History is made. Abdi Warsame wins Minneapolis City Council seat

[General Duke]

Minneapolis redistricting maps are out

 

Posted at 11:45 AM on March 27, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (0 Comments)

Filed under: Minneapolis, Race

 

The Minneapolis Charter Commission votes this afternoon on a plan that has the potential to increase minority representation on the City Council. The vote was originally scheduled for Monday, but the city's Redistricting Group made some last-minute changes yesterday in an attempt to address concerns raised by members of the Latino community.

 

The new map has four wards where minority groups comprise the majority of the population -- 4, 5, 6 and 9. Under the current map, only Ward 5 meets that standard, and Don Samuels, who represents it, is the only African American on the council.

 

Robert Lilligren in Ward 6 is Native American. The rest of the current council members are white.

 

Lilligren's ward will be re-drawn to encompass a larger swath of the city's East African population, stretching into parts of Cedar-Riverside and Seward. A Somali-led group called the Citizen's Committee for Fair Redistricting lobbied heavily for the creation of such a ward.

 

The Somali group also wanted at least part of the Midtown Phillips neighborhood, but the redistricting plan gives that territory to Ward 9 in an effort to create a stronghold for the city's Latino community.

 

The new Ward 9 is about 37 percent Hispanic, according to the Census. Detailed maps of each ward are available here, labeled as the March 26 maps.

 

While the new redistricting plan means the City Council could become more diverse over the next decade, its immediate political implications for incumbents on the council are less obvious. The proposed map does not pit any incumbents against each other by putting their homes in the same ward.

 

The redistricting plan is almost certain to win approval from the Charter Commission, since all of its members also belong to the Redistricting Group.

[General Duke]

Now the difficult work begins. How to build a political machine and select the right candidates for office..

[Che -Guevara]

I should move to MNPLS:D

[General Duke]

Che -Guevara;810834 wrote:

I should move to MNPLS:D

Your vote might come in handy. Now its all about learning the new map by heart and putting together a good ground game. The Somali's might stun this city. I can see us seriously going for two wards. Ward 6 would be the main play, but ward 9 with all the confusion and division within that community the Somali's might pull of an upset.

There is a great deal of optimism in the air.

[Che -Guevara]

Having good lobbyist is good start for good politics. Hopefully, those who lobbied hard can find identify viable candidates.

[General Duke]

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/public/@clerk/documents/webcontent/wcms1p-089897.pdf

[General Duke]

Che -Guevara;810838 wrote:

Having good lobbyist is good start for good politics. Hopefully, those who lobbied hard can find identify viable candidates.

Lets snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. We must analyse the environment, educate the community and field candidates that unify the community and transcend ethnicity. Candidates that can represent the whole wards and the diverse population while still making the base proud.

[General Duke]

 

Minneapolis City Hall, 1900..

[General Duke]

First-ever public process for Minneapolis redistricting gets positive reaction

By Karen Boros | 10:19 am

For decades, the drawing of Minneapolis ward and park district boundaries occurred behind closed doors, where political appointees did battle in private.

 

Voters scrapped that system in 2010 when the redistricting process of line drawing was handed off to the Charter Commission, which is appointed by the chief judge of the Hennepin County District Court.

 

As a result, the first political boundaries [PDF] created in public were unanimously approved this week by the Charter Commission.

 

“What they would do in the old days was each side would create competing maps and lobby behind closed doors to get votes and see what they could cook up,” said Charter Commission Chair Barry Clegg.* “The public wasn’t involved in the process of drawing maps and couldn’t watch.”

 

 

This year, the whole process was done in public, sometimes painfully, as communities of interest came to make their cases as the Redistricting Group, appointed by the Charter Commission, moved lines and split hairs.

 

Early on, the Citizens Committee for Fair Redistricting, representing the Somali and East African community, made their case for creation of a ward dominated by African- Americans to increase minority representation on the City Council. They came with their own map of how Ward 6 might look if lines were drawn to give them an opportunity to elect one of their own to the council.

 

The African group did not get the map they suggested but they were pleased with the map they got.

 

“We have a better chance than we did before,” said Abdulkadir Warsame of the Fair Redistricting group.* “We’re very happy that we actually took part in the process.”

 

“Politically, we’re much more energized now,” added his colleague, Hussein Ahmed.* ”We will get a candidate that represents the East African community and who we can all be proud of as Americans.”

 

“They didn’t get the map they asked for, but it got them more than 40 percent of the African-American community in that ward (Ward 6) and I think their map was 42 or 43 percent,” said Clegg. “In terms of getting the population, I think it accomplished the same thing.”

 

The African group was followed by numerous communities of interest each making a case for moving a line or moving a neighborhood out of one ward and into another.

 

“It was often difficult.* It was a tug of war between neighborhood interests,” said Charter Commission member Andrea Rubenstein.* “Our job was to balance those interests.”

 

“It’s not perfect, but I think it’s a good piece of work,” added Charter Commission member Natonia Johnson.* “It gives the city an opportunity in Wards 6 and 9*— maybe Ward 2 — to bring diversity to the City Council.”

 

“After looking at the statistics and listening to the testimony we heard from the public, it became clear to me that standing pat was not going to produce the best plan,” said Charter Commission member Andy Kozak, a veteran of redistricting battles in the past.

[A_Khadar]

General Duke;810842 wrote:

 

Minneapolis City Hall, 1900..

That building hasn't changed even a bit.. Still standing exactly the same, but the rest houses are gone and replaced by skyscrapers..

[General Duke]

It's one of the historic sites of the state and thus preserved.

[Aaliyyah]

wrong thread...

[raula]

typical flaunting somali...baloney!

[Abu-Salman]

Glad for them though I'm surprised at how those moving again over there deal with homesickness, like the brother from London.

[Nin-Yaaban]

The guy at 14:16 knows what he's talking about. Dad badan ayaa Xabisyada ku jiro, oo aan waxaan micno laheen lagu soo xir xiray. He got my vote.