Ok, after I put up that last post, where I posted some maps and confessed I didn't know what was going on, I talked to Chair Torgerson about the process.
He showed me on the Auto Bound software how you create a new plan and give it a name. He pulled up a new blank map of Alaska. Well, it's not completely blank. There are lots of lines that he thought were various local boundaries or geographic features. Everyone started with fresh maps.
The techs weren't given any instructions except to just work on districts and learn the software. He said they seemed to be having a hard time getting out of Fairbanks and Kenai, which seem to be the hardest places because of the excess population. My understanding of that is this: each district should be as close to 17,755 people as possible. Fairbanks and Kenai each have enough for, I think five and three districts respectively, but then they have left over population for another half a district. So figuring out how to use that left over population is the hard part.
[UPDATE: I got clarification on this later. Kenai's population works out well to (I think) three complete districts. But Kodiak needs population so they were experimenting with population from Kenai. These are all very preliminary maps as the new techs are getting up to speed on this.]
Torgerson also said they were using a lot of approaches and coming up with unique options.
These working meetings are going to continue through the 21st of June. Board members will drift in and out as their schedule permits. I think there are three Board members here today. I've seen Torgerson and Green, and I think Brodie is in the back working on his own maps. Torgerson thought Jim Holm would fly down for tomorrow. Yes, the Board members will work through the weekend along with Eric, but the other two techs - Ray and Erin - are off for the weekend.
The 21st is also the date that third party plans are due - by noon. During the last process there were a lot of sample maps that people could see and comment on during this stage, if I recall correctly, but it appears that this time there won't be any until next Friday.
Friday, June 14, 2013
What Am I Doing Here? Some Maps As Of Now While I Try To Figure This Out
I didn't come in until 1pm today to watch the Alaska Redistricting board move pixels around on their way to a new plan. It almost feels like the first meeting I came to and had no idea what was happening. These are work meetings so there is a lot of silence and then quiet conversations.
I still have a lot questions about how this is being done. I don't know how the districts on these maps got to be the way they are. Did they start from a blank map or from a previous template of districts? I got conflicting answers yesterday. I'll try to clear this up.
[UPDATE 3:30pm: After I posted this I talked briefly to chair John Torgerson and got some answers to my questions about what is actually going on. I posted that here.]
I did not make it the first day when, perhaps, they explained things. But there is no one transcribing - which would be tedious because there are long, long periods of silence except for the noise of the cooling equipment. Which will make it difficult to record.
They had a lot of districts and a lot of numbers on the maps. I'm waiting for someone to walk outside of the working meeting so I can ask questions.
I'm trying to square what's happening now with what happened when they did this before. I think much of what I'm seeing now happened in people's offices before the actual meetings. Then at the meetings they discussed what was on the maps. Now the three techs are in here at their computers. Two of them are hooked up to projectors so you can see what they are doing on a big screen. John Torgerson is in here too and asking questions, but unless I stand close, it's often hard to hear over the air coolers and the fans. And it seems pointless. Thinks like will they have to go to Anchorage to get enough people for Matsu and for Kenai.
"That makes sense if you pick up these pieces. Are you into the Matsu here? Or Anchorage? Here's the borough. What was your deviation? 4.8. That green doesn't belong over here."
Not really too meaningful without being able to see the maps they're talking about, and even then, I'm not sure.
Anchorage is 16 (15?) districts . . .
So, I'm just going to give you some maps. I'm not sure who is looking here and what they'd like to see. In any case, this is a snapshot of where things stood mid-afternoon (before 2:30pm) June 14. There will be some overlap because different photos covered different parts of the same area.
Statewide:
Western Alaska
Central Alaska area
Fairbanks area
Matsu area
Anchorage/Matsu areas
Anchorage area
Anchorage again from Ray's screen
Kenai Peninsula:
OK, that's what I have for now. I did take some video which I'll check on later to see if the sound came out over the cooling noise.
John Torgerson just walked in with Board member Marie Green whom he introduced to the techs.
I still have a lot questions about how this is being done. I don't know how the districts on these maps got to be the way they are. Did they start from a blank map or from a previous template of districts? I got conflicting answers yesterday. I'll try to clear this up.
[UPDATE 3:30pm: After I posted this I talked briefly to chair John Torgerson and got some answers to my questions about what is actually going on. I posted that here.]
