David and all: First, let us remember why we are drawing new boundaries. It is because the populations have shifted making it so that some wards have too many people and some have too few. All the Zimmermann plan does is to tweak the current wards slightly so as to bring the numbers into line. There is no mandate to totally disrupt historical wards just to have different boundaries.
Second, the thin-slicing is in my opinion also a non issue. If 80% of a neighborhood is in Council Member X's ward and 20 % is in Council Member Y's ward, in practice, both CMs do pay attention to the affairs of the neighborhood. A good example is that one West Bank precinct is in the 6th Ward, and you can bet your bottom dollar that the current CM spends a lot of time and energy dealing with issues that affect all West Bank residents. In my opinion, having split neighborhoods helps keep CMs from falling totally into complete parochial thinking. Not only do I think that they are not a bad thing, but I think that they are a good thing. Third, err, ah I have to go to work and take care of the people's business. goodbye. Dean Zimmermann Mpls City Council Member - Ward 6 612-673-2206 ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Brauer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Mpls list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 6:04 AM Subject: RE: [Mpls] Redistricting Commission's Plan > Dean Zimmerperson writes: > > > It continues to baffle me why anyone would think that it is a bad > thing for > > a neighborhood to be divided by a ward boundary. I should think > people > > would be happy that their neighborhood has two city council members > looking > > out for their interests. > > I'll be honest: I'm ok with neighborhoods that are split roughly 50-50, > but I pushed so hard for intact neighborhoods in part to prevent the > sort of thin-slicing that appears in parts of the draft redistricting > plan. > > For example, Ward 13 has about 9 blocks of East Harriet - Ward 8 has the > other 80 percent if I'm reading the draft map right. I've already > mentioned a classic thin-slice of SW Phillips in the 8th - though that > will probably get attention since Robert Lilligren lives there. (By the > way, can some email off list the names and borders of the new split-up > Phillips neighborhood?) > > I'm sure there are others I can't glean from a hand-drawn map not linked > to neighborhood boundaries. > > The risk with thin-slicing is that you really don't have two council > members looking out for your interests. Having only a teeny slice of a > neighborhood naturally drops it down a council member's priority list, > if for no other reason than you'll probably spend less time in a > neighborhood where you represent less people. Like it or not, > neighborhoods are city-endorsed participation groups, and there are only > so many meetings a council member can attend regularly. > > Also, representing a thin slice makes it tempting to defer to the > "majority" council member who has the bulk of the ward, weakening direct > representation. > > Now having had the pleasure of working with six council members in my > three years on the Kingfield board, I can say I'd rather have an > excellent council member in a split-up ward than a poor council member > in a single ward. But I'd really rather have one, or at most two, > excellent council members who each have significant interests - > politically as well as other interests - focusing their attention to the > neighborhood. > > I should also mention that it looks like the Commission did an admirable > job of keeping neighborhoods together - which makes it important that > they be able to explain the thin-slicing where it occurs. > > Also, Dean, thanks for the correction on the map's partisan angle. Why > did the Republicans dissent? > > David Brauer > King Field - Ward 10 > > _______________________________________ > 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 _______________________________________ 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
