When a City Council candidate wins his or her own district,they should represent that district on Council. Voters from other districts should not be allowed to select the person that represents a district other than their own. There is something about citywide voting for City Council that just stinks. It goes against the democratic spirit. However, you cannot change the rules in the middle of the game. This time, city voters should vote for the most experienced, qualified, and best candidates on the ballot.In both cases that were mentioned, it could be that the second place finisher in the primary is the most qualified to serve. Before the next City Council elections, however, changes should be made that gives Council seats to candidates that win in their own districts.Bearden or Fountain City voters should not be able to determine who represents East or Norhwest Knoxville on City Council. You make an excellent argument saying if Rider deserves the seat because of her winning 43.5% showing in the primary, then Corcoran has an even greater claim to the 3rd District seat. Maybe if Mark knew that you were going to make that comparison he would have emphasized more of Rider's qualifications and included those with her impressive primary number. Of course,I don't think you could convince Mark to encourage votes for Corcoran even if Corcoran had won 99% of the primary vote.I sure could not endorse him no matter the primary results.

NO! The individual members of the City Council (and the County Commission and the State Legislature and the Congress) vote on issues that affect the entire city. I think the current setup, while not perfect, is about the best compromise one might hope for. If only the districts determined their representation it would be much easier for an ill-intentioned group to get significant representation on the Council. Given normal turnout rates, it is even feasible that they could take over the Council. Our current system is weak sauce in preventing that but so far, no group has been organized and funded well enough to defeat it. Apparently that has made you far too comfortable and trusting. I am not so afflicted.

Rather than a Black person being expected to understand and represent the Black community,(believe me, the Black community is no monolithic structure with a set of experiences, needs, and goals that are common across the structure) what we need is to be able to believe that every Council member has the best interests of all the citizens of the city at heart. If we ought to have a Black district, then given the population of Hispanics in the city, we clearly need a Hispanic district. Of course, there are plenty of Asian-Americans living in Knoxville so, I suppose we will need an Asian district. Having attended the Ramadan feast at the Mill and Mine this year, I am made aware that there is a significant Arab and/or Muslim population in Knoxville, I guess there is going to have to be a district for them too. Or OR, we could take positive steps to remove longstanding stigma and ensure that a candidate's ethnic background was immaterial in determining their chance of winning in any given district. The path to that is in the doing. We need to be able to point to minority or ethnic candidate wins in multiple districts to be comfortable in ignoring that as a consideration. Right now we cannot.

Again, this is an issue that affects the entire city (and county and region and state and nation). The idea that only the districts should determine their representation is ludicrous and ignores the fact that there are larger issues in play and what is neutral/good for a given district may well be bad for the larger community. It truly amazes me that you have trouble understanding the obvious truth in that.

The unwieldyness of voting for every Congresscritter is exactly why it makes sense to do it locally. I am fairly familiar with the travails of Blacks vis-a-vis the voting booth and other places. I know 6th district politicians. Whenever we have the opportunity to get past all of the crap of the past, I think we should. I also think we need to not pretend to be past it when we are not.

You are actively claiming that it would be best if people who do not even know any Black people have complete control over the local governmental representation of Blacks - except for the one that Blacks are generously given by dint of living where they are historically allowed to (/sarcasm). I've been Black for 62 years now. Good luck trying to make that sound like a good idea to me.

Yes, it's time. But gerrymandering has taken away the right of voters to vote for their local representatives. And Citizens United has taken away the power from the people and given it to the corporations and the individually wealthy. And the Primary procedures and national parties have taken away the rights of voters to have candidates they can support. And the Electoral College takes away "one person, one vote." There's lots of unfairness in our electoral system. What are you doing to make it better? I think it's important for City Council representatives to realize they are there to support all the citizens of the city. And that includes minority districts, wherever they are located.

And you haven't made any arguments at all in opposition to citywide City Council elections. All you have done is state your opinion multiple times with nothing to say why. So yes, I will continue to disagree with you until you decide that I am right.