6 ms·

Except that it uses non-gerrymandered districts from California, where elected officials are not allowed to draw the lines. So any statement is lost, but I gues

Except that it uses non-gerrymandered districts from California, where elected officials are not allowed to draw the lines. So any statement is lost, but I guess it’s a fun art project.

EForEndeavour 7y ago
Only three letters in this project include California; only the letters T and X are represented exclusively by California. The statement is powerful and hilarious, not "lost."
- AlanSE 7y ago
  It's not even a very good T. Some letters are more impressive than others. Q is totally worthless for the political point. But N, D, U, and a few others are real gems.
  - furyofantares 7y ago
    I’m imagining this debate playing out in my head. I’m not sure if gerrymandering is all that bad. Wait, what’s this, a font made out of gerrymandered districts? It must be really bad, we should do something about it. Except the T doesn’t look that great, and it’s from California anyway. Maybe this isn’t such a big deal after all. And the Q! The Q is barely even gerrymandered. Fuck it, I’m gonna go play some video games.
  - aqme28 7y ago
    What's wrong with D? That looks like a pretty reasonable district. B is the worst one I think.
  - caf 7y ago
    K and H are pretty egregious at first glance.
- raldi 7y ago
  The T district doesn't even look problematic to me. Nor does the other California letter, X, which is made up of a combination of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%27s_8th_congressional_district https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%27s_8th_congression... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%27s_14th_congressional_district https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%27s_14th_congressio... ...both of which seem like textbook examples of what a good, non-gerrymandered district should look like.
  - thephyber 7y ago
    I think it was a dig at Texas, especially since the gp didn't mention the third CA letter.
    - raldi 7y ago
      There isn't a third. There are two, T (made up of one district) and X (made of two). If the point of this project was to call attention to ridiculously-shaped gerrymandered districts, these are some of the last districts that should ever be considered for inclusion.
      - undersuit 7y ago
        >these are some of the last districts that should ever be considered for inclusion. Maybe there were, and the author had to use them for their relatively sane shapes compared to calling Maryland's 3rd District the X.
        raldi 7y ago
        Be that as it may, it substantially undermines the premise of the work, which is presumably, "Gerrymandering is so rampant that you can make an entire alphabetic font out of gerrymandered districts".
        harimau777 7y ago
        I think that "Gerrymandering is so rampant that you can make 24 of the 26 letters out of gerrymandered districts" still demonstrates their point.
- nsxwolf 7y ago
  Districts look idiosyncratic no matter how they are drawn, so I’m not sure this works as a statement. Perhaps if the font were updated over time to match the changes due to gerrymandering, the font would become less and less readable, and that would seemingly be some sort of statement.
the-pigeon 7y ago
Also district shaping is more complex than you might think. For instance some distracts were purposely built around a minority groups neighborhoods so that they would have a representative. If you made the districts purely based on grids then the group would be too small to have any representative. Which maybe is the wrong solution. But you get funky district shapes for all sorts of reasons that are not the corruption people typically think of.
- projektfu 7y ago
  A lot of times they do this to isolate voters in one district. You make 1-2 compact districts like GA-5, that contains a large number of Democratic voters (and black people), like 90% margin. Then you surround it with gerrymandered districts and make them nearly but not quite competitive, like 55% Republican white suburban. Thus the same population of Republicans can have 4 or 5 districts while the Democrats get 1 or 2.
- core-questions 7y ago
  Isn't it interesting that folks will justify gerrymandering when it's built to support a minority group, unless that minority group is the one particular subset of the population who aren't generally allowed specific representation?
  - LocalPCGuy 7y ago
    That is because what you are referring to as "one particular subset of the population who aren't generally allowed specific representation" does not need any help in making sure they have representation. One, they are not (currently) a minority and two, they have the vast majority of the power in this country already. So no, it isn't interesting.
    - blackflame7000 7y ago
      I'm confused about why being a minority means you need more help? Are they not as capable as the rest of us? Why do you think they are so disadvantaged as to require special education and assistance? I mean we're not talking case by case basis here, your sentiments were clearly blanketed statements.
chimeracoder 7y ago
> Except that it uses non-gerrymandered districts from California, where elected officials are not allowed to draw the lines. Just because the districts are drawn by unelected people doesn't mean the districts aren't gerrymandered.
mikeash 7y ago
The contrast just serves to further emphasize just how fucked up some of these districts are.

