Welcome to Buster's Blog

Irregular commentary on whatever's on my mind -- politics, sports, current events, and life in general. After twenty years of writing business and community newsletters, fifteen years of fantasy baseball newsletters, and two years of email "columns", this is, I suppose, the inevitable result: the awful conceit that someone might actually care to read what I have to say. Posts may be added often, rarely, or never again. As always, my mood and motivation are unpredictable.

Buster Gammons















Thursday, July 28, 2016

No On Issue 1


(Pardon me for being ultra-local in this one.)
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Here in Columbus, we have a special single-question election coming up on August 2nd.  It's called Issue 1, and it proposes to completely restructure our City Council.  

It would remove our current seven at-large council members and replace them with a ward system and a much larger council.  There would still be three at-large members, plus a number of ward/district council members -- ten at first, growing to as many as 22 eventually.  A City Council of between 13 and 25 people.  Ward/district maps would obviously need to drawn.  By whom?  On what basis?  No one knows.    

Supporters of Issue 1 claim it would give us more direct "representation."  It would certainly give our Council more bodies.  Not so sure about anything else.

Issue 1 supporters are, for the most part, white Republicans unhappy to be living in a Democratic city with a Democratic Council.

If you haven't voted yet, please read the ballot language before you pull the trigger.  It is a lengthy thicket of confusing crapola, and a recipe for regular gerrymandering.  Even the Dispatch says it's no good.

Our long-standing City Council structure is very simple.  And by any objective measure, as a large and growing city, Columbus is doing very, very well.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Vote "No" on Issue 1.


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