A new draft of the Austin City Council's district legislative maps shows a growth of Asian populations in the region.
KUT 90.5 News reports that one of the proposed districts in the city council's draft would have a population where approximately one-third of the population identifies as Asian.
"The Asian population has actually grown considerably," Christina Puentes, chair of the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, told KUT. "And a lot of that is concentrated in District 6."
Over the last decade, the number of people in the city that identify as Asian has increased from 6.3% to 8.9%.
"It will continue to grow. I have no doubt about that," Amy Wong Mok, founder of the Asian American Cultural Center said, told KUT.
If Austin's new redistricting draft map is approved, District 6 will have the largest concentration of Asians. District 6 boundaries include neighborhoods from Lake Travis to the borders of Round Rock. In 2013, about 13% of the District 6 population identified as Asian. If the draft is approved, that number would more than double to 28%.
"It would be really nice to be able to see that representation," Saatvik Ahluwalia, digital strategist for the Austin Asian Community Civic Coalition said, according to KUT. "One way to do that is definitely to have an [Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders]-majority City Council district."
Austin’s City Council districts are drawn by a commission of appointed citizens, unlike state political boundaries, which are drawn by politicians. The current draft map does not appear to have any major changes to the council district boundaries.
The commission must follow federal Voting Rights Act when redistricting. The appointed commission must make certain that districts have an approximately equal number of residents of about 96,000, an increase from about 79,000 residents per district 10 years ago. Additionally, neighborhoods cannot be split within a district, especially if communities have shared socioeconomic interests.
The boundaries of Austin's legislative district maps are redrawn every decade in response to population data from the U.S. Census Bureau.