Re: [Mpls] Ventura Village - Citizen Participation

[Jim MCGUIRE]

MCDA Citizen Participation policy requires that 60% of
the Board of Directors be residents. Beyond that,
neighborhood associations are free to open their board
eligibility and voting rights to other groups in the
neighborhood. It is not out of line for VV to
establish that each business in the neighborhood only
gets one vote, or that you need to own property in the
neighborhood to vote. Many neighborhoods do this. Some
neighborhoods don't allow businesses to be members or
vote period.

I responded to this offlist by mistake, but will repost from memory.

The statement that it's "not out of line" to require that people own property in the neighborhood in order to vote really bothers me. It's clearly out of line to disenfranchise residents of the neighborhood simply because they're renters. Is it legal? Perhaps. Out of line? Unethical? Discriminatory? Classist? Absolutely.

I'm not sure if that's what the rules are, but if there are rules in any neighborhood group requiring property ownership to vote this is a major problem that must be addressed.

Jim McGuire
Como

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