Floyd and Carroll counties, and Galax, are separated from the Southside by the terrain. They logically belong in the 9th CD. Their commerce and social activity are with points west and north, not the east.

This map is definitely better than the commission proposed one. The only suggestion I would make is shifting the 11th district a little east to cover more of the minority-majority portions of Woodbridge (in Prince William), and placing the upper/western parts of Prince William into the 1st district since it is more rural and shares closer interests.

For CD 7, there is good and bad here. The good is the general idea of a compact district that straddles I-64 west and includes the Western and Southwestern suburbs as a unit. The bad is dividing up Chesterfield into 3 districts, which is unnecessary and undesirable for Chesterfield County residents. I suspect denizens of Woodlake and Brandermill and the developments near Pocahontas State Park--Richmond suburbs built over 30 years ago--would strenuously object to be included in a Southside district. I would have no issue splitting Chesterfield between proposed CD 7 and CD 4, and adjusting as needed by dropping Amherst, Buckingham and/or Cumberland from CD 7 into CD 5, dropping portions portions of Hanover from CD 7 into CD 1, and/or dropping one or more NC border counties from CD 4 into CD 5.

I know this map Rep. Cline would be in the 7th district under my map and I know, judging from the General Assembly redistricting, how much the commission loves to protect incumbents, but I could not bring myself to include Amherst in the 6th, which would cross over the mountains for a political purpose. If the commission wants to add Amherst into the 6th and add Orange or Greene county into the 7th to balance things out, they can. I just could not bring myself include Amherst into a district that would be unrelated to it.