There is a lot out there about the culture of cities and urban politics, but Tuesday night showed a glimmer of hope that the culture could be shifting.
Most of the discussion about Tuesday’s election centers around wins, or close wins, in Virginia and New Jersey, but some of the more interesting ballot items happened in cities and metro areas across the country.
While Austin, always the outlier, rejected a proposal billed at curbing crime through more police, Minneapolis voters shot down a charter amendment pushed by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar that would have abolished their police department and replaced it with a new entity. Early reports show it was the city’s largely black precincts that overwhelmingly rejected the proposal.
New York voters shot down proposals to expand mail-in ballot access to anyone without a cause and they voted down same-day voter registration. In Texas, Woodlands voters shot down a push for incorporation which, if passed, would likely have led to higher taxes, more regulation, and additional layers of bureaucracy to the town that has been thriving without it.
Seattle voters elected a “law-and-order” City Attorney over a candidate who ran on a platform of abolishing the city’s current criminal justice system.
While small wins, they make a big difference to the people living in those jurisdictions and it shows a gradual shift in the interests of urban voters.
