Megan Goodmundson wrote: Mark Anderson asks a question: How exactly does having a rich section in one's district make a council person more powerful?
When you were a kid growing up, did you want to always get stuck with the 'broken toys' or the hand-me-downs? Wasn't nice to have at least some new, cool toys in your toy box? The way I see it, 'drawing out' downtown from the 5th & 'drawing in' Jordan into the 5th is about MONEY, POWER, RESPECT. By creating the 'ultra-impoverished' ward, you take away any money, power, respect that may have come from the more important areas such as downtown, with more attention, priority and economic importance; or NE, with more active voters who donate time, money, input. What we are left with is further digging a 'moat' around North Mnpls that the city, developers, home buyers, schools, businesses, recreational stuff have no interest in crossing that moat. Don't really pretend like you can't understand how taking away a more influtential part of town and combining 2 lowest influential, most unimportant areas together is not right or smart. Mark Anderson replies: I don't think you answered the question. I agree that the richer areas of town have more clout in getting city services. If the city "forgets" to plow a rich street after a big snowstorm, the residents have many ways to get the city's attention. I've seen such forgetfulness take place in poor districts with no city reaction at all. But I don't see how that translates into more clout by the council person who represents the area. PERHAPS a council member will be treated with more respect by the other members on issues that affect services in their rich areas, because no one wants to be beaten over the head by the wealthy powers-that-be. But does caution in avoiding offense to rich areas translate to a similar caution about services in poor areas just because they have the same representative? I don't see that. More likely the council person will concentrate his or her services on the more affluent areas where he or she gets more respect amongst peers (although I'm still not convinced that respect for a district transfers to its representative -- I haven't noticed the richer district reps having more power than the rest). Near North Minneapolis certainly does have a bit of a "moat" around it, when it comes to commercial development. My guess at the reason for this is a combination of high crime there and a lower population in North than South. I understand why northsiders want to turn this around (although there are many southsiders that complain about too much development in their areas -- they call it gentrification and corporate takeover). But you've got a lot more explaining to do to convince me that mixing the ward with downtown will result in more development. It seems to be that making the ward more homogeneous will more likely result in advocacy on the council. Mark V Anderson Bancroft REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact 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 Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
