The Philadelphia Districting Contest: Designing Territories for City Council Based Upon the 2010 Census

The City of Philadelphia recently redesigned districts for its council members based upon the 2010 census. The districting process evinced considerable public interest and engagement because council districts from the prior census had significant shortcomings. During the 2010 redistricting process, several public interest groups came together to organize a districting contest. The organizers hoped to increase public engagement in the districting process and to proactively offer several well-constructed examples of city council districts that minimize gerrymandering. We were active participants in the contest, developing methodologies for finding good solutions to large integer programs that enabled us to win in one contest category and make presentations before the city council in this and another category. This article describes the unfolding of various events surrounding the districting process, the methodologies we developed, and the influence that the contest ultimately had on the design of city council districts.