Disney Does the Right Thing on District Elections (UPDATE: Council says “stuff it” to voters!)

UPDATE, 9 p.m.: The Anaheim City Council has tabled the question of district elections; Kris Murray wants an advisory committee appointed by the council as a whole (i.e., the Council majority.)  Mayor Tait’s proposal will not appear on the November ballot.  They also rejected the ability of voters to vote on future TOT (transient-occupancy tax) agreements/giveaways.

Orange Juice Blog will be publicizing the positions of all city council candidates on those issues — a lot. 

Here’s a story you’re going to want to read:  Disney takes stand on Anaheim elections.  (Did you just take a deep breath?)  It begins:

ANAHEIM – Disneyland Resort’s president has taken the rare step of urging the Anaheim City Council to consider allowing elections by district in a city where Disney is the largest employer and biggest tax generator.

George Kalogridis sent a letter to Anaheim City Council members on Tuesday, the day before the council was expected to discuss whether a proposal to elect council members by district, instead of at-large, should go on the ballot.

…

“We believe that city leadership should reflect the diversity of its entire population,”  Kalogridis wrote. “We support a City Council elected from districts and encourage the city of Anaheim to move from at-large elections to district voting. This shift will allow each valued neighborhood to be represented by a local council member of their choosing.”

First, I appreciate Disney’s action here.  (“Rare step,” indeed!)  Disney benefits from a happy and just Anaheim where people from rich to poor feel respected and safe.  It’s the de facto leader of the city and city officials will bend over backwards to please it, even when it does not necessarily want to be pleased in the way they intend.

Today’s vote — and redistricting

See, I worked in Disneyland AND emergency preparedness! Earthquake coverage in the Juice!

Disney’s actions give cover to city council people to take what will no doubt be a painful vote for them today — pushing for district elections that will inevitably dilute the power of the Anaheim Hills region that four of them call home.  But it’s the right thing to do.  The diversity that Anaheim needs is not only from its council, but from the people of west, south, north, and central Anaheim feeling that they have the power to choose their own representation.  It will, among other things, give these people a stronger reason to vote — now there will be an election where their votes actually will make a difference.  Anaheim has to NOT follow the example of Santa Ana and Newport Beach, where candidates must come from different districts but the entire city votes on each of them.  Let people in the districts elect their own representatives.

The Council could still get a vote on district elections onto the November ballot if it acts today — or it could skip the public vote and just go with its own plan for district elections.  Six city council members and an at-large mayor would make sense for a city of Anaheim’s size.  Redistricting should occur as soon as possible; I don’t know if it will be possible to get a system in place until the 2014 elections.

In the meanwhile, I wonder if Anaheim could just vote to add two at-large members, probably appointed ones, to its Council for 2012 — with the understanding that they would not be from Anaheim Hills.  They’d be smart to consider a Latino for at least one of those seats — and possibly someone from Little Arabia as well.  Surrendering total power may be hard, but it’s worthwhile.

Did activism work?  If so, WHICH activism worked?

For activists, this very reasonable response from Disney leads to an age-old debate about whether and how our actions accomplished this result.  If we influenced Disney at all, was it from confrontational protest tactics — or from our NOT making our confrontational tactics as strong as they could be?

The terms of this debate most prominently play out in debate over the success of Mohandas Gandhi and the Congress Party in impelling the British to leave India.  Some will credit Gandhi’s tactics of non-violent civil disobedience.  Some argue that these tactics only worked because of the threat that, if the British didn’t make a deal with Gandhi and Nehru, they would have a massive violent revolt on their hands.  (I’d just like to point here to the differences between the sort of revolt one could have mustered in 1940s India verses in 2010s Anaheim.  Be real, everyone.)

People who have called for violence may claim that their position got Disney’s attention — and I don’t think that there’s much to this argument.  The question is whether confrontational tactics such as cartoons and signs depicting Disney as fascist and marching on Disneyland have helped.  You know how I feel: I think that a little of the “cartoons, signs, and marches” goes a long way.  Disney ain’t stupid; it knew that more and worse was possible here.

On the other hand, the relative restraint by protesters (and yes, the protests were relatively restrained) played a useful role as well.  You don’t want to pull a San Diego fireworks display in a situation like this — you want to hold increased actions in reserve for the proper time.

Interestingly enough, when I saw the Register‘s headline — saying that Disney had taken a stand but not saying what that stand was — I thought that maybe the proper time had come.  If Disney had taken a stand against district elections, as I think many expected, it would have lined up firmly on the side against fairness and justice.  THAT would become the time to target Disney more strongly.  Yes, they may control Anaheim’s city government, but they had not declared themselves to be “on the wrong side” on this issue and it was premature to consider them enemies.

Reform activists can work with Disney — which is a good thing, because we’ll have to.  This is a welcome development and will hopefully lead to an Anaheim City Council meeting today — 4 p.m. at Anaheim High School — that, even if it isn’t the happiest Council meeting on Earth, is still a lot better than what has proceeded it.

Protesters, activists — be prepared, if necessary, to cheer.