Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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City Considering Redefining Voting Precincts

The city is looking at modifying its voting precincts, Henry Graff reports for NBC-29. Right now there are eight precincts of wildly differing populations, which means that different precincts have to handle different turnouts and political parties that weight their nominations by precinct are making some people’s votes worth more than others’. Voter registrar Sheri Iachetta will be educating City Council on the topic, so that when census data comes out in February, they’ll be prepared to consider whether and how to modify those precinct boundaries based on that new data.

Out of curiosity, I took the results of the 2008 presidential elections by precinct, compared the percentage of the city’s vote that was cast in each precinct, and graphed how far off from the ideal percentage each precinct is. With eight precincts, each one should, ideally, be receiving 1/8 of voters, or 12.5%. Yet (for example) the Venable precinct received 18% of all votes, a 47% overrepresentation. The results look like this:

Obviously, turnout varies from election to election by a certain percentage, but even allowing for that, most of these precincts are wildly mis-sized. I’ve been told that the precincts haven’t really changed for many years. They were established back when the city was smaller, in terms of square miles, and as the city grew, precincts were simply expanded to reach the new borders. I don’t know if that’s true, but looking at the map, it makes sense.

Whatever changes Council winds up making, they’ll have to be signed off on by the Department of Justice, as is required under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act for most of the south, a result of historical discrimination against minorities.

A Photo Tour of the Meadowcreek Parkway

Bill McChesney strolled down the completed county portion of the Meadowcreek Parkway, and provides this photo set of what it looks like. A street sign reads “Meadow Creek Parkway,” so apparently the county just decided to go with the informal name that’s been bandied about for years. That means that somebody driving in a straight line south from Rio will, without ever turning, drive on Meadow Creek Parkway, McIntire Road, Ridge Street, Fifth Street, Fifth Street Extended, and Old Lynchburg Road. Fourteen miles, six names, one road.

WTJU Station Manager Resigns

WTJU station manager Burr Beard has resigned, Tyler McGill writes on the WTJU In Crisis blog. Citing “family concerns,” his resignation is apparently effective immediately. Beard’s planned overhaul of the station’s format led to a public rebellion by long-time volunteers, leading to some backpedaling on the university’s part, but without a clear path forward for the station. Presumably now the path is even less clear.

City Reduces School Dropout Rate

The Progress reports some good news from the city school system: there’s been a 40% reduction in dropouts at CHS over last year. Eleven percent of kids due to graduate in 2009 failed to do so; of kids due to graduate this past spring, only 6.8% didn’t. For comparison, the statewide rate is 8.2%. City schools attribute the improvement to programs that they have put into place to reduce dropout rates.

Martha Jefferson Merging with Sentara

Martha Jefferson is getting swallowed up, the Daily Progress reports. They’re merging with Sentara Healthcare, a non-profit healthcare conglomerate that owns eight hospitals in Virginia and North Carolina. In a statement on their website, Martha Jefferson says that the process will take about six months, and is subject to regulatory approval.

Some of the most obvious concerns here are how this will affect quality of care, whether Martha Jefferson (as an entity and as a collection of employees) is served well by this move, and if any layoffs are likely to result from redundancies created by the merger.

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