I suspect the redistricting fight will end up in the courts, as happened
in 1981 and 1991. A review of the court records will disclose what sort
of guides the court would approve in redistricting. Guide No. 1 -
natural geographic delineations - Minnesota has two: the Mississippi and
Minnesota Rivers. Guide No. 2 - first level governmental boundaries -
these would be County and city of the first class boundaries. Guide No.
3 - lesser governmental boundaries - that is, towns (a suburb is a town)
and townships. The operating rule is that a district boundary may not
cross any of the guidelines without compelling reason. The later three
words would, of course, define the court fights. One can get a head
start of what the districts must resemble. We have 8 US House seats and
the state has 4 geographic corners. Thus, starting from each corner one
would append counties until the requisite
1/8th of the population is accounted for. The rules do not require an
exact 1/8, however. It will be fun to watch the feather fly on this one.
>The big story yesterday was the Census, with the small but novel population
>increases for St. Paul and Minneapolis, mostly from immigration and minority
>population gains.
>
>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.
>
>To stir the pot, let me make the case contrary to Minneapolis's interests --
>for combination. The two Cities only merit one district. If raw numbers are
>any indication, 45 percent of Minnesotans now live in the 'burbs. Roughly
>13.6 percent of the state's population lives in the two central cities
>(670,000 of 4.9 million, nearly a perfect one-eighth or one of 8
>Congressional districts). Just by math, the two cities should have one
>district, the suburbs four, and outstate 3.
>
>Now, I'm not saying I agree with this. A small but significant problem is
>that because the two central cities grew, we have 56,000 more people than
>the optimal size of a district - 614,000 - meaning some part of one of the
>cities needs to be lopped off. (Thanks, immigrants, for moving here and
>making it tough to combine Minneapolis and St. Paul. You have thrown a
>good-sized boulder in the "tight communities of interest model" that
>Republicans are touting for a Twin Cities district.)
>
>As a DFLer, I also don't really want to change things. It's cool having
>three safe Democratic districts (Minneapolis's 5th, St. Paul's 4th, and NW's
>8th) in what has become a competitive state. But that's not really fair, is
>it? Of course, I don't want to sell Republican conniving short: they clearly
>want to cram as many DFLers and minorities in one district to create their
>own safe havens.
>
>But if the Republicans are going to argue Minneapolis and St. Paul should be
>together, maybe we should force them into their own tight box with
>"communities of interest" that hop the river.
>
>For example, in those new suburban districts: does St. Louis Park have that
>much in common with Eden Prairie? Don't think so. 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. Would Republicans be
>willing to accept the same cramming-together of safe Republican turf - even
>safer than Jim Ramstad's current 3rd district - as the price to get a
>Minneapolis-St. Paul district?
>
>If you go with the city district and then ever-widening "beltway" districts,
>the DFL would dominate the city district and probably win the inner-ring
>district. Depending upon where you draw the belts, at least one of the two
>"second-tier" districts would be competitive, and the outer tier would of
>course be GOP. God only knows what the three Greater Minnesota districts
>would be - I'll leave that to the statewide list.
>
>I don't want to get too far off on the state stuff - I bring up the city +
>"class beltway" idea as the price of smooshing my fair city with St. Paul.
>Counterintuitive to my specific interests, probably - but at least an
>intellectually honest plan? You tell me.
>
>I also realize a compelling case can be made that inner-ring 'burbs next to
>the two cities are more alike, so modifying the current design makes the
>most sense. But I'll let others make that case.
>
>David Brauer
>Kingfield - Ward 10
>
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>
John Ferman
Harriet Avenue
Kingfield Neighborhood
Minneapolis
Ward 10 Pct 10
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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