I did not make it the first day when, perhaps, they explained things. But there is no one transcribing - which would be tedious because there are long, long periods of silence except for the noise of the cooling equipment. Which will make it difficult to record.
They had a lot of districts and a lot of numbers on the maps. I'm waiting for someone to walk outside of the working meeting so I can ask questions.
I'm trying to square what's happening now with what happened when they did this before. I think much of what I'm seeing now happened in people's offices before the actual meetings. Then at the meetings they discussed what was on the maps. Now the three techs are in here at their computers. Two of them are hooked up to projectors so you can see what they are doing on a big screen. John Torgerson is in here too and asking questions, but unless I stand close, it's often hard to hear over the air coolers and the fans. And it seems pointless. Thinks like will they have to go to Anchorage to get enough people for Matsu and for Kenai.
"That makes sense if you pick up these pieces. Are you into the Matsu here? Or Anchorage? Here's the borough. What was your deviation? 4.8. That green doesn't belong over here."
Not really too meaningful without being able to see the maps they're talking about, and even then, I'm not sure.
Anchorage is 16 (15?) districts . . .
So, I'm just going to give you some maps. I'm not sure who is looking here and what they'd like to see. In any case, this is a snapshot of where things stood mid-afternoon (before 2:30pm) June 14. There will be some overlap because different photos covered different parts of the same area.
Statewide:
 |
| Double click any image to enlarge a little more |
Western Alaska
Central Alaska area
Fairbanks area
Matsu area
Anchorage/Matsu areas
Anchorage area
Anchorage again from Ray's screen
Kenai Peninsula:
OK, that's what I have for now. I did take some video which I'll check on later to see if the sound came out over the cooling noise.
John Torgerson just walked in with Board member Marie Green whom he introduced to the techs.
Anchorage Has More Summer In The Last Week Than All Last Summer
Or so it seems.
11pm returning from the airport Wednesday night after dropping some visitors for their trip back to Singapore.
This week we've had six days over 70˚F and there are predictions of into the 80s this weekend. A little warm for my blood.
As we head for the solstice next week, we gain less and less daylight per day - only 1 minute 24 seconds today, according to the ADN weather page. Sunset at 11:39pm and sunrise at 4:21am.
11pm returning from the airport Wednesday night after dropping some visitors for their trip back to Singapore.
Midnight returning from the airport Thursday night after dropping a friend on his way to India.
This week we've had six days over 70˚F and there are predictions of into the 80s this weekend. A little warm for my blood.
As we head for the solstice next week, we gain less and less daylight per day - only 1 minute 24 seconds today, according to the ADN weather page. Sunset at 11:39pm and sunrise at 4:21am.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Former Redistricting Board Director Taylor Bickford Is NOT Coming Back To The Board
I posted on June 4 that the Board was going to rehire former Executive Director Taylor Bickford on a part time basis to help with the mapping. When the Board went on hiatus after the Interim Plan was accepted last May, Taylor was hired as the Director of Alaska Operations with Strategies 360 - a PR firm whose Alaska office also includes former Alaska Public Radio reporter David Shurtleff and former state house member and gubernatorial candidate Ethan Berkowitz.
But Taylor wasn't here working on the mapping, so I contacted him to find out what the story was. He told me that when he was first contacted by the Board to see if he could come back to assist, that he'd said he now has a full time job, that he could only do part time help, and that Strateiges 360 would have to be his first priority. They hadn't yet signed off a final agreement and the possibility of conflicts of interest with clients became an issue that could become an issue for both himself and the board. In the end, he told me, it didn't seem to be worth the potential problems for the small amount of time he'd be able to spend on Board work.
So, Taylor is not coming back to the Board. That's a loss for the Board. Taylor has strong interpersonal skills and always seemed more sensitive to the needs for good communication with the public about what the Board was doing.
But Taylor wasn't here working on the mapping, so I contacted him to find out what the story was. He told me that when he was first contacted by the Board to see if he could come back to assist, that he'd said he now has a full time job, that he could only do part time help, and that Strateiges 360 would have to be his first priority. They hadn't yet signed off a final agreement and the possibility of conflicts of interest with clients became an issue that could become an issue for both himself and the board. In the end, he told me, it didn't seem to be worth the potential problems for the small amount of time he'd be able to spend on Board work.