Except that it uses non-gerrymandered districts from California, where elected officials are not allowed to draw the lines. So any statement is lost, but I guess it’s a fun art project.

EForEndeavour 7y ago

Only three letters in this project include California; only the letters T and X are represented exclusively by California. The statement is powerful and hilarious, not "lost."

AlanSE 7y ago
It's not even a very good T. Some letters are more impressive than others. Q is totally worthless for the political point. But N, D, U, and a few others are real gems.
- furyofantares 7y ago
  I’m imagining this debate playing out in my head. I’m not sure if gerrymandering is all that bad. Wait, what’s this, a font made out of gerrymandered districts? It must be really bad, we should do something about it. Except the T doesn’t look that great, and it’s from California anyway. Maybe this isn’t such a big deal after all. And the Q! The Q is barely even gerrymandered. Fuck it, I’m gonna go play some video games.
- aqme28 7y ago
  What's wrong with D? That looks like a pretty reasonable district. B is the worst one I think.
- caf 7y ago
  K and H are pretty egregious at first glance.
raldi 7y ago
The T district doesn't even look problematic to me. Nor does the other California letter, X, which is made up of a combination of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%27s_8th_congressional_district https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%27s_8th_congression... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%27s_14th_congressional_district https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%27s_14th_congressio... ...both of which seem like textbook examples of what a good, non-gerrymandered district should look like.
- thephyber 7y ago
  I think it was a dig at Texas, especially since the gp didn't mention the third CA letter.
  - raldi 7y ago
    There isn't a third. There are two, T (made up of one district) and X (made of two). If the point of this project was to call attention to ridiculously-shaped gerrymandered districts, these are some of the last districts that should ever be considered for inclusion.
    - undersuit 7y ago
      >these are some of the last districts that should ever be considered for inclusion. Maybe there were, and the author had to use them for their relatively sane shapes compared to calling Maryland's 3rd District the X.
      - raldi 7y ago
        Be that as it may, it substantially undermines the premise of the work, which is presumably, "Gerrymandering is so rampant that you can make an entire alphabetic font out of gerrymandered districts".
        harimau777 7y ago
        I think that "Gerrymandering is so rampant that you can make 24 of the 26 letters out of gerrymandered districts" still demonstrates their point.
nsxwolf 7y ago
Districts look idiosyncratic no matter how they are drawn, so I’m not sure this works as a statement. Perhaps if the font were updated over time to match the changes due to gerrymandering, the font would become less and less readable, and that would seemingly be some sort of statement.

the-pigeon 7y ago

Also district shaping is more complex than you might think. For instance some distracts were purposely built around a minority groups neighborhoods so that they would have a representative. If you made the districts purely based on grids then the group would be too small to have any representative. Which maybe is the wrong solution. But you get funky district shapes for all sorts of reasons that are not the corruption people typically think of.

projektfu 7y ago
A lot of times they do this to isolate voters in one district. You make 1-2 compact districts like GA-5, that contains a large number of Democratic voters (and black people), like 90% margin. Then you surround it with gerrymandered districts and make them nearly but not quite competitive, like 55% Republican white suburban. Thus the same population of Republicans can have 4 or 5 districts while the Democrats get 1 or 2.
core-questions 7y ago
Isn't it interesting that folks will justify gerrymandering when it's built to support a minority group, unless that minority group is the one particular subset of the population who aren't generally allowed specific representation?
- LocalPCGuy 7y ago
  That is because what you are referring to as "one particular subset of the population who aren't generally allowed specific representation" does not need any help in making sure they have representation. One, they are not (currently) a minority and two, they have the vast majority of the power in this country already. So no, it isn't interesting.
  - blackflame7000 7y ago
    I'm confused about why being a minority means you need more help? Are they not as capable as the rest of us? Why do you think they are so disadvantaged as to require special education and assistance? I mean we're not talking case by case basis here, your sentiments were clearly blanketed statements.

chimeracoder 7y ago

> Except that it uses non-gerrymandered districts from California, where elected officials are not allowed to draw the lines. Just because the districts are drawn by unelected people doesn't mean the districts aren't gerrymandered.

mikeash 7y ago

The contrast just serves to further emphasize just how fucked up some of these districts are.