The other day, the City Beat had a funny discussion with one of the other reporters. We wondered: Wouldn’t it be great if we could get another congressional representative? As in having two of them?
So I had to do a little research.
It turns out that the state with the smallest population that has two representatives is Rhode Island with an estimated 1,053,209 residents. The state with the largest population that has only one representative is Montana with an estimated 974,989 residents.
North Dakota has an estimated 638,613 residents. So to get to be like Rhode Island, we’d have to have 414,596 more residents, which means either a massive influx of new residents or a lot more babies being born.
Now I realize that’s a little rough. U.S. law says there can only be 435 representatives so when one state gains a representative some other has to lose. That means the threshold for getting another representative is always relative to the population of other states. But, it’s a bit too complicated for me to calculate so I’m just assuming Rhode Island’s population is the threshold number.
Assuming in-bound migration isn’t going to increase rapidly, the way to reach the target population would be to have more babies. Understand, I’m not serious. This is just a thought experiment!
The Census is estimating that the state has 216,051 residents age 20 to 44, roughly the age one might expect people to have kids. I’m sure teens could do it, too, but we don’t want to encourage that sort of thing. Assuming that the male-to-female ration is 50-50, that’s 108,025 couples. Each couple would then have to have 3.8 child on average.
I was thinking a mass octomom scenario, but this is still pretty crazy.
no talking points from the info center today?
If you actually read the city’s Web site, you’ll notice that nothing I write comes from there. That’s probably because City Hall doesn’t always come out looking so good when I’m through. But you knew that.
On the other hand, here’s something funny I did see from the public info office. Well, it’s funny if you’re not a sourpuss, which, of course, you’re not:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbycnAJGpck
I believe Tu as the Public Information Office to me is less than helpful. I emailed them a while back since the December 7th council meeting was not posted online anymore. I guess they only post the most recent two meetings due to bandwidth, but I could purchase a DVD for $10 if I contact John Bernstrom. In addition, I asked why the December 7th council meeting minutes were still not posted since the December 14th minutes were already there. I was told that some council members might have had some changes to them and I should contact the executive assistant to ask when they might be completed. I just checked today and yet they are still not posted.
I nominate John Bernstrom to head the Alerus commision or were they in charge of the calendar?