So, Taylor is not coming back to the Board. That's a loss for the Board. Taylor has strong interpersonal skills and always seemed more sensitive to the needs for good communication with the public about what the Board was doing.
Redistricting Board's GIS Techs Are Designing New Districts
The two new techs appear to be just trying to make things work, technically, without political consideration. They seem to just be trying to get districts that meet the parameters - 17,755 people per district, compact, socio-economically integrated (though I'm not sure how they figure that from the data on the computer).
There are long periods of silence and then there's some discussion which is hard to catch on video because of the noise of the fans and coolers.
But here are some pictures so you can see what's happening
Eric working his computer which is projected on the wall behind him.
This is Ray doing the same thing. He was working on Fairbanks here I believe.
I'll add some video below, but here's a sense of how they are doing things. From the upper left image, Eric zoomed into the middle image, and then to the lower right image. For the middle to lower right transition I'm not completely sure why there's a flat line on the bottom - maybe the angle continues, but it just got cut off at the bottom.
*I asked Eric why the Target column said 17,756 and he said something like, it was an adjustment the computer did and it would have to be reset to 17,555.
So, each time they make a change in a district - like move a census bloc to a different district - these numbers can change.
These are the controls they have for making changes.
Every now and then there is some discussion. The third tech, whose name I haven't gotten yet, switched computers with Eric, so her map is now projected on the screen. When she moved over, Torgerson asked her some questions, like "why do you have that big thumb sticking out?" Then he saw that it followed the river, which conforms to the principle of
"Follow natural and physical geographic boundaries such as major roads, major arterials, rivers, streams and creeks."
At least on the river side, but what about the neighborhood on the other side? That's one of the problems here - you can only use the census blocs and they may not fall the way that looks best.
As I'm watching this, it seems more and more obvious that at least the first stabs at the districts should just be done by computer which would be infinitely faster than humans moving census blocs around. Then people could eyeball the results for those kinds of things human brains can still see better than computers can.
The video is short - I spared you the long waiting for the computer to react to the click of the mouse. It gives you a sense of what most of today has been like.
Fairbanks, Cordova, Kodiak - Board Working On New Districts
I took a break - it was too hot in here and nothing was happening and I had something else to check up on. I ran into Board Member Bob Brodie in the hall way who said they were debating whether connecting Kodiak and Cordova would be considered compact or whether it would be better to pair Kodiak with part of Homer. One would be more socio-economically integrated and the other more compact. Figuring out how the court would interpret things.
They were talking about connecting Cordova and Fairbanks as I sit here. But all of this is just playing around for now. The new techs may know GIS but they seem to have lot of catch-up to do with redistricting.
Board Attorney Michael White was in the room when I got back here, but he's gone now. Back to Chair Torgerson and the three techs.
They seem to be getting ready for a lunch break. They've shut down the projectors and are walking out.
[I can't get the preview in Blogger to work now, so I can't see what the post will look like before I post it. But this is pretty short and no pictures so it should be ok.]
They were talking about connecting Cordova and Fairbanks as I sit here. But all of this is just playing around for now. The new techs may know GIS but they seem to have lot of catch-up to do with redistricting.
Board Attorney Michael White was in the room when I got back here, but he's gone now. Back to Chair Torgerson and the three techs.
They seem to be getting ready for a lunch break. They've shut down the projectors and are walking out.
[I can't get the preview in Blogger to work now, so I can't see what the post will look like before I post it. But this is pretty short and no pictures so it should be ok.]
Overheated Redistricting Board Work Session
 |
| Chair Torgerson in yellow shirt |
The door was closed to the meeting room? Another executive session? That wasn't on the announcement. But Mary, the Board's administrative aide tells me it's because the air conditioning in the building isn't working. The room was really warm last time I was here.
Big windows with morning sun shining in. Apparently it could be like this until they finish. Though some cooler cloudy days should fix it.
 |
| The cooling system |
But that means for now they have some sort of standing cooler that makes a lot of noise, so any audio recording will be real difficult in here. And they aren't saying much anyway.
The only Board member here is John Torgerson. (I got here ten minutes late.) Eric Sandberg, the GIS person from the Department of Natural Resources who was lent to the Board for mapping in the original process. There are two other people sitting at the table with computers. [I found out they're both GIS folks from the State Department of Natural Resources.] Not even an attorney. And no one in the cheap seats but me. [Whoops, 9:35 and someone else has joined me. Not sure who he is.]
