This morning, I watched Denver Mayor Michael Hancock deliver his 11th address about the State of the City. Quick, like 25 minutes, what the city will do for the homeless; violent crime; the economy and equity; $450 for infrastructure for a bonding package (including money for a new arena in the National Western Center); marijuana and equity for Black, Latino and Indigenous people who want to be in that business; mountain parks; climate change, and, of course, resiliency and stronger than ever before. Uh, OK.
But the Amendment Y and Amendment Z do not have a lot of time. After all the sturm und drang, in 2020, the census was a long haul for various reasons, including some tinkerers in the federal administration that finally backed down. And it didn’t help that a pandemic made it difficult for census takers trying to track down people in homes and apartment buildings. But it appears the Colorado Independent Redistricting Commission is doing its best on a fairly short timeline.
But now, the redistricting is in the throes of having taken the commission on the road to all parts of Colorado to learn more. Why? Because so many new people have moved to our state, there will now be a District 8, and you can imagine it will elicit ideas.
There have been numerous maps and stories in various publications, because the idea is to put gerrymandering in a trash bag. Because of the late material from the 2020 Census, there have had a few glitches at the beginning. Still, Amendment Y and Amendment Z have a traveling show for people throughout the state.
Below are links from Colorado Politics, including one that has the lists of the dates and places. where people can attend and learn. The Colorado Sun also has stories that deal with the very short time to get these maps correct. In the Sun, it notes this:
“To complicate their pilot run, the U.S. Census Bureau will be more than four months late in releasing the final, detailed population data, which will now arrive on or after Aug. 16.
“That would give nonpartisan redistricting staff two weeks to crunch the numbers and draw new maps before the Sept. 1 constitutional deadline for congressional maps to be delivered to the Supreme Court. It would be ‘physically impossible’ to meet that deadline if the census data arrives any later, Jeremiah Barry, a legislative attorney advising the commissions, said earlier this month.
“The commissions are now asking the Supreme Court for a reprieve by pushing their deadlines to submit final maps to the end of October, with the goal of the court adopting final maps, as scheduled, by the end of the year.
And don’t forget that Denver also needs redistricting. Westword has a story dealing with Denver’s growth, which is always important to the Denver City Council. I have lived in District 9, District 8, and now District 10. Not sure what will be next.
Colorado Amendment Y, Independent Commission for Congressional Redistricting Amendment (2018)
Colorado Amendment Z, Independent Commission for State Legislative Redistricting Amendment (2018)
https://coloradosun.com/2021/07/23/colorado-redistricting-supreme-court-deadline-extension/
https://www.westword.com/news/denver-city-council-considering-getting-rid-of-at-large-seats-12032974
Chandler in Denver 
Sometimes its best to trust the experts. This idea is goofy, attenuated by COVID, fear and – of course – trumpster-dumpster.
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I do trust the experts, believe me. But the census was held up by the wrong people and that crowd. Thanks for posting!
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