The crowd that packed the city council chambers last night to protest the proposed ward map might as well stayed home.
With only minor changes, the plan that was drafted behind the public's back, the same one denounced Thursday night with near unanimity by community members from across the city was the plan that was chosen to be our basis of political organization for the next ten years. If anything, the more people complained, the more things stayed the same. Two of the wards with the most criticism last night, the new 5th and 3rd wards, weren't changed at all on Friday. As Council Member Johnson Lee points out in Saturday's Star Tribune story, the new map divides Minneapolis along racial (as well as economic) lines. The new plan practically ensures that the city will continue to be one where 40% of the residents are people of color, but will have only 1 or 2 of 13 making decisions for them on the city council. Nor are many neighborhoods well served under the new scheme. Even with a generous population deviation of 5%, 19 of Minneapolis's 84 neighborhoods - 22.6% - were split. Compare this to the State Court's redistricting plan, which split only .6% of the state's cities and townships when drawing senate districts, even though their population deviation was only .75%. But then again, the court held *six* public hearings to collect testimony from citizens before they put out a map. And they cited the input they received to justify their decisions in their final order. I can't imagine that all this won't end up in court, whether over the Voting Rights Act or on behalf of the thousands of Minneapolis residents who now find themselves represented by 3� year lame ducks. But in all this, there are some folks who consistently tried to do the right thing: 1. Fred Marcus, the one member of the commission that advocated for public involvement, including live interactive updates of commission amendments in an open meeting. 2. The Minneapolis NAACP, the only community organization with the moxie to actually put together their own plan rather than stand back and complain about the efforts of others. 3. David Brauer and his redistricting geek web site, which demonstrated for everyone to see that these plans could be drawn in ways that respected community boundaries. - Vic Thorstenson Marcy-Holmes _______________________________________ 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
