However, i am of the opinion that the previous district lines also favored the machine or non-permanent student population.
With recent redistricting, district 4 lost pinehurst, guildswood sherwood drive and caplewood and all of the new dorms on jack Warner.
Most residents of caplewood are students, as are all in the dorms. These all went to district 1.
District 4 picked up some areas between queen city and downtown , including the driud city historic district . we also picked up capstone village which is all non-student (and hopefully full of active voters)
The only way to truly know whether the recent redistricting has made district 4 any more machine dominated would be to compare voting lists from previous years.
The only way to ensure that no district is ever dominated by non-permanent residents is to split the university area in half instead of concentrating most of it in one district.
I also see a possible issue with district 1 becoming student controlled. With the huge dorms in that district, if the student residents voted as a block, virtually no one else would have a chance.
The issue becomes how many are actually registered voters and how many go out and vote.
Kelly
On Friday, August 2, 2013, John Earl wrote:
District 4 was recently redrawn in a way that made it a virtual extension of
The Machine.
And a good deal of money from PACs has poured into the coffers of
candidates in the district who were products of The Machine. Candidates
who are recently graduated students ( or even still in school ) have an
advantage from the standpoint that they are running in a University
student dominated district ( in which students are only itinerant
residents ) and the fact that, for some reason, their campaigns are
generously funded. One might even think that they are given so much
money from individuals and PACS because they will be expected to always
vote in lock-step with the "business community" as opposed to voting in
the interests of permanent residents in the district.