Dallas approves map keeping most council district lines intact

Dallas council members on Monday unanimously approved an updated map of city district boundary lines that’ll last for a decade. They had only three days left to make it happen. The council had until Wednesday to sign off on new district boundaries or the version recommended by the redistricting commission would have been adopted by default. Both the redistricting commission’s map and the version adopted by the council mostly keep districts close to existing boundary lines. Without discussion, but after an apparent objection by council member Jaime Resendez, the council voted to adopt the map and voted beforehand to approve four amendments made to a version recommended in May by the city’s redistricting commission. The Pleasant Grove-area representative tried to interject several times to question the process but wasn’t allowed to speak after a majority of the council agreed to vote on the item without discussion.

Resendez was heard saying “[expletive] cowardly” during the roll call for the final vote, which was 14-0. Mayor Eric Johnson was absent from the vote. The amendments were largely to restore neighborhoods and areas back into the council districts they’ve been in for at least the last 10 years. The council approved three of those changes this month but couldn’t get the required 12 votes to pass the final map with those amendments last Wednesday. On Monday, the council reaffirmed the trio of changes and greenlit a fourth amendment that had been voted down last week. The changes included restoring parts of the Casa View neighborhood to the East Dallas district that council member Paula Blackmon represents, putting three Deep Ellum and downtown-area parks back into council member Jesse Moreno’s district, and restoring the Parkdale and Lawnview neighborhoods to council member Adam Bazaldua’s district covering the South Dallas area. The Parkdale and Lawnview neighborhoods were proposed to become part of Resendez’s district, and he voted against the proposal last week. He said last Wednesday he was concerned that moving them would further decrease his area’s population and affect voter turnout.