Postby twincitizen » January 29th, 2019, 9:57 am
Minneapolis' 70-something orgs should really consolidate to something resembling St. Paul's 17 district councils, with a goal of 30 or fewer organizations. The consolidated ones like Longfellow and East Nokomis are "right-sized", while having separate 501c3 organizations for tiny Bryant neighborhood (population < 2,000) is ridiculous. The "right size" for these organizations is probably a range of 1-2 square miles in the densely populated areas (Whittier is fine as-is, for example), and 3-5 square miles in the less populated outskirts (see Longfellow, East Nokomis).
For many of these orgs, growing is the only way they'll have a shot a finding enough renters, POC, etc. These organizations cannot continue to be run by the same 5-10 people since the 1990s, regardless of their race/gender/owner-renter status.
Or, as Nick has said previously, maybe the Council Ward is a small enough "lowest level" of government, and we don't actually need anything smaller. As the City's population grows, I'd be ok with adding 2 more councilmembers if it meant we could stop funding these neighborhood groups. 450k people / 15 wards = 30,000 ppw. That's roughly how many people lived in each ward at the last redistricting after the 2010 Census.