Contra Costa County will soon launch its DistrictBuilder – a web application that allows members of the public to create and share redistricting proposals. A webinar on how to use the do-it-yourself tool is scheduled for Monday, May 9, 2011 at 12:30 pm (PST) until 2 pm. The webinar will provide information about basic redistricing guidelines for Contra Costa County, how to set up an account, how to create and edit your own district plan, and how to share and export your plans. The webinar will be posted it to the County’s redistricting website to allow those who are unable to attend to view online. See registration info:
Topics of the webinar training will include
- Basic redistricting guidelines for Contra Costa County
- How to set up an account
- How to create and edit your own district plans.
- How to share and export your plans.
Bill Gram-Reefer is Editor & Publisher of Halfway To Concord, founded in 2004. Halfway To Concord is the leading online source for community-driven political news, events, and opinion for Contra Costa County and the San Francisco East Bay.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Well I took the training. Pity that they do not have the cities pre-programmed so that you can just click on the cities and put them in a district and not have to deal with guessing where the city lines are since they used Census tracks and not city boundaries for their base.
I tried to float the idea of setting up some pre-set maps with cities already on them that people could then cut and paste into their own maps using their ‘base map’ concept to display say 10 maps with 4 cities/ 1 per district and then a blank 5th district for all the above. Since you can take districts from other maps in the public this might be a way to get around their program limitations. However, I suspect my explanation of the Easy Does It ‘System’ technique work around was poorly described.
Anyway will be working on maps and political realities for the goal of keeping Concord undivided and hopfuly any other city from being divided while keeping all the present Supe’s in their residential districts. UNLESS… anyone want to take up a fund to move Mary P. to San Ramon, or Glover to Antioch, Mitchoff to Concord?
Gioia is stuck in Richmond…
You are so cynical. You make it sound like Tom Koch and Mary Piepho have control over everything!
I have signed up for this, and as a basic anti-geek luddite, I hope to be able to use their tools to work on an acceptable plan that does not divide Concord or any other city if at possible. I look forward to hearing from people who have mastered the program and can help with it.
It would be awfully nice if they could have a simple plug in drag and paste for city names so that city boundaries can be honored in the make up.
This sounds like it could be very interesting and interactive. The public should jump in and get involved as this will determine who will make things happen in individual districts for the next ten years.
Let the politics begin !
You’re making the assumption that anybody will pay attention to what the public does or wants. Were you around ten years ago when Walnut Creek was split into three parts?
Precisely my point , People need to get involved so the politicians do not divide and disect our towns and community for their own personal benefit.