Quote Originally Posted by R8RBOB View Post
Detroit had 90 years of corrupted City Council members because of the at-large.
And it had many years of corrupted City Council [[well, Common Council) members before the at-large system. In fact, this was why the ward system was scrapped - in response to the public outcry about its corruption. So if history, and the sad experience of other cities, is any guide, a ward system is hardly a cure for corruption. The cure for corruption under any system is electing the right people and holding them accountable for their actions.

Count me as a vote against a return to the ward system. I've lived in other cities that had council by district and all it did was create little political fiefdoms of localized interests and corrupt relationships, where the incumbent was generally unchallenged for their seat for as long as they wanted it and troubled incumbents stayed on forever screwing up the city's business because of their district ties and power. I think a return to the ward system in Detroit would look a lot like state legislative races in the city already do, or, heaven help us, like the late and [[hopefully) unlamented horrors of the regional school boards. The chance of some small amount of racial/ethnic diversity, whatever good that's supposed to do, is not nearly enough to bring me around to this idea.