Kansas City Star & East Side Leaders Work To Uphold Outdated Barrio Politics

Kansas City redistricting has mostly been ignored.

For good reason . . . It's a byzantine process that only interests municipal wonks. 

The appointments from Mayor Q mostly signal the longstanding efforts to maintain the political status quo of the 3rd District at all costs . . . Despite population shifts i.e. residents voting with their feet.

Reality check . . . In order to preserve historically Afrcian-American voting districts . . . They're going to have to carve up neighborhoods with growing populations of Latinos.

But here's the punchline . . .

KANSAS CITY'S LATINO RESIDENTS DON'T CARE ABOUT REDISTRICTING FIGHTS BECAUSE BARRIO POLITICS MOSTLY SERVES TO HOLD BACK REAL PROGRESS!!!

Also . . .

Voter turnout shows us that local Latinos generally don't care about voting in municipal elections altogether.

Even more interestingly . . . 

For Latinos to win a spot on council or anywhere else . . . They're not going to be able to rely on gerrymandered districts and need to be able to sell themselves to the voters at-large. So far this hasn't worked but behind the scenes there's an effort to recruit a few tokens for the next round of upcoming elections . . . We hope that more serious people will step up . . . But a victory won't be achieved by a "Latino council district" . . . In the last redistricting effort, old school politico Steve Glorioso championed that outdated idea and the 4th District ended up with council dude Eric Bunch - An activist BLM crusader who has mostly been hostile to neighborhood leaders outside of his bicycle gang. 

But I digress . . .

In Kansas City Latinos have sprawled beyond any single neighborhood. Most are priced out of the Westside and have now moved to Northeast and the East side.

A large enclave remains in Westport and Midtown but, honestly, there are more Latinos in the Northland than most politicos realize.

And all of this background is mostly to inform and provide an alternative against mainstream news garbage which attempts to explain the racially charged process of redistricting without making people uncomfortable . . .

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . . 

Don't silence another generation of Hispanic voices in Kansas City Council districts

OPINION AND COMMENTARY Kansas City may soon approve City Council district maps that, with luck and good sense, will never be used. Instead, 2022 must be the year the city abandons its current six-district council configuration for a system that is fairer and more open. That isn't the case now.

KC scrambles to redraw new district borders by Dec. 1

On Sept. 8, nine individuals appointed by Mayor Quinton Lucas took on the monumental quest of Kansas City's six city council districts based on the most recent census data. These boundaries will hold a significant influence over the next decade of municipal politics.

You decide . . .