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    Opinion: City Council Wards Would Boost Neighborhood Representation

    Ask people to name their seven city council representatives without using Google: the results are telling, most can’t get more than three or four. What does that mean about the present state of at-large representation, when citizens don’t know who represents them in a city the size of Columbus?

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    Meanwhile, most big cities (all of ’em, except for Portland) have switched to zone representation. It gives residential areas an elected point person in city governance. You have a go-to, a real person you can name. That representative is accountable for your community’s interests. Columbus residents have an opportunity to get zone representation with Issue One on August 2.

    For me, there’s nothing huge to gain: my neighborhood is affluent, it gets what it wants. But it’s hard on my conscience to watch the struggles in other neighborhoods. Columbus is a city with gargantuan zones of poverty: chronically failing schools, violence, high infant mortality rates, and abject hopelessness. I’d bet the residents there can’t name the seven council members either. Whatever “at large representation” means, it’s not working for them. Every time I hear “Columbus is doing GREAT!”, I marvel at the how tiny that speaker’s insulated world is. How do you overlook the city’s elephantine childhood poverty statistics? 34.1% of children in Columbus live in poverty; that’s a problem bigger than a bandaid on Linden.

    I don’t understand the anti-Issue One voices of opposition to change; especially the ones that misconstrue this movement as controlled by Koch brothers or Republicans or special interests. Is the opposition so blind to community concerns that it cannot see who drives this movement? To deny recognition to leader Jon Beard is alarmingly ignorant. He’s not new, he’s brought the issue to the table multiple times.

    Columbus deserves better. Its citizens, all of them, deserve representation. It also deserves campaigns with integrity. I get angry when those who oppose Issue One make false claims implying inevitable gerrymandering and out-of-context expenses… then justify the deceit with condescending misrepresentations of documents, underestimating the acuity of readers. You should be angry too. If Columbus is truly a Smart City, then the voters should be smart enough to cross check any campaign’s claims: read the documentation.

    Even if you’re not an independent voter, be an independent thinker; that’s how smarts are measured in this world. Local voters have reflexively re-elected leadership with ethical lapses that are the subjects of FBI and state investigations; leadership that registered a dead person’s handicapped space for personal use. You can do better. This is your chance to be the change you want to see in this city. This is a chance to give every person a voice and an advocate. Your vote makes a difference: yes it does. Yes yes YES.

    – Miriam Bowers Abbot

    If you would like to submit an opinion piece to Columbus Underground for publishing consideration, email your ideas to [email protected]

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    Miriam Bowers Abbott
    Miriam Bowers Abbotthttps://columbusunderground.com
    Miriam Bowers Abbott is a freelancer contributor to Columbus Underground who reviews restaurants, writes food-centric featurettes and occasionally pens other community journalism pieces.
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