Maptitude City Council Redistricting Tools

What are city council redistricting tools?

City council redistricting is a complex process incorporating input from a wide variety of stakeholders. For city council redistricting, often a districting commission for the city must use criteria in determining the city council lines. City council redistricting tools must be able to assess:

• Population. The difference between the most populous and the least populous council district must not exceed a percentage of the average population for all council districts.
• Fair and effective representation. The redistricting plan must be established in a manner that ensures the fair and effective representation of the racial and language minority groups in the city.
• Communities of Interest. District lines should keep intact neighborhoods with established ties of common interest and association, whether historical, racial, economic, ethnic, religious or other.
• Compactness. Each district must be compact, e.g., each district cannot be more than twice as long as it is wide.
• Contiguity. Each district must be contiguous, and whenever a part of a district is separated from the rest of the district by a body of water, there must be a connection by a bridge, a tunnel, a tramway, or regular ferry service.
• Political boundaries. A district cannot cross local or county boundaries.

City Council Redistricting Tools

What are the best city council redistricting tools?

This is why Caliper developed Maptitude for Redistricting. Maptitude for Redistricting is the ultimate in redistricting software. It is used by a majority of the state legislatures, redistricting commissions, political parties, and public interest groups. A web-based version, Maptitude Online Redistricting, is suitable for individual citizens and legislators who wish to propose boundaries for their district or even an entire plan. There is also a version that runs as an extension to ArcGIS if you prefer working in that GIS environment.

“It's light years ahead. The software can do so much more, so much more quickly.” Karl Aro Director, Maryland Dept. of Legislative Services

Maptitude is the perfect solution for adding additional GIS users where Esri software is already in use. Maptitude:

• Integrates with other vendor products by supporting formats such as Esri shapefiles, Esri geodatabases, and Esri ArcMap maps (more...)
• Has lower costs, lower barriers to use, and a lower learning curve
• Can be installed and used within minutes of receiving a download of the software
• Has low IT support needs as an MS Office style application
• Has low ongoing costs (one-off pricing with optional annual upgrades)
• Is commonly used where there is already an Esri installation

To learn more about the city council redistricting tools in Maptitude for Redistricting, please see the Features page or contact Caliper Sales at sales@caliper.com or by phone at 617-527-4700.

City council redistricting

Who uses city council redistricting tools?

There area many City Councils Using Maptitude for Redistricting! Here are just a few of them:

Albany NY Common Council
Baltimore MD City Council
Los Angeles CA Council
Minneapolis MN Metropolitan Council
New York NY City Council

CASE STUDY: NYC Board of Elections
Redrawing lines due to reapportionment

Mapping council districts with Maptitude for Redistricting