Lack of Representation?

One of the things I find interesting is how the place a representative lives effects policy. I decided to map the addresses of city council members and county commissioners using the addresses provided on their election commission forms. If an elected official moved since, sorry.

The above map is of regular city council districts. Super District representatives are included as well. District 5 is well represented. Almost 31% of our city's council members come from that district. Only District 7 is close with 3 council members, 23%. District 1, 2, 3, & 4 only have 7.6% of council members. Put together they would equal the District 5 block.

Now take a look at County Commissioners.

As you can the pattern is a little different. Look at Poplar Avenue, there are 5 County Commissioners who live along the Poplar Corridor. That is 38% of the County Commissioners.

Check out the combined City Council/County Commission.
The map above has the Super District boundary along with percentage of population that is minority. The Poplar Corridor carries 38% of the total representation of the Council and Commission. This relatively small area of the city and larger county is the center of political and economic power. When juxtapositioned with Super District boundary, it just makes you go hmmm. I'm not purely saying race is a determining factor, I would say economic power is much more of a determining factor. Race just mimics class in Memphis and Shelby County. There is one Council Member (maybe two) on Mud Island and a Commissioner in the South Bluffs area.
Lets take a look at areas with no local representatives that have large populations.
The Gray area is Frayser. Here are some demographics.
Population-41,606
45% male
55% female
75% Black
Median Household Income $34,098
Median Age 31
15.2% unemployment rate

The Orange area is greater South Memphis.
Population-61,094
45% male
55% female
93% black
Median Household Income $25,115
Median Age 36.7
20.3% unemployment rate

Yellow area is Parkway Village/Hickory Hill
Population-85,007
47% male
53% female
66% black
Median Household Income $49,684
Median Age 30.6
8.1% unemployment rate

The Green section is the Berclair/Nutbush area.
Population-24,812
49% male
51% female
28% black
16% hispanic
Median Household Income $37,253
Median Age 37.4
8.7% unemployment rate

So why are these areas not producing any local representatives. They somewhat vary. South Memphis is too poor and has either old folks or very young people. Berclair/Nutbush doesn't have much money. It's white population is old and a large percent of the population simply can't vote being Hispanic. Frayser is poor and the population is unstable. Lots and lots of single moms with kids, not exactly a force that's turns out in elections or even has the time/energy to be politically active. So what's going on in Southeast Memphis? This is the least stable part of the city and has been for a few years. It is 14% of city's population. It is getting poorer and homeownership rates are plummeting. Think of it as a replication of Frayser separated by a generation, except twice as big.

I'm not necessarily saying that the current representatives of these areas are not doing there best representing their entire districts. What I am trying to make people aware of is that there are concentrations of power. Inherent in any system with unbalanced influence, that area will push to continue that concentration of power. Currently there is an effort to push consolidation. So folks see this as an opportunity to remake government and raise efficiency (note, not lower costs-acknowledged by proponents of consolidation). Others see this as well but also recognize it as a means to politically consolidate power since there is the ability to rewrite the charter and redraw political boundaries. If this is a serious attempt to better the whole of the city and county, then redrawing political boundaries should take into account underrepresented areas.

Obama Takes It Directly to Republicans

I have been a pretty tough critic of Obama from the left, but I will give him some serious props for what he did today. Obama went to the Republican Caucus retreat in Baltimore. He gave a speech directly to the republicans and then answered their questions. You can watch it here and I highly suggest you do. The most interesting thing was the question and answer section. As Luke Russert said, Obama destroyed Republican talking points. This type of Q & A session with the opposition is something you don't see in modern American Politics and you probably will not see it again.

WTF Is This?

This is shit that drives me fucking nuts about this city. Memphis has serious and NUMEROUS issues that can't be mitigated by goddamn marketing. It seems every few years Memphis Tomorrow with their new politburo driven 5 year plan, like Memphis Fast Forward or whatever else, gets rolled out through the Nonprofit Mafia to the important folks in the Poplar Corridor. It is always top-down big business centered. I'd like to point out that top-down, plutocratic economic policies and regressive taxation is something we've never been short of here in Memphis. In fact, it has made us what we are today. So why do we keep listen to a model of failure?
Jesus Christ, corporations won the big Supreme Court case this week. Memphis Tomorrow just buy the politicians, end the astro-turfing, and save us from the periodic Party rallies. It's bad enough the neo-liberal policies fuck us over, stop forcing us to act like we should like it.

When Is He Going to Be Put Back In Charge?

Reinstate as DNC chairman and fire Rahm Emmanuel.