--- David Brauer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> asks:
> A secondary city story is the one I want to talk
about: what will happen to
> Minneapolis in Congressional redistricting? Will
Minneapolis remain the
> heart of a Congressional District, or it be combined
with St. Paul into one
> "city" district.
[TB] I suspect that a Minneapolis/St. Paul district
would be the most compact which is in theory one of
the tests. For redistricting the legislature,
district boundaries are not suppose to cross a city
limits or COUNTY LINE among other things unless it is
necessary to balance population. It seems logical
that the same principles should apply to congressional
districts. Clearly a district can be drawn which is
entirely within Hennepin County. Can you draw a
district that is entirely within Hennepin County and
have Minneapolis �left over�?
David again:
> If we city folk have to swallow a Minneapolis-St.
Paul district, let's
> create one or two "inner-ring districts" - maybe
stretching from Richfield to St.
> Louis Park to Brooklyn Center around to Inver Grove
Heights - all older
> 'burbs with aging populations and infrastructure.
You could then
> create a farther-out "beltway" of McMansion 'burbs
like Eden Prairie,
> Maple Grove, Woodbury that would reflect that
step-up in class and noveau
> riche.
[TB] That sounds like serious gerrymandering to me
(that being the first time I�ve used that word in the
current redistricting process). I have no clue who,
if anyone, it favors but it comes nowhere near the
compactness test.
The other good news is that Minneapolis will not lose
as much representation in the Legislature as we would
have had the projected population decreases held.
There is another redistricting that we need to be
concerned about. This year the City Council intends
to run for 4 year terms meaning that the decade will
be half over before we have an election based on the
2000 census and that Councilmembers could serve for
several years after new lines have been drawn that
leave them outside of their wards.
I have been told that the Council has the power to
correct this by taking action to make the 2001
election for 2 year terms (as was the 2000 election
for MN State Senate). If they don�t there should be a
legal challenge to terms extending to the middle of
the decade.
Terrell Brown
Loring Park
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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