Ben Fenwick

Benjamin (Ben) Fenwick is currently a Masters of Public Administration Student at Cornell University where is he studying Government and Public Policy with a focus on Educational Policy at the local, state, and national level. He expects to graduate with his  MPA in May of 2008 and enter into employment within the public  sector.

A life-long resident of Manhattan, he graduated from Manhattan High School in 2001 and from Kansas State University in 2005 where he majored  in Political Science and received minors in History and Leadership Studies. While at Kansas State he was involved in multiple campus organizations  including Student Government, Young Democrats, Leadership Ambassadors, and other public service oriented clubs and organizations. Outside of Kansas State he has been involved in multiple political campaigns at the local and state level, many activist organizations, and helped plan and coordinate numerous community events. He and his family have continuously been vocal advocates for change within Manhattan and Riley County.

In his spare time Ben enjoys running, reading, good conversation, and keeping up with current events. He regularly returns to Manhattan during school breaks and keeps abreast of local community news and developments through online  media.

Ben, I very much liked your idea, posted several weeks ago, about structuring the system so that residents in all areas of the city could elect representatives from their own areas. Recently I've seen many comments in the general reader forums complaining about city decisions being made because there is a bias toward the west side. I don't know if that is true or not, but I certainly see a real benefit to ensuring that every area of town has a representative with that area's interests at heart. How would Manhattan accomplish this?

Hi Nelson! Thanks for the note about my article awhile back. Honestly the best way (from what i can tell) would just be to divide manhattan into 5 seperate blocks and have the mayor seat rotating yearly between the five different blocks of the city. I would have to say that population would most likely be the best way to break it down by combining different wards together to provide a large enough voting block. I am unsure what laws/regulations would have to change to do this, but with the population of Manhattan growing so much I don't see why we shouldn't do such a thing. I wouldn't mind speaking with you more about it if you are interested. I'll check back here to see if you get this or not :)