Friday, June 14, 2013

What Am I Doing Here? Some Maps As Of Now While I Try To Figure This Out

I didn't come in until 1pm today to watch the Alaska Redistricting board move pixels around on their way to a new plan.  It almost feels like the first meeting I came to and had no idea what was happening.  These are work meetings so there is a lot of silence and then quiet conversations. 

I still have a lot questions about how this is being done.  I don't know how the districts on these maps got to be the way they are.  Did they start from a blank map or from a previous template of districts?  I got conflicting answers yesterday.  I'll try to clear this up.

[UPDATE 3:30pm:  After I posted this I talked briefly to chair John Torgerson and got some answers to my questions about what is actually going on.  I posted that here.]

I did not make it the first day when, perhaps, they explained things.  But there is no one transcribing - which would be tedious because there are long, long periods of silence except for the noise of the cooling equipment.   Which will make it difficult to record.

They had a lot of districts and a lot of numbers on the maps.  I'm waiting for someone to walk outside of the working meeting so I can ask questions.

I'm trying to square what's happening now with what happened when they did this before.  I think much of what I'm seeing now happened in people's offices before the actual meetings.  Then at the meetings they discussed what was on the maps.  Now the three techs are in here at their computers.  Two of them are hooked up to projectors so you can see what they are doing on a big screen.  John Torgerson is in here too and asking questions, but unless I stand close, it's often hard to hear over the air coolers and the fans.  And it seems pointless.  Thinks like will they have to go to Anchorage to get enough people for Matsu and for Kenai.

"That makes sense if you pick up these pieces.  Are you into the Matsu here?  Or Anchorage?  Here's the borough.  What was your deviation?  4.8.  That green doesn't belong over here."

Not really too meaningful without being able to see the maps they're talking about, and even then, I'm not sure.

Anchorage is 16 (15?) districts . . .

So, I'm just going to give you some maps.  I'm not sure who is looking here and what they'd like to see.  In any case, this is a snapshot of where things stood mid-afternoon (before 2:30pm) June 14.  There will be some overlap because different photos covered different parts of the same area.

Statewide:

Double click any image to enlarge a little more


Western Alaska



Central Alaska area




Fairbanks area


Matsu area


Anchorage/Matsu areas




Anchorage area


Anchorage again from Ray's screen



Kenai Peninsula:





OK, that's what I have for now.  I did take some video which I'll check on later to see if the sound came out over the cooling noise. 

John Torgerson just walked in with Board member Marie Green whom he introduced to the techs. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments will be reviewed, not for content (except ads), but for style. Comments with personal insults, rambling tirades, and significant repetition will be deleted. Ads disguised as comments, unless closely related to the post and of value to readers (my call) will be deleted. Click here to learn to put links in your comment.