Restoring 7 Council districts

The Council has recently abandoned the 7 council districts the Town has maintained since its incorporation.  The move to 5 districts reduces the variety of voices in Town decisions.  It encourages a top-down attitude allowing 3 members to make decisions for the entire Town.  It also leaves several neighborhoods without an adequate voice.

The Town is apparently required to use entire federal census blocks to form districts.  Part of the justification for going to 5 districts is the irregular composition of census blocks in Town which make it difficult to design districts with equal populations.  These blocks are not consistent with our neighborhood boundaries.

We should demand that the Census Bureau break up large census blocks and redesign blocks which represent Woodside’s diverse neighborhoods.  Then, after the next census, we can revert to 7 neighborhood based districts.