--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "justifiedright"
> --- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "Gabrielle Obre"
> I can only think of two councilmembers from the Southwest side of
> Asbury Park in my lifetime.
>
> That's whey Asbury Park needs to go to a ward system, to allow one
> councilmember from each section of town.
>
> Ward systems were created exactly for places like Asbury Park where
> there are distinct neighborhoods.
>
I hear what you're saying, but just to play devil's advocate here:
Wouldn't that reinforce the balkanization of a town that shouldn't
naturally have distinct neighborhoods? By that I mean the current
division between east and west is a stubborn legacy of the Bradley
era, when certain people were allowed to work near the ocean but not
live there, yes? One might presume (erroneously perhaps?) that the
city would want to move beyond that and work toward eliminating the
stark demographic differences between each side of the tracks. Would
cutting up a 1 square mile town into wards do that?
Also, is there in fact a system, written or otherwise, that
doesn't "allow" someone from the southwest portion of town to run for
office?
I just looked up each of the council members' addresses on
WhitePages.com. They all live in the north end of town, where the
properties are predominantly owner occupied houses. The south end of
town trends a little more toward apartment complexes and rented
houses, right? Might that have something to do with it? I don't know
the details of each council member's living arrangements, obviously,
so this is all very unscientific, but might it be that property
owners tend to be more compelled toward public service? I emphasize
"tend" there. I'm sure there are plenty of apartment dwellers working
for the city. But it stands to reason that if you've taken out a
mortgage and accepted the responsibility of property maintenance and
the like, you're more inclined to invest your time and effort into
city government. Whereas, if you're in an apartment that,
particularly in this economy, you may have to leave at any moment and
move to another town, you might not be as compelled to invest the
time and effort required to run for office.
Certainly the residents of the southwest side deserve equal
representation, and from what I've read here and on Maureen's page,
it seems like Keady and Johnson are both trying their best to provide
that. Maybe someone who lives in that area can speak to that more in
detail. But if a ward system was implemented, isn't it possible you
might wind up with council members by default? e.g. "Well, one of us
has to do it, so, alright, vote for me, candidate A." But you
wouldn't be getting a candidate as personally invested in the job as
someone who ran with the idea of representing the WHOLE town,
regardless of what street he or she lives on.
Again, I don't really know. Just throwing that out there.
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