By Beverly Wallace
Although I am convinced that the redistricting commissions will continue to take comment right up until the final maps are drawn, there is a deadline of June 14th to submit public comment to the website.
If you still are unclear as to what to say or how to submit your comments, several sites have provided forms that make submitting your input easy.
All On the Line is providing an online form and easy submission.
You can also use the provided form at:
https://redistricting.colorado.gov/content/opportunities-for-public-engagement
https://redistricting.colorado.gov/public_comments/new
You can also mail in your comments and maps to this address:
Colorado Independent Redistricting Commissions
1580 Logan St, Suite 430
Denver, CO 80203
We can hope that the results of the independent commissions will be a more equitable and balanced district with commonalities. I am including my comments and maps that I submitted to give you an idea of how the forms work, and to provide some ideas for what you might like to say. You may have a different idea of what our district should look like and how it should be aligned, but the important thing is to make your ideas and wishes known to the commissions. The following is my submission:
Hello, my name is Beverly B. Wallace and my zip code is 80634. Below you will find my public comment submission to Colorado’s Congressional and Legislative Redistricting Commissions. I live in Greeley, Colorado in Weld County. Thank you for this important work that you are doing, it is a herculean task and most likely a thankless one, but I thank you.
I understand my public comment will inform the creation of preliminary congressional and state legislative maps. Therefore, I wanted to share a bit about my community and the shared interests that unite us, as well as my community’s public policy concerns, the geographic area of my community, and features that are important to my community.
First, while there are many interests that unite my community, the single greatest shared interest among my community is that we are a metropolitan, urban area in a rather rural county.
Secondly, a major public policy concern of my community is that we are one of the fastest growing counties and cities in America.
Lastly, the geographic boundaries of my community of interest are the greater metropolitan district of Greeley in Weld County.
I am a Greeley native, a product of Greeley schools and the University of Northern Colorado. I have seen a lot of change to this part of Colorado, growing from less than 25,000 when I was born to a metropolitan district of more than 125,000 and a county that is well over 300,000. I live in what is now the nearly exact center of the city of Greeley. When we moved here to this neighborhood 30 years ago, we were on the farthest edge of the city.
We have become a more diverse community, now with one of the largest Latinx populations in Colorado, if not the country. We also have thousands of immigrants from Somalia and Burma, with dozens of languages and dialects spoken in our schools. The meat packing plant here remains our largest single employer, but Greeley has become very diverse in its economic base, with healthcare, education, city management, construction, finance, retail and of course oil and gas as major employers.
As a community, we have much more in common with other large metropolitan communities along the front range than we do with the rest of rural Weld County. We are more united and in line with much of eastern Larimer and Boulder counties than we are with the rural communities to our east. We share hospital systems, roads and infrastructure, water sources, and educational systems. As a University town, we are united in many ways with the other major universities. We have common recreational facilities, including the Poudre River Trail. Our retail shopping has become more conjoined with the shopping districts at the junction of HWY 34 and I25 where Weld and Larimer meet. We have common environmental concerns that affect our air, water and land use.
I have included a map that I believe will fairly create a district that would be equitable, competitive, congruent, consecutive, and more representative of the common interests of the area. The pale green area to the north is the district I think would make the most sense for my community.
I believe the next district lines should be drawn in a manner that adequately reflects and fairly represents my community’s interests, and this map also takes into consideration the rest of Colorado and how the districts might look. The second map shows voting by precincts in the area and the competitive nature of how the proposed new district would be as compared to how it is was in 2020.
Thank you for taking the time to read my public comment, and God bless for this important work.
Sincerely,
Beverly B. Wallace
Greeley, Colorado (native)
80634
In addition to submitting comments, you can participate by testifying in the public hearings that will be held later this summer.
Redistricting will affect our community, elections, funding, and growth for the next 10 years. It is very important that you participate in making our district a more equitable and competitive district.
