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CONVERSATION PIT
THIS WEEK’S ISSUE:
NEWS (is FEATURES
City Dope 4
Athens News and Views
The Dope's baby is finally here!
“I respect
the process ”
I laughed out loud when I finally got a look at Rep. Doug
McKillip's plan to redraw Athens-Clarke County commission dis
tricts—now called "Clarke County Dious 2." McKillip has been
threatening for weeks to present his own plan for local dis
tricts and, at the last minute, threw in with local attorney Ken
Dious, who produced a map drawn by a civil rights group in
Atlanta. McKillip says the Dious map was pretty close to what
he had in mind, so he deferred to Dious or combined with him,
and the result is a 10-single-member-district map that does
away with the superdistricts but creates their own districts for
the present supercommissioners.
That's why I had to laugh. In all our discussion of the pros
and cons of doing away with the superdistricts, everybody
assumed that would mean that the present supercommission
ers—Mike Hamby (District 10) and Kelly Girtz (District 9),
would be drawn out of their jobs, making such a plan in part a
political vendetta, Hamby and Girtz being opponents of both
McKillip and Mayor Nancy Denson.
But, lo: as the map unfurled on the computer screen, there
were Girtz and Hamby along with all the rest: all the current
commissioners ensconced in their own weirdly shaped single
member districts that even create an extra "majority-minority"
district, i.e., with an African-American majority.
McKillip took the Dious sketch to the legislative map draw
ers at the Capitol, and one of their guys produced what has to
be considered a masterpiece of puzzle construction. [See it in
Pub Notes at flagpole.com.] McKillip says that the map drawer
told him he had to be kidding that so
many of the commissioners live so close
together. Alice Kinman, Kathy Hoard,
Mike Hamby and George Maxwell could
practically toss a football to each other
from their front yards; Kelly Girtz, Harry Sims and Jared Bailey
could punt back and forth. To put them all in separate districts
called for some strange shapes, but they are all there, well
within the population and race parameters. Hats off to Brian
A. Knight, map specialist in the Legislative and Congressional
Reapportionment Office.
Why did McKillip do it? Do we need it? Do we want it? That
debate rages now. Dious, himself an African American, says
he did it because he owes it to African-American voters—a
sentiment that did not affect his efforts to inject the RaceTrac
gas station into the Colima Avenue neighborhood against the
unanimous wishes of the African-American residents. McKillip
says he did it so that there would be other options to con
sider, to open up the discussion, to help conservatives get
elected and to provide better representation with more local
control. McKillip also says he doesn't think this plan changes
the charter, since the charter provides for 10 commissioners.
Moreover, he says he has "no intention" of taking this plan to
the Legislature over the heads of local government. "I respect
the process," he says.
This plan succeeds admirably as a conversation starter, even
if it's a conversation nobody except Dious and McKillip wanted
to have. The recent charter overview commission didn't con
sider single-member districts, nor were they an issue in the lat
est mayor and commission races. There has been no outcry for
changing our present structure, and, indeed, citizen opinion in
last week's public hearings on redistricting ran heavily to keep
ing things pretty much as they are. McKillip says, though, that
the voting rights law requires that if you have the ability to
enhance majority-minority voting strength, you should.
There's a lot to be said for single-member districts. They're
smaller (at least in population), which should make them less
expensive for campaigning and more representative. They can
be tailored more closely to minority voting strength and can be
less confusing about who is somebody's commissioner.
The present superdistrict configuration, on the other hand,
means that every commissioner has a backup commissioner,
every citizen has a second commissioner to contact if the other
one is unresponsive, and supercommissioners provide liaison to
address problems that cross district lines, such as drainage.
Of course, if we're really going to talk about single-member
districts, we may want to consider starting over from scratch,
instead of drawing these awkward districts for the future just
because they reflect where present commissioners happen to
live today. Does anybody want to have that discussion?
Pete McCommons edit 1 r * igpole com
Athens Rising 6
What’s Up in New Development
The UGA Health Sciences campus will spotlight the indigenous bungalow
architecture in the surrounding areas.
AUY-
Grub Notes 7
New in the ‘Hood
Heirloom Cafe in Boulevard seems to be pitched pretty well to its audience.
The Reader 11
I Am, I Am Superman
Supergods is part history of superhero comics, part autobiography and part Joseph
Campbell-esque meditation.
MIUSO©
Mixtape Wars 13
Driving Songs: Morris vs. McIntosh
Two very different mixtapes to soundtrack your next cross-country adventure.
Keeping Athens Amplified 14
Spotlight on Our Local Techs
Where to go when your gear goes to crap.
CITY DOPE 4
CITY PAGES 5
CAPITOL IMPACT 6
ATHENS RISING 6
GRUB NOTES 7
9/11 8
MOVIE DOPE 10
THE READER 11
THREATS & PROMISES 12
MIXTAPE WARS 13
LOCAL AMP TECHS 14
MUTEMATH 15
EARTH 16
FUZZY SPROUTS 17
THE CALENDAR! 18
BULLETIN BOARD 24
ART AROUND TOWN 25
COMICS 26
REALITY CHECK 27
CLASSIFIEDS 28
BULIMIA 30
EVERYDAY PEOPLE 31
EDITOR & PUBLISHER Pete McCommons
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VOLUME 25
ISSUE NUMBER 35
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