To the Redistricting Commission:
As a Southeast resident, and a volunteer in the NAACP's redistricting proposal, I strongly support the NAACP redistricting plan for Minneapolis. I urge you to adopt it, or at the very least, use it as the basis of your deliberations. Of the plans presented so far, the NAACP plan exceeds them all in terms compactness, keeping communities and neighborhoods together, and offering minority community members the opportunity that I feel the current ward map was drawn to avoid: elect a fair proportion of people of color to the city council. As a Southeast resident, the NAACP plan achieves a goal that city hall politics have prevented for thirty years: returning all of Southeast to the Second Ward. At one time, "Southeast" and "Second Ward" were synonymous terms. But in the 1970s, Minneapolis�s racial politics caused map writers to gerrymander the 5th ward, and it�s growing African American population, into Southeast Minneapolis for no other reason but to increase the ratio of white voters in the ward. Later, Minneapolis�s development politics of the 1980s and �90s continued this trend. These cynical actions have served neither the North Side nor Southeast well. The tentative plan published by the commission makes this situation far worse. The proposed Third Ward is an abomination. It rips largely minority communities like Hawthorne and McKinley on the North Side and puts them in the same ward as�Dinkytown. In the process, it manages to traverse three of the city�s four address designations, North, Northeast and Southeast. I cannot imagine what application of public policy would lead to the creation of such a ward, aside from the fact the commission has NO representatives from any part of the city this proposed ward would effect. This leads me to mention word that�s been circulating in our community, and rather than pass it off as a rumor, lay it before you to consider: that the reason the Southeast is not reunited into the Second Ward is to prevent developments owned by Independence Party official Steve Minn from being represented by current Second Ward council member Paul Zerby. I certainly hope this isn�t true, because if it were, it would be a significant scandal. But I�m sure you can see that the sheer illogic of the proposed draft�s treatment of the east and north sides give credence to such talk as residents seek to divine the true purpose of wards like the proposed Third. Thank you for this opportunity to comment. As a citizen, I would be happy to assist you in any way that I can. Vic Thorstenson Marcy-Holmes [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at imail.lithappens.com _______________________________________ 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
