By Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-712294.mp3
Dallas, TX – Zeeble: Diane Ragsdale stands outside the non-profit Inner City Development Corporation on Spring Avenue, near Fair Park. Across the street there's new housing construction under way in this long disregarded part of town. Before Ragsdale ever ran the corporation, she represented this area on the Dallas city council. From 1983 through 1991, she was one of two minority members on a council of 10 plus the mayor. Assertive, outspoken, at times angry, council woman Ragsdale said minorities were ignored by her city. She helped engineer the lawsuit that led to 14 single member districts, where citizens choose council members from their own region. . Today, there are 7 minority & 7 white council members, plus a white mayor. With this new diversity, Ragsdale says the city's finally paying attention to neglected areas.
Diane Ragsdale: It's taken a while. All new systems take a while. We can't ignore that. It's not going to jump right away and take off right away. Even after the American Revolution you had the Civil War. Things take a while. Even after you beget a structure, it takes a while to put that structure in place so it can be worked and realized.
Zeeble: Ragsdale says real gains HAVE been realized. More than a million and a half dollars in city bond funds are helping to clear this land for 51 affordable homes. Millions more in city money will help build them, replacing dilapidated public housing. Prior to 14-1, Ragsdale says this money would never have been spent here.
Ragsdale: The fundamental structure has changed. That's what dictates public policy. You not only have more voices at the table as a result of 14-1, you have more votes. That's critical.
Zeeble: Today, those voices include Latinos, representing the city's growing Hispanic population. Hector Flores, immediate past national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, praises the single member district system. At DFW Airport awaiting a flight, he says it has improved the lives of Latinos.
Hector Flores, immediate past national president, LULAC:It's definitely expanded the number of representatives we have on the city council. That gives us an opportunity to express our needs in a more concerted effort than previously. Before we had one maybe two on the council. It's made governance more inclusive. Before, it used to be an exclusive club of, basically, white business guys and maybe 1, 2 females. That's changed. It's more in keeping with what Democracy's about - representative government.
Zeeble: But former Dallas council woman Donna Blumer thinks the system may have overstepped its bounds. She agrees a structural change was needed, and, so were more minority voices. But 20 years ago, she preferred the voter-approved configuration that would have created 10 smaller district seats, plus 4 members, each elected by a quarter of the city, with a mayor chosen by everyone.
Donna Blumer, former Dallas City Council member: I thought that there needed to be more people on the council who were in a position to have a citywide perspective, that person would have options, could go to other council members to hear their story. And right now, I feel that if you live in a certain district, the only council member that you can talk to is your council member and you may not have supported him or her during the election. And so, now we just have the mayor, and the mayor is too busy really to get involved in too many inter-council disputes.
Zeeble: Blumer served on the council in the early days of 14-1, from 1993 to 2-thousand-one. Since then, she's seen growing turf battles over zoning issues, where council members want no interference from those outside the district. Blumer recalls a zoning dispute over a big movie theater, Tinseltown, that wanted to build in her district. She fought and won that battle in a close, council vote. But things have changed. These days, she says zoning decisions like Tinseltown are left to the council person. What if, she worried, the district had a different representative who favored the project. Local residents might have had no council person to oppose it.
Blumer: I don't think that's healthy. I think when you have a really big, really important case like that, that all the council members need to get involved, and I don't think that would happen today.
Zeeble: Long-time south Dallas activist Betty Culbreath also dislikes the system of 14 single member districts. That sets her apart from many other African Americans. Like Blumer, Culbreath favored council seats that represented 4 geographic segments of the city. She's also never seen improvements to minority neighborhoods promised by advocates of 14-1.
Betty Culbreath: I have not seen anything in twenty-one years change. I have seen the same vacant lot that the City of Dallas owns. I have seen the same weeds. I have driven over the same potholes on Hampton Road. My! I have seen the streets that used to be swept when I first moved into my neighborhood no longer swept.
Zeeble: Attorney Mike Daniel, a plaintiff's lawyer in the case 20 years ago, says that's missing the point. Because the suit only addressed under-representation of minorities on the Dallas city council, as guaranteed by the voting rights act.
Mike Daniel, attorney: That's a real problem and the voting rights act solved a real problem: Stripping people of a vote of any meaning because of the color of their skin. That's what happened with 14-1. It solved that problem for Dallas. It didn't solve the problem of awful neighborhoods, deliberate abuse and neglect of people because of race in a variety of services.
Zeeble: Those problems, in part, are solved by skilled elected officials, according to Reverend Gerald Britt, with Central Dallas Ministries. He says some of those problems are now being addressed by the expanded city council. He drives along Bexar street in the Ideal Neighborhood of south Dallas. Ignored for 50 years, he says there's finally new road and housing construction here. Without the 14 single member system, he says there would've been no investment, no one to fight for the area's needs.
Britt: No one in power gives up power willingly. If we had waited for the white power structure to recognize that it's just the right thing to do - to make sure interests of minorities are represented on the city council proportionately - it never would have happened. You don't have a chance if you're not there.
Zeeble: Now Britt says, it's up to the minority community to nurture politically mature, effective council candidates, then elect them. Bill Zeeble KERA news
Bzeeble@Kera.Org