When the Redistricting Commission next meets on Tuesday, April 2, at 6:00 pm in Rm. 220 City Hall, we commissioners will have had the benefit of the NAACP/Urban League community forum "Redistricting in the City of Minneapolis: What Will it Mean to Communities of Color?" on Thursday, March 28, from 6-8 pm at the Minneapolis Urban League's Glover-Suddeth Center for Economic Development and Urban Affairs at 2100 Plymouth Ave. N.
We Commissioners will also have had the task of assessing the merits of several plans brought forward this past Monday evening, March 25, at our last discussion meeting and the benefit of additional written commentary from the public that has lately been arriving at City Hall: Comments should be addressed by Friday, March 29, to Commissioner Parker Trostel, Chair Minneapolis Redistricting Commission c/o Susanne Griffin, Director Minneapolis Elections and Voter Registration 350 South 5th Street - 1B Minneapolis, MN 55415 612-673-2073 [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] It promises to be a busy four-day Easter weekend. Whatever product emerges from our Tuesday, April 2, meeting will go to public notice in Finance and Commerce the next day and be subject to a final public hearing on April 11. We will meet one last time at noon on April 12 to enact the final plan for redistricting city wards. There will also be a Commission meeting in interim on April 8 that will begin the park district redistricting process and be available for other business as well. Here are some questions on my mind. Should there be a downtown ward? How important are minority opportunity districts? How important is it to keep NRP neighborhood boundaries intact? Should areas with heavy concentrations of tenants be considered "communities of interest"? As a Commission, we have agreed to keep the new ward populations as close to the absolute average (29,432) as we can. We differ somewhat among ourselves as to the percentage that defines minority opportunity, ranging from a low of 40% minority population to a high of around 80% in one option. The plans in hand also vary greatly in the treatment of legacy - where incumbents live, how closely people identify with an area as "their" ward - and accidents of geography like the Mississippi River and the freeways. Our list manager has wondered if the various plans can be put on the web and here I think words are best. I've got two plans, one which doesn't stray very far from the status quo and one which makes some radical changes. Both have very small deviations from 29,432. Both have three new wards with minority over 50%, one ward just below 50% and two more wards greater than 40%. In one case incumbents will sleep well at night and in the other they will be greatly disturbed. One has a downtown ward, the other does not. The DFL Commissioners and the IR/Ind Commissioners each have plans that are similar to one or the other of my plans. We will negotiate as we must, and we will also take Thursday evening, March 28, into consideration. The geographic details of these various possibilities are not as significant as the process whereby we reach joint conclusions and that really waits on events. It takes five votes out of nine to produce a draft plan and we'll see what happens Tuesday night at 6:00 pm when all is said and done. 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
