By Geoff Kelly, The Nation
A coalition of community activists here has once again thrown a spanner into this city’s political works.
It’s not as head-turning a rebellion as the one that helped democratic socialist India Walton, in her first run for office, beat a four-term incumbent mayor in last summer’s Democratic primary.
But it’s a lot of the same people, a lot of the same energy. And community activists elsewhere would do well to examine what’s happening here.
The current uprising has to do with redistricting the city’s Common Council to comport with 2020 US Census numbers, which showed Buffalo gaining population for the first time since 1950.
Redistricting is not a sexy topic. At its best it is wonkish, involving complicated formulas and tests for compactness, population deviation, and racial balance. At its worst it is corrupt—an opportunity for once-in-a-decade deals between politicians seeking to protect themselves and their allies from challengers.
Recent Posts
200 Caring People Are Ready To Sail On The Freedom Flotilla To Gaza
April 25, 2024
Take Action Now For decades, corporations have used taxpayer-funded fellowship opportunities to help them secure billion-dollar defense contracts.…
Is The Iran Nuclear Deal Dead Forever?
April 25, 2024
Take Action Now Trump blew up the deal — why hasn’t Biden taken the opportunity to fix it? by Bob Dreyfuss, Tom Dispatch One, erratic and…
Big Oil Wants To Limit Safety Checks On CO2 Pipelines
April 25, 2024
Take Action Now After a leak in Sulphur, Louisiana, experts and residents express grave concerns about the fossil fuel industry’s carbon capture…
Columbia, NYU, The New School…MIT, Tufts, Emerson… Berkeley, Chicago, Chapel Hill… Everywhere…
April 24, 2024
Take Action Now For decades, corporations have used taxpayer-funded fellowship opportunities to help them secure billion-dollar defense contracts.…