Hello Minneapolis Folks,
As someone that has lived in numerous neighborhoods across our city (too
numerous to count) and now resides in the Kenny Neighborhood (SW), I understand
David's concern about having At-Large council members that end up being another
vote for SW, and agree that should be a concern, but also see advantages to
such a system.
The current system already gives too much representation to SW and all the
other more affluent neighborhoods in our city, and a big reason for that is
that more often then not these communities have a higher voter turnout, which
makes politicians pay more attention to those neighborhoods. I am not saying
this is the motivating factor for all elected officials, but it has to play a
significant role in their decision making process.
On one hand, having At-Large candidates could be beneficial for turning out
under represented communities because having candidates on the ticket that
share similar ethnic background or represent an under represented community
could be used as a motivator to turnout voters and help other candidates as
well. Our current At-Large Boards, School, and Park, by percentage are more
diverse then our current city council, if you excluded sexuality.
On the other hand, our School Board which is elected at large showed us that
poorer communities in our city will have the most schools closed in the next
two years. Maybe this makes sense, (I am not an expert on this issue) or it
could be it was considered the path of least resistance by the School Board.
Because wealthier communities in our city would have had more resources to
fight such closings, then poorer communities. I would almost guarantee if you
compared a voter turnout list with the schools being closed, that you will see
very few schools being closed in higher voter turnout precincts-districts.
I can see both sides of this arguement.
Ken Bradley
Kenny Neighborhood (Formerly of Corcoran, Nokomis East, Standish, Phillips,
Whittier, Downtown, and so on, and so on)
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
All your favorites on one personal page � Try My Yahoo!
REMINDERS:
1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL
PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list.
2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html
For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy
Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
