How ***SHOULD*** we draw districts?
Given that gerrymandering/redistricting is all we've been talking about here lately (with good reason) I thought I'd take a step back and ask the question: while there's broad consensus that gerrymandering is a bad thing overall, I think opinions on how it should be regulated probably diverge more.
Option 1: Strict geometric criteria. The good thing about this one is it probably limits the most egregious gerrymanders(looking at you, Illinois). The downside is that it can actually force breaking up of communities/groups whose interests are normally aligned if their geographic distribution isn't vaguely circular/oval/square shaped(black voters in the south being a possible example here)
Option 2: focus on creating districts that maintain continuity of communities/demographics. Upside of this is that this could lead to Congress looking a bit more like the US as a whole(as opposed to minorities being underrepresented due to the nature of winner-take-all elections). Downside of this is it's pretty subjective and hence more abusable by those who wish to gerrymander for partisan reasons.
So, if you were in charge of writing a constitutional amendment governing districting, how would YOU write the rules?