9:20am They’re bringing in two fans. They’re “Holmes” brand. If I were a conspiracy theorist and I didn’t know how Board member Jim Holm spells his name, I might suspect some sort of questionable contracting. It’s easy to jump to invalid conclusions.
See what happens when we get a week of sunshine with the temps into the 70s? We all melt.
I can't really tell what parts of the state they are working on. Two of the four computers are on screens.
A number of people who know that I'm covering the redistricting board have asked why they just don't use some optimization programs to come up with the most viable maps and start from there. I know that terms like 'socio-economic integration" are hard to define - but people say it can be done, and it would be much more transparent that way (having to clearly define it for the computer) than it is now. It would still leave the eyeball test at the end. Here we have two new people to the process working on it with Eric. Since I missed the beginning I don't know why the other Board members aren't here.
It even looks like I got some wifi in here for the first time in two years. Let me check and try to post this. I have a 10am meeting, so I'm going to have to leave soon anyway.
9:45 Board member Bob Brodie just walked in, but Chair Torgerson is out of the room.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
It's Summer In Anchorage And The Moose Are Calving
I was on my bike when I saw the three moose walking across the empty lot that once was a trailer park. I barely had time to get my camera out of my pocket and take a quick picture before they disappeared.
It's been blue skies and warm temperatures since we got back to Anchorage last Wednesday night. I think Anchorage has had more summer weather already than all last summer. Our indoor-outdoor thermometer says it's 79˚F (26˚C) out on our deck. That's hot for Anchorage.
Public Notice Problems: Alaska Redistricting Board Is, Isn't, Is Meeting Today
Last Friday the Redistricting Board set a tentative schedule - they emphasized flexibility based on the Board's availability - that had them start having work meetings today, Wednesday, June 12, to draw up the new redistricting plan.
But I got an email after the meeting from the Redistricting Board's automatic notices that said:
So I called the Board and found out the meeting had started today at 9:20am. It was scheduled to begin at 9am but Member Holm had trouble getting there on time from the airport. They are apparently introducing the GIS people. I have something else scheduled today so I'm going to miss this.
Now that I'm checking more thoroughly, the calendar, does show a meeting today starting at 9am. This has not been the way I've followed when the meetings would be over the last few years. In the past, the main page generally (emphasis on generally) was where I could find the details of the next meetings.
I think it's pretty clear that the Board is suffering from not having an Executive Director who takes care of all these issues, like keeping the public informed about the meetings and keeping the website current. They chose not to hire anyone for the position after it became clear their apparently pre-selected candidate proved to be vastly out qualified by another candidate when they were forced to make the candidate's names and resumes public at the last minute by the Anchorage Daily News.
But I got an email after the meeting from the Redistricting Board's automatic notices that said:
"The Alaska Redistricting Board today voted unanimously to solicit public input and approve a schedule to work toward the adoption of a new Hickel Plan.WORK SCHEDULEDuring the time period of June 13 to June 20, Board members and staff will hold daily work sessions at the Alaska Redistricting Office (411 W. 4th Avenue, Suite 302, Anchorage, AK 99501). The purpose of the work sessions will be to create draft Hickel Plans for the Board to consider, in accordance with the recent Superior Court directive.
The Board's web calendar (available at www.akredistricting.org) will be updated no later than June 13 to reflect the schedule of work sessions, Board meetings, public hearings, and submission deadlines outlined above. "OK, so I thought I should find out what time the meeting would be tomorrow, since there were no times on the email and their website main page says:
"June 7 Meeting Reminder
June 6, 2013
Posted by Redistricting Board Staff
--The Alaska Redistricting Board will meet via teleconference at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, June 7, 2013. The purpose of the meeting is to receive a report on legal issues and discuss a schedule for future Board work sessions and meetings."
So I called the Board and found out the meeting had started today at 9:20am. It was scheduled to begin at 9am but Member Holm had trouble getting there on time from the airport. They are apparently introducing the GIS people. I have something else scheduled today so I'm going to miss this.
Now that I'm checking more thoroughly, the calendar, does show a meeting today starting at 9am. This has not been the way I've followed when the meetings would be over the last few years. In the past, the main page generally (emphasis on generally) was where I could find the details of the next meetings.
