Description
UPDATE: "Due to permit costs the Gerrymander 5k has been cancelled. We greatly regret this - as we believe that the disempowerment of voters through gerrymandering should be highlighted. However - we will be meeting at the WALK in West Asheville at 2pm on November 6 for a beer and an informal chalk walk along the section of the gerrymander line along Haywood Road. Then we will have another beer after the walk. Beer activism."
The Gerrymandered 5k. "We draw the line in West Asheville"
What: The Gerrymandered 5k & Chalk-Walk
When: Sunday, November 6. Packet pickup at 2 pm. Race starts at 3.
Where: Race and chalk-walk will begin and end at Up Country Brewing, 1042 Haywood Rd, West Asheville (across from the Odditorium).
What exactly is going to happen?
On Sunday, November 6th at 3 pm, runners and chalk-walkers will proceed along an up-and back 5k course starting and ending at Up Country Brewing. The course is through a quiet residential neighborhood, and it follows some of the weirder and more deliberate twists and turns found anywhere on the new district 11 line.
The Gerrymandered 5k is an opportunity to people to walk or run this line with their own two feet. This line is the kind of thing that has to be seen to be believed. Please join us.
Why a 5k?
Our idea began as an art project, to trace with chalk the new line which divides congressional districts 10 and 11. But once we had walked the line, we realized it would have maximum impact if other people walked (or ran) it too. (We’ll only be run/walking a small piece of this boundary line in the 5k, but you’ll definitely get the idea.)
It’s a weird line. It will make you think.
Is this a race, or a protest, or a party?
It’s a race. It will be timed, for those who want to be timed. It’s a protest. Anyone and everyone who sees this line will protest it. And it’s a party. Up Country Brewing is providing drink specials and a band for race runners beginning at 4 pm.
What if I want to protest but I’m not a runner?
There will be two options. The runners will wear numbers, race the 5k, be timed, and will receive t-shirts and prizes by age group, as with any traditional 5k.
The other group is the chalk artists. They will receive t-shirts and sticks of chalk. They will help to draw the line so that everyone in West Asheville can be aware of what’s happened to these voting districts. The chalk-walkers can go as fast or as slow as they want.
Who benefits?
Proceeds from the Gerrymander 5K will go to the League of Women Voters.
Place
1042 Haywood Rd
Asheville, NC US 28806
Race Contact Info
If you have any questions about this race, click the button below.
Race Website
Additional race information can be found at http://www.gerrymanderedfivek.com/.
What line? What is Gerrymandering and why do we care?
Every time there is a census, voting districts can be redrawn. This happened in Western North Carolina in 2011, when congressional district 11 (at the time held by Heath Schuler, D), was redistricted. At his time the redistricters (the NC Republican state legislature) moved half of heavily-Democratic Asheville from the 11th into the 10th district, in the process drawing a very deliberate, very strange line between the two districts, which seems to include and exclude certain blocks, or even certain houses. (You will see this as we walk/run the line in the 5k.) The redistricters then made up for the population loss from removing half of Asheville by adding a number of Republican counties in the Foothills to the 11th. The redistricting reduced the percentage of registered Democrats in the 11th from 43% to 36%.
In the 2012 election, new district 11 went to Mark Meadows, R.
The definition of `Gerrymander’ is “to manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.”
Course Map
Why a 5k?
Our idea began as an art project, to trace with chalk the new line which divides congressional districts 10 and 11. But once we had walked the line, we realized it would have maximum impact if other people walked (or ran) it too. (We’ll only be run/walking a small piece of this boundary line in the 5k, but you’ll definitely get the idea.)
It’s a weird line. It will make you think.
Join us!
Directions
Join this event and invite your friends on Facebook.
Race Participant Survey
Please complete the following survey to help us better understand your race experience.
