George,

Am I being idealistic when I say given a rich history of gerrymandering that we do away with trying to create Wards that represent this group or that group and simply cut the City up into equal population squares? And does a specific constituency need a member of their constituency to serve on a board to ensure representation of that constituency in the first place? I think it is awfully simplistic to imply that as a white guy, my “white guy” interests are necessarily represented by say Kevin Lynch and Blake Caravatti. (Aren’t you offended to be even forced to think that way?) To me that is flawed logic. And before I get called a racist, I could care less if all school board members were black women. The question is when are we going to focus blurring the lines that make us different rather than accentuating them and creating unnecessary tension and needless division? I once had a member of Council tell me that he did not want to represent me because I was a rich white guy. (I’ll take one. I am working on the other.) I guess that is the way some think, but I’m certain most Charlottesville citizens do not think that way. If indeed we ever introduce Wards they need to represent the interests, concerns and issues of the citizens who reside within each Ward not what their skin color is or what gender they are. And given the relative small size of the Wards I think you can be fairly certain that the chosen representative will have the concerns of their Ward’s citizens on the top of their mind no matter what color their skin or what gender they are. They will have the unique perspective of knowing most of the Ward members on a name by name basis. So you see we move away from requiring color and gender as a proxy for representation to electing those who have the full respect of their small Ward because Ward members actually know them.

Tyler Sewell (electronic mail, November 29, 2005)