Cole Knows What You Need

This week’s AusChron has a story about the hunt for SMD’s in Austin. The usual sides are drawn- Martinez pushing for a change, Cole pushing back because of re-election fears, and Gus Garcia wringing his hands.What struck us was this statement by Sheryl Cole against any sort of geographic representation:

“I’m instantly made aware of what people are most concerned about, whether it’s Las Manitas or the animal shelter.”

Really? That is what people care about? We think she just swayed us- for SMD’s. If geographic representation is what it is going to take for a council rep to know that personally we don’t give a crap about a mediocre taco joint, sign us up. We would much rather see her spend her time working on issues dealing with traffic, overzealous developers, a little environment….etc.

Posted on November 29, 2007 – 12:22 pm by APR

  1. 6 Responses to “Cole Knows What You Need”

  2. I don’t think you can ascribe Cole’s opposition to SMD solely to re-election fears. Under the current system, she represents the African-American Community with 1/7 of the voting power on the council. Under almost all district scenarios, the AA vote share on council will be diluted to less than this (of course, this assumes the “like votes for like” model). Although I favor some form of district representation, I think we should be fair to her and recognize that she must represent her constituency.

    By Kedron Jerome Touvell on Nov 29, 2007

  3. Kedron, that is the exact myth in this exercise that everyone needs to understand and stop spreading. It’s just not true that we need 14 districts to have one AA advantage district. The committee was presented the information from Jerry Heibert (look him up) who expressed the misinformation behind folks using demographics as the test for districting….it’s not demographics at all…its Voting Age Population. You AAVAP, HVAP or any other group is what drives the outcome of election.

    Jerry presented the committee with a 6 district system (and the Mayor at large) that would maintain the exact same ethnicity of the council today with one AA advantage district and one Hispanic district.

    This would once and for all end the horrible “gentlemans agreement” and create true binding legal standing for maintaining diversity on our council while providing better accountability and true representation.

    We have got to do better about sharing the facts and not spreading more rhetoric. I’m not name calling at all Kedron…just stating it like I see it.

    sorry for any typos….spellcheck is my friend

    Mike

    By Mike on Nov 29, 2007

  4. thanks Mike, I’ll take a look at the information you brought up. At any rate, my point was that we shouldn’t disparage Sheryl, not that her position was one I agreed with. I’m sure you have more inside info than I on her motives.

    By Kedron Jerome Touvell on Nov 29, 2007

  5. Completely agree with you on CM Cole….I too am not in any way demeaning her comments. We can’t make the best decisions without full debate and I appreicate and respect her position.

    I was mainly speaking of the myth that everyone focuses solely on demographics when that really is not the issue…nor is it the standard that the DOJ would apply…they use VAP.

    Keep the conversation going and healthy.

    Thanks,
    Mike

    By Mike on Nov 29, 2007

  6. Here’s a story on potential maps which shows, as Mike says, a six-way split creates a viable AA district: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A556547

    By Dollar Wells on Nov 30, 2007

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