Reno City Council Recommends New Ward Map for Approval

The Reno City Council recommended a plan to redraw the city's 5 wards at a special meeting Thursday. The City Council must re-district if any ward's population becomes larger than another by 5 percent. As a result of the 2010 census, the population in some wards increased by 20 percent. But there is disagreement about how the maps should be re-drawn. Local NAACP President Lonnie Feemster says neighborhoods in what he calls the "urban core" of the city should have with more representatives. He's proposed his own map that concentrates those neighborhoods together. "Sometimes negative things are pushed into one area because they only have one "urban core" representative. Well, it's two thirds of the population, it should have two-thirds of the votes on the City Council," Feemster said after the meeting yesterday. Feemster also says the map recommended by the council unfairly splits ethnic minorities, especially those in North East Reno. The City councils recommendation will be considered at a meeting on December 14th. Feemster also has chance to present his proposed map at that meeting as well.