The Highlands is a community represented by three different councilmen. How can our hopes, our dreams, our concerns for a cohesive neighborhood ever be realized by diffused brand of politics?
As a neighborhood, we rally around the elementary school we share and proudly boast of its successes. We see them as proof of our collective potential. However those from the outside looking in have chosen overlook them, thereby depressing our opportunities for growth and development.
The fact that we are so culturally diverse while at the same time coexist in a peaceful, homogeneous environment is a testimonial to our collective strength as a neighborhood. We need to fight for our right to speak with one voice. One powerful voice.
How do we do that? The same way all reforms are achieved in a democracy, by the ballot box. That is a little easier said than done. Normally it's one man, one vote. In the Highlands it's one man, one third a vote. The Highlands is gerrymandered in such a way that our polling places are out of our specific community. Effectively this reduces voter turnout imposing limits on the volume of an already fractured voice.
We need to return voting back to the Ford School as a polling place so the city of Lynn can hear what we say!
After a registration drive, as many Highlands residents voted as folks on Ocean St. Voting ended at the Ford School in 2004. Since that time the number of voters in the Highlands has dropped by 30-40%. We need a unified Highlands, which can come out of the 2010 Census
ReplyDeleteI agree. Everyone needs to write or call city hall.
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