ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240015
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WALTER S. CLAYTOR
WHILE IT is true in Roanoke the issue of wards has been on the agenda for many years, there are those of us who fervently believe that the politicians and the media have downplayed most of the advantages of a ward system, or what we are asking for: a modified ward system.
An at-large system caters to the haves or the elite at the expense of the have-nots. It can be shown that the contented classes that get things their way get out and vote, while in the poorer sections of town, the voters stay home and, as a result, suffer.
Over the years, we have been inundated with the thoughts about why wards are not good for us: racial overtones in regard to council's makeup, the size of the city, the dividing or pitting of one section of the city against another, stagnation, politicizing the issues even more and ad infinitum.
If wards are so bad, why do we have in Virginia 135 voting districts and 40 senatorial districts? Aren't these wards? Nationally we have 50 states. Senators and House of Representatives are in a proportion that supposedly represents the masses in Congress. Aren't these wards? Our neighbors to the North in the provinces of Canada, and most all the largest eastern cities, have wards. Vancouver and Victoria on the Western side of the country do not.
While Vancouver, like Roanoke, is struggling with its ethnic diversity, it is protecting its at-large system because it appeals to the largest cohesive voting group - business and development interests. One can hardly blame them, though, for it's been a gold mine for them - as it is here.
The flip side of this is Toronto, Canada's largest city, which went to wards long ago, as reported by Ben Parfitt in "The Georgia Straight." Somehow, in comparison, they ended up with a mass-transit system, subways, buses and streetcars that move more people more quickly than anything running in Vancouver. Also, Toronto has long-established greenways with their well-developed bikeways which run through ravines and along river corridors - still just a vision in Roanoke.
In addition, Toronto is miles ahead of Vancouver in sewage-treatment programs and water-conservation measures. The city's water consumers are taxed on a user basis and, consequently, consume far less water than their counterparts in Vancouver, where a low flat rate is charged.
The question begged at this point is: How can this all happen with wards vs. the at-large system?
The answer, according to Toronto's former mayor, John Sewell, is simple: "It's all about maintaining power through the election of at-large candidates who owe their seats to a small but wealthy and influential segment of society. There's no question that if you have at-large elections, the people who vote the most, which is those who have the most to gain or protect in society, get better represented than anybody else. And the disaffected, those people who don't think society is giving them a fair shake, tend not to vote. If you don't have a ward system, one interest they don't feel they have to represent is the local interest. So therefore, what they end up representing is their income interest or their class interest."
Isn't this Roanoke to a "T" ?
It is my belief that in Roanoke, the issue of disparity is no longer racial but economic. Black representatives do not necessarily live in traditionally black neighborhoods like Northwest or Southwest; neither have black at-large council members succeeded in representing the black neighborhoods, as they say they represent "the city" while some neighborhoods take the hindquarter.
"Brothers" aren't always advocates or even friends. But promises have a better chance of being kept if representatives have been reared in the homes and the streets of specific districts and are more familiar with that segment of the community's history, as well as its visions for the future.
No, Roanoke is no Vancouver, but I think we could learn about what works from a larger city like Toronto with a track record of success in urban planning and development based on citizen-inclusive government, without the ingrained arrogance exhibited by too many of our officials.
I think we should learn from our past that we have allowed an ever-expanding segment of this city to be disenfranchised and polarized by location, dislocation and income.
The "city as community" is not a concept that many of Roanoke's residents understand because it has never been nurtured on the agenda of its politicians. Change in politics-as-usual may be painful, but the alternative promises to be far worse. Yes, just look and be aware of your surroundings. Is it not so?
Walter S. Claytor is a retired dentist.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Nancy Ohanian/LATimesby CNB