“Deborah Pullum, the city attorney for Tyler, said estimates show the population of Tyler will increase between 9% and 11% from the 2010 census to the 2020 census, and that means the districts will need to be redrawn to ensure they are equal in size…
Tyler Morning Telegraph
Tyler, Texas is looking ahead to its municipal redistricting process…
Erin Mansfield emansfield@tylerpaper.com Sep 29, 2019
“The Tyler City Council has six districts. District 1 is in the southern part of Tyler, between Old Jacksonville Highway and South Broadway Avenue. District 6 is between South Broadway Avenue and Paluxy Drive. District 5 is the southeastern part of Tyler, near UT Tyler.
“District 2 is referred to as west, and includes neighborhoods around a former historically black college, Butler College. District 3 is commonly referred to as northwest and includes the Texas College district. Both are predominantly African American and were drawn after a movement in the 1960s and 1970s to ensure voting rights.
“District 4 includes most neighborhoods north of Fifth Street, east of Broadway Avenue and south of East Gentry Parkway, plus some neighborhoods east of Loop 323. The district had a significant Hispanic population when it was last drawn in 2010, but it was not majority-Hispanic.
“Pullum said Districts 2 and 3 are called majority-minority districts, and District 4 is called an opportunity district. Those are legal terms that mean a minority population makes up more than 50% or more than 35% of a district, respectively.
“’Council District No. 4, I believe, is going to really need to be looked at,’ Pullum said. ‘We’re going to be looking at the numbers between 2, 3, and 4, and then 4 and 5.’
“Pullum said there would be public meetings for residents to give input. She said those meetings likely would occur during a public process between March 2021 and August 2021, and the City Council would finish the districts at the end of 2021.
“Decisions on district maps would be made at public City Council meetings, and neighborhood feedback meetings may also be held, depending on what the City Council decides, she said.”
https://tylerpaper.com/news/local/experts-outline-redistricting-process-in-tyler-and-texas