Councilman Don Redman: An Embarrassment

[floridaforester]

District 4 isn't the only gerrymandered district in town.  Check out 14 that includes my n'hood of Riverside.  Take a look at it and ask yourself "what does Riverside & Avondale have in common with Argyle?".  The answer- absolutely nothing.  At least Corrigan has the sense to vote for Dr. Ahmed's appointment at the full council vote as well as in committee.

A real eye opener was which district Yarborough represents.  I wrongfully assumed that he represented  a northside or westside district, but it is actually Arlington, Ft. Caroline & Mt. Pleasant area.  Kind of scary that this relatively well-off (parts of it) and middle to upper-middle class area of town would vote for someone of this ilk.  As a native of Jax that grew up in this area, all I can say is WOW!

[CS Foltz]

Mr Redman actually represents half of the Linkside residents............Mr Graham represents the other half! But nothing is wrong with this picture right...............83 homes here! I would really like to find out  just who decided this for me so that I may tell them just what an Idiot they are!

[finehoe]

Ohh...I see.  It's a conspiracy.  Really? 

Nobody said anything about a "conspiracy".  However, one can note that 'the powers that be' is not a conspiracy in the formal sense of a membership which gathers like the Bohemian Club or even an informal assemblage such as the Bilderberg Group. "Membership" is granted solely by great wealth and control of productive assets; political influence flows from that.  People who control, say, $100 million or more (via family ownership or managerial position) tend to meet one another socially or to do business, and while they jockey for advantage within a group like the rest of us, they form a small class of citizens possessing virtually unimpaired political influence.  Thus in describing "the powers that be" I am not positing a semi-formal conspiracy but simply a financial elite which controls some 2/3 of the productive wealth of the U.S. This is simply a statement of fact. Their collective self-interest is in maintaining the conceptual, legal and financial systems which enable their continued dominance of wealth and influence.  Thus when I speak of "the powers that be" I refer not to a formal conspiracy with meetings and officers but to a self-organized Elite based on protecting their ownership of 2/3 of the productive wealth of the nation. As each acts to protect his/her wealth at the highest reaches of influence (tax shelters, tax breaks, legislative exclusions, legal rulings, etc.) then they are also acting to defend their class.

[Captain Zissou]

The districts have crazy and nonsensical boundaries.  Redman's is the most gerrymandered, but 14 is bad too.  1, 2, and 3 seem to be ok, but some of them are just absurd.  They should really be redrawn, and reduced in size.  I imagine when these districts were created the city population wasn't what it is now.

[Charles Hunter]

The districts were created after the 2000 census - they will be redrawn after the 2010 census.  A problem with our spring 11 election (and the same in 01), was that is was so close to the release of the census data (maybe even before) so the first election - if I remember correctly - was with the old boundaries.
Regarding District 2 - it is fairly compact, except for the appendage going west to grab Clifton, the incumbent in District 2 lived in Clifton, so this piece, which should have been in 1 or 4 (or even 7, since it has western Arlington across the Xway) is in the "east Arlington" district.

[Lunican]

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/10363234001?isVid=1&videoId=81836113001&playerID=10363234001&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true

[Tripoli1711]

This is laughable in the embarrassingly painful way that Michael Scott is laughable on The Office.  Too bad it's our City Government at work, which makes it far less laughable and far more distressing. 

[Doctor_K]

Watching the City Council video, then watching the "Don's Sportmans Barber SHop" video paints quite the biographical picture of this douche.

Small-towned, closed-minded, blinders-on, right-winged, bigoted, holier-than-thou pseudo Christian. 

He believes what he believes, and fundamentally I don't have a problem with that.  I do have a problem when he brings his religiosity to his government position, where supposedly there's separation of church and state.  This is fallacy at best and I understand that; but this guy makes me ill.

If ever there was a stereotype for our City and its Leaders, this is it.

Color me embarrassed.

[copperfiend]

If ever there was a stereotype for our City and its Leaders, this is it.

Color me embarrassed.

Could not have said it better myself.

[Cliffs_Daughter]

District 4 isn't the only gerrymandered district in town.  Check out 14 that includes my n'hood of Riverside.  Take a look at it and ask yourself "what does Riverside & Avondale have in common with Argyle?".  The answer- absolutely nothing.  At least Corrigan has the sense to vote for Dr. Ahmed's appointment at the full council vote as well as in committee.

I agree. I'm in 14, Wesconnett, and we have nothing in common with Argyle either! Or for that matter, Riverside/Avondale... but I wish we did.

This must've been drawn back when that was merely rural and they felt they needed to include the folks somehow with the 'nearest' council zone.

[fsujax]

Downtown needs to be its own Council district maybe lump Springfield and Riverside in there as well.

[Doctor_K]

That's a thought.

Re-do the districts by a combination of historical and current 'neighborhood' boundaries?

[finehoe]

This man has "hick" written all over him.

[mtraininjax]

Anyone who voted to raise garbage fees was and IS an embarrassment.

[sheclown]

Downtown needs to be its own Council district maybe lump Springfield and Riverside in there as well.

absolutely.