City Council Redistricting Plan Released

tufsu1 · August 05, 2011, 11:45:01 AM

Federal law says you can't disenfranchise voters...the test of how this relates to minority areas today will clearly be shown in how the FL Legislature deals with Corrine Brown's gerrymandered district.

Tacachale · August 05, 2011, 11:50:48 AM

Quote from: AFCassidy on August 05, 2011, 11:28:44 AM

Ensuring minority representation by clumping people into these "minority access" districts is one of the most racist and totally insane things we still do.

We have a black President... are we still holding to this idea that white people are unwilling to vote for anyone but a white person to represent them? Or that racial representation trumps neighborhood representation?

How about we have requirements that 9 of the council seats be filled by women?

If we just drew boxes around neighborhoods without worrying about race, I would bet money we'd have nearly the same numbers of black and white people on the city council that we have now.

And I would bet that that's nonsense. It's not about assuming white people won't vote for black politicians, it's about ensuring the city council accurately reflects the city's demographics. And it's not as if ethnicity were the primary factor in drawing up the districts, its just one of several legitimate factors. It will remain one until the point neighborhoods are integrated such that it's obsolete.

fieldafm · August 05, 2011, 03:03:44 PM

I really can't believe no one is talking about the fact that downtown and Springfield will now be lumped with the exurbs in this latest re-districting.

Riverside/Avondale and Springfield could be essentially losing two councilpersons in this latest scheme.

thelakelander · August 15, 2011, 10:26:08 PM

It appears some changes have been made since August 2nd.

August 2 plan

Plan shown in the TU tonight (Aug 15)

link: http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/403455/steve-patterson/2011-08-15/public-meetings-scheduled-planned-jacksonville-city

AFCassidy · August 16, 2011, 03:12:49 AM

Very pleased to see East Arlington being handled with a bit more care, even if it's going to still be tied to Oceanway.

Jaxson · August 16, 2011, 08:03:28 AM

Quote from: Tacachale on August 02, 2011, 08:49:47 AM
It's always good when whole neighborhoods are represented by the same councilperson. I wish San Marco and the Southbank were in one district, but it's better that it would be in two rather than the current three, I suppose.

Another good move is putting Mayport, including the base, in the Beaches district, and Bayard and the southeastern part of the county in the Mandarin district.

I totally agree about a single district for the Beaches and Mayport. I did not see the logic in forcing Baldwin and Mayport into the same district.

acme54321 · August 16, 2011, 08:21:55 AM

Still don't like how San Marco, St Nick and the Southbank are split by district 7 (or whichever) coming across the river.

fsujax · August 16, 2011, 08:40:55 AM

Dont know that I like the way District 7 is drawn. What the heck does Downtown, Springfield have in common with areas north of the airport? seems really off to me.

thelakelander · August 16, 2011, 08:53:32 AM

Yeah, there is a big difference in some of these districts from the 7/25/11 proposal and what's in the TU today. It's starting to look more gerrymanded. Especially districts 8, 7 and 13.

Miss Fixit · August 16, 2011, 12:03:46 PM

Quote from: fsujax on August 16, 2011, 08:40:55 AM
Dont know that I like the way District 7 is drawn. What the heck does Downtown, Springfield have in common with areas north of the airport? seems really off to me.

Agreed. District 7, as drawn, is truly bizarre.

Charles Hunter · August 16, 2011, 02:11:17 PM

Be sure to watch for the public hearings Council must hold, and speak out about some of these strange lines.

Tacachale · August 16, 2011, 02:31:54 PM

The gerrymandering will likely only get worse, not better. More of the same.

strider · August 16, 2011, 06:02:38 PM

Perhaps this is incorrect, but it seems to me that the basic idea of an area, a district, if you will, having a council person is to insure that area, like a historic district or a predominately poor area, is having it's specific needs properly represented in the government. If you equalize a district by social economic equality or make a district that combines the historic districts or urban areas with part of suburbia, are you not eliminating the chance of proper representation? Does not the needs of a urban area, for instance, sort of cancel out the needs of suburbia?

CS Foltz · August 16, 2011, 07:45:22 PM

strider, your correct from what I have seen! My District is 13 which currently connects clear out to the Beaches! The current clown ran on a platform which consisted basically of "We need to represent the Beaches"! Little did he realize but the last 5 Council members all lived.......guess where.........THE BEACHES! Now Art did a pretty decent job, Meserve was a lost cause and not going to even give Dick Brown credit for much except parking his fanny in a council seat. District 13 deserved better than a warm body...........oh well, looking forward to what is presented to the Public for discussion!

tufsu1 · August 16, 2011, 09:12:14 PM

yay...CS is back!