A community of interest is a “contiguous population that shares common social and economic interests that should be included within a single district for purposes of its effective and fair representation.”
Below are useful excerpts from the Local Government Redistricting Toolkit by Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus (2020).
Communities of interest are the overlapping sets of neighborhoods, networks, and groups that share interests, views, cultures, histories, languages, and values and whose boundaries can be identified on a map.
The following elements help define communities of interest:
shared interests in schools, housing, community safety, transit, health conditions, land use, environmental conditions, and/or other issues;
common social and civic networks, including churches, mosques, temples, homeowner associations, and community centers, and shared use of community spaces, like parks and shopping centers;
racial and ethnic compositions, cultural identities, and households that predominantly speak a language other than English;
similar socio-economic status, including but not limited to income, home-ownership, and education levels;
shared political boundary lines from other jurisdictions, such as school districts, community college districts, and water districts.