B. Shoe wrote: The Minneapolis City Charter (Chap.1,Section 3) reads, "each Ward shall consist of contiguous compact territory not more than twice as long as it is wide, provided that the existence of any lake within any Ward shall not be contrary to this provision."
CD:
I think the language of this section is deliberately vague on the subject of compactness and complexity. If the terms "long" and "wide" are interpreted to mean North-South vs East-West extent, then the third ward is in compliance. (3.15mi N-S by 3.11mi E-W) Leaving this open to interpretation allows the court to be fairly subjective.
Geographers have devised many indexes for measuring shape. The simplest is compaction index (CI). This is a ratio of the area of the shape in question to the area of a circumscribing circle just touching the extent of the shape. CI values range from 0-1 with the lower values representing something like a long thin rectangle, and higher values representing a compact circular shape. See the link below for a map of ward three and some quick measurements.
http://www.thomm.com/issues/wardthree.jpg
In this case ward three CI is .297
Area of the ward is 2,716 acres Area of the circumscribing circle is 9,150 acres
2,716 / 9,150 = .297
A perfectly rectangular ward shaped twice as long as wide would have a CI of .509 so any shape with a CI less than .50 also fails the test of the Mpls charter. Does this sound right?
Conor Donnelly Waitepark
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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