Department of Addled Brains
Jeannette Sherwin
This message was posted by council member Nancy Nadel to the MGO list. At least one MGO member seemed to think it was a fine idea. She's also a member of the Oakland League of Women Voters which possibly explains why the League isn't getting anything done these days, particularly on the Measure X review committee.
Original Message
From: Nancy Nadel [mailto:nnadel@igc.org]
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 11:01 PM
To: mgotalk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [mgotalk] Youth council member
At one of the measure X meetings, a representative from the Youth
Commission, Jacky Johnson, came and gave a presentation suggesting a
youth member on the council. She suggested a variety of possible roles for such a representative with and without voting power. I thought it was a refreshing idea especially the concept of getting high school and older youth actually having the opportunity to vote for their rep and getting used to registering and being active voters. What do you think?
a) having a youth member
b) voting power of such a member
c) other possible roles of a youth member
d) age range of a youth member
e) age range of those who could vote for that member
f) vote through the schools or at the polls
Please tell Ms. Nadel via our Comments section what you think about this idea.
The desire to get young people involved in our city government is a dood one. This method, however, raises a number of questions.
To what extent should seats be delineated by age brackets? At what age does someone become inelegible for the gen-x seat and will this require mid-term elections? While we're at the process of insuring involvement by reserving seats, can we also do this for the various religious and ethnic groups in the city? Gender and sexual orientation should probably also be considered. I think that the hypo-allergenic population is definitely under-represented and should also get a seat, as should the differently-abled.
Posted by: Jim Ploss on July 14, 2003 05:56 AMNice to know there's a blog about Oakland. As for the "youth seat," it's a great idea and a good way to reengate youth in politics.
What makes professional sports so popular is that kids are able to play in the sport while they are young and emulate the older players.
There are so few similat examples in politics. The only one I can think of is the YMCA Youth and Government Program, which I ran in Fort Worth Texas from 1983 to 1984.
Finally, the major problem is that young people feel that politics is beyond their reach or concern. The current adminstration has helped change that some, but it's not enough.
This is a good step.
Posted by: Zennie on July 26, 2003 11:18 PMI think that most Oakland _adults_ feel that "politics is beyond their reach or concern." I see no signs at all that "the current administration has helped change that some" if you are referring to the mayor. It was the council that passed the new law requiring the city to produce bi-lingual pamphlets, et cetera.
A youth seat on the City Council? Are Jim Ploss and I the only 2 people who read the Snooze who think that a youth seat is the stupidest, most frivolous, wasteful and aggressively ill thought out sort of pandering???
Send COMMENTS, please, or no more juicy tidbits.
Just a warning. Okay, a threat.
Would the youth seat on the city council be called
the "high chair"?
Ha ha ha, it's 1:45 AM, this is an hysterical joke,
snort, guffaw, giggle. Repeat.
By current administration, I was referring to the interest amoung youth in protesting against the War and policies of the current adminstration, worldwide.
Change is clearly in order. Oakland's quite damanged. Moreover, more chaos will emerge after the March election.
Posted by: Zennie on August 3, 2003 01:00 PM*This discussion has been closed. No more comments may be added.*