2020 Census Redistricting Committee

Politics

Census 2020

Monday, June 21, 2021
6:00 p.m. CDT

Location unavailable

This is a remote assignment. to cover a hearing of public comments on the redistricting process. It will be live-streamed at: https://www.cookcountyil.gov/service/watch-live-board-proceedings.

Check the source website for additional information

Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team

Note-taking by Molly Taylor

Assyrian, South Asian and Orthodox Jewish communities

View notes

Live reporting by Abbas Dahodwala

Assyrian, South Asian and Orthodox Jewish communities

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52

Hi my name is Abbas and I will be live tweeting todays meeting on the 2020 census redistributing. There are around 10 public comments that will be heard today by the board.

cook-county.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.…

Here is a link to the public comment forms + the agenda/link twitter.com/CHIdocumenters…

06:02 PM Jun 21, 2021 CDT

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 2/29

The meeting starts with role call. All commissioners are present for today's meeting.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 3/29

First typo:

Redistricting*

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 4/29

Commissioner Deborah Sims, 5th district, introduces the meeting and the redistricting team. She says the commissioners are here today to hear the public's thoughts and suggestion for redistricting.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 5/29

Peter Kritikos, the first presenter, is providing demographic information from the census count.

He starts out with a table of the population percent change in each of the 17 districts.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 6/29

The presentation is interrupted for public commenters to speak.

The first is Sergio Rodriguez, the mayor of Summit. He starts out by thanking the commissioner for the district for their assistance providing PPE and support throughout the pandemic.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 7/29

The comment passes to the mayor of Stone Park, Beniamino Mazzulla. He does the same as Mayor Rodriguez. He thanks his commissioner, Frank Aguilar, and says he would like to keep his district as it currently is.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 8/29

Commissioner Aguilar receives more praise, this time from Mayor Joseph Mengoni of North Riverside. He asks that his district remain unchanged.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 9/29

Anna Kayalil from the @SAAPRIChicago is the next speaker. She says South Asians need to be considered in the redistricting as they are often not involved with these decisions.

"These communities should be brought together by this census redistricting"

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 10/29

Kevin Brown is the next speaker from Evanston.

He discusses the African American community in Evanston.

"We want to let the committee know that we are concerned about any dilution" of our population.

(Cont.)

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 11/29

He said the population of African Americans in Evanston was over 20% and is down to 16. Brown said he wants the population to be protected.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 12/29

Correction from earlier: There are 21 scheduled public commenters***

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 13/29

Karin Hribar of the League of Women Voters of Cook County said their organization is concerned about the new date of the primary, saying it may clash with the ability for the public to submit their own district maps.

Sufficient time must be given for the public to submit maps

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 14/29

Next up is Shelia McNary from the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council asks that their community stay in the second district and commends commissioner Dennis Deer

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 15/29

Rodney Brown, of New Covenant CDC, reiterates McNary's comment regarding North Lawndale.

"We support all the work commissioner Deer has done for this community," he said.

Brown says they would like Deer to remain the commissioner and that Lawndale stays in the second district

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 16/29

The next speaker is from the Greater Chicago Food Depository. He says the fourth district should remain a sustainable district and he commends Commissioner Moore for his work in the district.

(Cont)

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 17/29

He said his community including Thornton Township should remain in the district under Moore's lead.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 18/29

The next speaker advocates for the Assyrian Community spread across Cook County including the 20,000 living in Skokie.

"we ask that the commission acknowledge Assyrian Americans and keep them in the same district," he said.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 19/29

Cesar Nunez of Enlace Chicago of Little Village is the next speaker. He ask that the community remain in the seventh district.

Protecting the voting rights of the members of the community are very important. He reiterates that he hopes Little Village stays in the district.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 20/29

Shlomo Saroka from the Agudath Israel of Illinois is the next speaker. He was also a member of commissioner Suffredin's redistricting task force.

He said the Orthodox Jewish community of Skokie and surrounding areas has remained in the county with about 30 thousand in the are.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 21/29

The community has concerns regarding public safety and education. He asks the committee to consider their community during redistricting and to help keep the community together and add the remnants of the committee living in the tenth district to the thirteenth.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 22/29

Joyce Chapman of the @FarSouthCAC asks that the committee keep their communities in the fourth district under Commissioner Moore.

She says switching the districts will decrease the trust people have with the government.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 23/29

Pastor Tyrone Hughes of the @TBCoC commends Commissioner Moore and discusses the work of the church in the Calumet Park neighborhood.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 24/29

Echelle Mohn, from the Women's Commission Members of the fourth district, said Commissioner Moore has done a very good job educating his community members and empowering them.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 25/29

Roni Facen, the CEO of St Frances de Sales High School, praises commissioner Moore, saying he has been a major partner for the school.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 26/29

The meeting will now shift back to the presentation by Peter Kritikos.

He discusses more of the data as well as the two week extension that will allow for more public input.

The next demographic slide details voting age statistics in the county.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 27/29

The next presenter goes through graphs showing population across the county by race.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 28/29

Next set of demographics data includes a map of total voting age in the county. The data is filtered by race as well.

Should be noted that the entire presentation will be available on the commission website.

Abbas Dahodwala @Adwala52 29/29

That will do it for the presentation. The contractors will continue to look at more of the data to help inform the commission and provide more statistical analyses moving forward.

Meeting adjourned at 7:35 pm

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Agency Information

Cook County Board of Commissioners

www.cookcountyil.gov

(312) 443-5500

webmaster@cookcountyil.gov

@CookCountyBoard

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