participation. The political challenge with redistricting is getting physically drawn out of your District. The political opportunity is to get elected with very low turnout like in District 3, 4, and 7. District 4’s expanded boundary provides it a handful of more active voters while District 3 and 7 haven’t gained in similar ways.