Detroit City Council members no longer “at large”

I’ve got problems with Chicago aldermen and their ways of shaking down developers for campaign contributions, but boy, it must be an even worse system when the city council is “at large” and not responsible to the people in a certain area.  After almost a century, Detroit voters finally scrapped that system, and districts will be drawn up for the 2013 elections.

Will the top vote getters (and aspirants) posture differently than otherwise — with eyes on the at-large seats of 2013? And while we haven’t plotted out the addresses of the new council members, and while the new district boundaries are yet to be drawn, if the past is any guide, most of these candidates come from the city’s middle class islands, and more than a few of them are neighbors. Chances are that some of the council members eyeing district seats will be looking across the meeting table at likely opponents, and they’ll know that their potential audience is a specific community as well as the city at large.

Another change in the game: Unlike in the past, council candidates will have new incentives for challenging one another, which has largely been absent from the popularity contests that have passed for campaigns in the past. That could mean more negativity, rancor and factionalism in city politics — particularly as we near the next elections. But it could also bring the kind of feet-to-the-fire debates and discussions that the city needs more than ever.

Metro Times – Blogs: News Blawg.