I think it's pretty clear that the Board is suffering from not having an Executive Director who takes care of all these issues, like keeping the public informed about the meetings and keeping the website current. They chose not to hire anyone for the position after it became clear their apparently pre-selected candidate proved to be vastly out qualified by another candidate when they were forced to make the candidate's names and resumes public at the last minute by the Anchorage Daily News.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
"They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking." George Carlin
“Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own, and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, Lobbying, to get what they want.The rest of this quote from George Carlin is at this link.
Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking’ years ago. They don’t want that."
[UPDATE: Just after I posted this I thought I ought to check to be sure that Carlin actually said this. This Youtube video is pretty good proof.]
I always seem to have way too many windows open in Firefox. I go through them regularly and get rid of the ones I don't need any more. As I did that this morning, I found the above quote. I have no recollection of opening it or how it got there. But there it was.
It's pretty grim and probably a little exaggerated. I know Alaska legislators and Assembly members who aren't bought and paid for. Alaska Democrats have been fighting the oil companies, for instance, and just yesterday I got an email directing me to this website that has a counter showing the money being given by the state to the oil companies because of the recent tax cut the governor pushed.
While I may nitpick with Carlin's picture, overall it's a lot more accurate description than say this vision extracted from the Republican platform of 2012:
"Republicans believe in the Great American Dream, with its economics of inclusion, enabling everyone to have a chance to own, invest, build, and prosper. It is the opposite of the policies which, for the last three and a half years, have stifled growth, destroyed jobs, halted investment, created unprecedented uncertainty, and prolonged the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Those policies have placed the federal government in the driver’s seat, rather than relying on energetic and entrepreneurial Americans to rebuild the economy from the ground up. Excessive taxation and regulation impede economic development. Lowering taxes promotes substantial economic growth and reducing regulation encourages business formation and job creation. Knowing that, a Republican President and Congress will jumpstart an economic renewal that creates opportunity, rewards work and saving, and unleashes the productive genius of the American people. Because the GOP is the Great Opportunity Party, this is our pledge to workers without jobs, families without savings, and neighborhoods without hope: together we can get our country back on track, expanding its bounty, renewing its faith, and fulfilling its promise of a better life."I thought I'd check the Democratic platform as well, thinking it would echo a lot of the Republican American dream. Most of it is a list of things the Obama administration had done. I was surprised to see that parts are much closer to Carlin than I expected. Though much toned down.
"For too long, we've had a financial system that stacked the deck against ordinary Americans. Banks on Wall Street played by different rules than businesses on Main Street and community banks. Without strong enough regulations, families were enticed, and sometimes tricked, into buying homes they couldn't afford. Banks and investors were allowed to package and sell risky mortgages. Huge reckless bets were made with other people's money on the line.
That behavior not only nearly destroyed the financial system, it cost our economy millions of jobs, hurt middle class and poor families, and left taxpayers holding the bill. . .
Republicans would continue to allow lobbyists too much sway over lawmakers, leading to gridlock in Washington, an outdated regulatory system, and a tax code riddled with loopholes. The President put in place unprecedented ethics reforms and we're fighting for campaign finance reform. We know that millions of Americans are struggling to get by, and their voices shouldn't be drowned out by millions of dollars in secret special-interest lobbying and advertising."
And Libertarians? They seem to support the rule of corporations that Carlin decries. Here are some excerpts from their platform:
2.1 Property and Contract
"Property rights are entitled to the same protection as all other human rights. The owners of property have the full right to control, use, dispose of, or in any manner enjoy, their property without interference, until and unless the exercise of their control infringes the valid rights of others. We oppose all controls on wages, prices, rents, profits, production, and interest rates. We advocate the repeal of all laws banning or restricting the advertising of prices, products, or services. We oppose all violations of the right to private property, liberty of contract, and freedom of trade. The right to trade includes the right not to trade — for any reasons whatsoever. Where property, including land, has been taken from its rightful owners by the government or private action in violation of individual rights, we favor restitution to the rightful owners."
2.6 Monopolies and Corporations
We defend the right of individuals to form corporations, cooperatives and other types of companies based on voluntary association. We seek to divest government of all functions that can be provided by non-governmental organizations or private individuals. We oppose government subsidies to business, labor, or any other special interest. Industries should be governed by free markets.
I don't believe anything is a done deal. The world is always changing. An accurate picture of what we're up against is an important first step in figuring out how to fight for a fairer world.
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