I want to second list member Bert Black's comment about the need for public awareness of and input into the redistricting process. The Commission added a diversity/legal issues meeting on March 14 to the two required public hearings - the first public hearing on March 21 asking for input generally and the second on April 11 asking for comment on the tentative ward plan we will presumably have adopted on April 5. The other three meetings on March 11, 18, and 25 are meant to ensure that our continuing dialogue within the Commission itself is as available to the public as feasible.
If you like maps and statistics, our process is fascinating. This is the first time that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology has been employed "whole-hog" at the municipal redistricting level. We're going to know a great deal more about the composition of and distribution of our population than has hitherto been the case in the decennial redrawing of ward boundaries. Here are two basic reasons for this. Demographic data from the Census is reported at the block level such that anything we know about headcount, race/ethnicity, age, and even household count, composition and type are displayed by the mapping software block by block across the city. Concentrations of any characteristic of interest are displayed instantly with a few keystrokes. Secondly, advanced features of the redistricting software instantly compute salient statistical features like compactness and degree of variation from the desired 1/13th share each ward should have of the overall population of the city. No more hand-colored maps or laborious mathematical guesswork about geographic spread! This doesn't mean that parochial interests get sidetracked but rather that the vocabulary of the redistricting process is more focused and more easily shared with a wide variety of interested parties. We have access to precinct-level voting outcomes from election days going back to 1992, for example, and this handy dataset is already "front and center" as we await the legislative redistricting choices the five-judge panel will post on the web at 1:00 pm on March 19. There are also "little stars" pinpointing the current home addresses of our incumbent city council members, NRP neighborhood boundary lines, and something unquantifiable called "institutional memory" (collective traditional identification with a given geographic area) - meaningful geographic realities within a larger set of statutory redistricting imperatives. So tune in, show up, let us know what's what - this is a rare moment of truth. Fred Markus, Horn Terrace, Ward Ten, Redistricting Commissioner _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
