Just like the headline says, Champaign County Clerk Mark Shelden's office has developed new maps for County Board and state Legislative districts, and they're on his website here. They're looking for feedback, so please give them some.
New Champaign County District Maps
Posted July 10th, 2008 at 01:03 PM by IlliniPundit
They look nice and are easy to find. It'd be sort of cool if they released shapefiles on the page too, for folks who like to play with GIS.
Wow! What an improvement. Thanks Mark and Company.
Suggestion: Have a verbal description of the boundaries as well. I see however, this is more difficult than I thought because the boundaries actually cut through blocks sometimes. (Talk about Gerrymandering)
Question: Would the Clerk's office sell me a large version of a District 5 map? If so what is the cost?
Thanks.
All of the maps are available for purchase at a small fee ($3 for the large, $1 for the small, I think).
As I have previously mentioned, though the new maps are nice looking one can not determine based on the map visual exactly where the boundaries are. This information is significant and ought to be added to each map, such as boundaries for district 6 run down the center of the street, or boundaries on the east and north run down the center of the street and on the west and south the boundaries is on the farthest side of each street.
In other words, even buying a map does not provide the necessary detail needed to know eactly who is in and who is out of a boundary.
Pattsi Petrie
"As I have previously mentioned, though the new maps are nice looking one can not determine based on the map visual exactly where the boundaries are."
I don't know which maps you're looking at, but it's awfully clear to me. The district boundaries are in red, and tell me exactly who is in and who is out.
Pattsi:
As someone who helped to draw the current districts, I can tell you that the original layout used census blocks as the atomic units. This means that boundaries follow census block lines, which include streets and other obvious geographical features, as well as a handful of larger political boundaries. What that means is that, to the best of my knowledge, there are no such things as "sides" of a street in the way you seem to be suggesting.
If a boundary follows a street, so far as I know it always follows that street, or as you say, always goes down the center; that is, one side of the street is in one district and the other side of the street is in another. The only way for two opposite sides of the street to be in the same district is if the boundary is not the street; i.e., the boundary follows a creek or railroad line or some other geographical or political boundary, and is therefore drawn in between streets rather than directly on them.
If I have this wrong, I would greatly appreciate someone correcting me.
This is anecdotal but my particular situation has me right on a boundary street... I assumed that being on either side put me in either district and it seems to do so when compared to my voter registration card. I'd assume this is true for anybody else living on a boundary street (ie if I crossed the street I'd be talking to neighbors in the other district), but it is at least that way in my case.
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Glock21 Op/Ed
the boundaries typically follow streets but not in all cases. If the line looks like it's running down a street, it is. In those cases where it cuts through a block there is an enlarged map showing where it splits. I'd point you to Districts 3 as an example. The district cuts right through Barberry Circle. The enlarged portion shows that it goes right between 1922 and 1924.