The Philadelphia Districting Contest: Designing Territories for City Council Based upon the 2010 Census
The City of Philadelphia recently redesigned the districts for its council members using the 2010 census. Several public interest groups organized a districting contest to increase public engagement and offer examples of City Council districts that minimized gerrymandering. We developed methodologies that allowed us to win in one contest category and make presentations before City Council. We describe the events surrounding the districting process, the methodologies we developed and the influence that the contest ultimately had on the design of city council districts.