[Mpls] Redistricting Format/Public as Doormat/ List Archive 4/2002

[PennBroKeith at cs.com]

[Mpls] Redistricting Format/Public as Doormat 
PennBroKeith at cs.com PennBroKeith at cs.com 
Sat Apr 13 01:45:01 2002 

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We came We saw. But, we did not concur. That's the scoop from the recent 
"Open'' Redistricting Commission hearing. People (of color, mostly) filled to 
overflow the lovely hearing room and hallways of the 3rd floor of City Hall. 
All were observers, unless and until, that fortunate fraction of the mass who 
had signed up early, got 3 minutes to address the commissioners. I saw a 
whole contingent of Somalis who came and went without a word. All folks 
seemed glad to be there, though many were upset with a multitude of perceived 
threats to the well being of their wards. I included. 

People of color were highly concerned that people who did not "look like 
them", white people, were again, coldly and unfairly, controlling their 
future, And I thought that anxiety was reasonable. In this new millennium, it 
seems venal to hugely increase in Ward 5, the concentration of poor people on 
the train while detaching the DT economic engine. By "Crossing West 
Broadway", that is incorporating the challenged chunk of Jordan into Ward 5, 
and eliminating DT; these commissioners have penciled in a ghetto. They then 
shout, success, we have created an "opportunity zone" with 85% people of 
color.

The plantation had 85% people of color, too. I do not think even Aunt Jemima 
and Uncle Tom could call that opportunity. A ghetto is a ghetto is a ghetto, 
unless it is an opportunity zone?

This is a serious matter to many people who spoke for 180 seconds on 
Wednesday.  Many making great effort to be there and wait there for hours for 
their turn. I personally regret not hearing from Leola Seals, the fiery and 
fair, former head of our now less noble NAACP Chapter. She waited long and 
finally left, unheard. Another great woman did get heard and offered the 
analogy of the segregation, and failure, of the MPS in teaching our children. 
She will always protest when people, not of color, concentrate her and her 
people up, based on race, and then say it is fair, and right, and a favor to 
them. And the commissioners didn't GET it. They blithely proceeded to approve 
their own folly, or worse, politically corrupted, plan.

Some on this List are speculating on the "Ice Out" on Lake Calhoun. If this 
plan is upheld long enough to be challenged in a high court, I believe it 
will fall. Can anyone out there guess what the possible reason for a failure 
in court might be? Please post your opinions. Hint: Look at districts 
nationwide that have been rejected by higher courts.

Keith Reitman, NearNorth