City legislators released the first draft of a proposed district map Monday, cutting the 28 wards down to 14.
The new map is evenly split between majority white voters and majority Black voters, roughly mirroring the city’s current population, according to the 2020 census.
“So, you will have areas where virtually every Alderman will have an opponent, somewhere along the line in this thing. This process where we’re reducing the number of wards and representatives in half, nobody’s going to be happy.” —Aldermanic President Lewis Reed.
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen Legislation Committee is in charge of the process and by law, must have a final map drawn and passed by the full board by Dec. 31.
Aldermanic President Lewis Reed told The St. Louis American the aim is to make a balanced map, where half of the 14 wards would be populated by a majority of Black people and other minorities.
He said one of the other main concerns they’ve heard from the public thus far is people don’t want city neighborhoods to be broken up into different wards, keeping them intact as much as possible, unlike they are now. His office noted the majority of the city-designated neighborhoods are all in one district in this proposed map.
“The first draft isn’t meant to be a plan that we would adopt as a final plan, at all whatsoever, because there are legal obligations that we have to meet along the way, and that draft plan is essentially a working document,” Reed said. He added they would take in the public’s additional feedback and rework the map based on those recommendation and concerns.
According to his office, each district has approximately 21,500 people in this drafted map. Most of the districts combine existing wards, meaning next year, those aldermen who want to run for reelection in those areas may have to face off against each other for a seat on the much smaller board.
Reed said while it’s hard to say what will happen next in the election, essentially, each alderperson will have at least one challenger because of the ward reduction.
So, in the northern part of the city, he said, alderpeople Sharon Tyus, Dwinderlin Evans, and John Collins-Muhammad would run in the same election under this proposed map. Following his logic, Aldermen Bret Narayan and Joe Vaccaro would also run against each other down south and back up north alderpeople Lisa Middlebrook, Brandon Bosley and James Page would also end up in the same election under the proposed map.
“So, you will have areas where virtually every Alderman will have an opponent, somewhere along the line in this thing,” he said. “This process where we’re reducing the number of wards and representatives in half, nobody’s going to be happy.”
He said those alderpeople who have a harder time compromising will also have a more difficult time with the redistricting process.
“But I can tell you what, the aldermen thus far, they’ve been tremendous in terms of coming to the table with a good, useful information,” Reed said. “Working collectively to come up with this draft map, right? If it continues like this, it’s going to be a smoother process than one might expect, but I’ve just been so happy with the fact that these folks really have been working collectively and collaboratively to come up with ideas and honest recommendations.”
The map is available for the public to view and submit comments atwww.stlouis-mo.gov/aldermen/redistricting. Residents can also submit comments and questions by phone at 314-622-4114, email at redistricting@stlouis-mo.gov, or mailing them to the Board of Aldermen at 1200 Market St., Room 232 St. Louis, MO 63103 with “Attn: Redistricting.”
The committee’s next redistricting meeting will be held virtually at 11 a.m. Thursday.
City voters passed the ward reduction in a 2012 election, which stipulated the new 14 wards would be redrawn after the 2020 census. It laid out a plan for the first election in the newly drawn wards to be held in 2023 for all wards and the aldermanic president. Odd-numbered wards would start with two-year terms to align with the city’s charter’s election schedule from 1915. The Board president and even-numbered wards would run during that initial election for a full four-year term.
This ward reduction comes as census data supported what St. Louisans have known for a long time: the city’s population is in decline — with a population totaling 301,578 residents in 2020, down from 319,294 in 2010 and 348,189 in 2000.
The redistricting process occurs every 10 years following the release of new census data. Currently, the board’s legislation committee is charged with creating the new map, which will then be outlined in Board Bill 101, sponsored by Reed and Alderman Joe Vollmer, Ward 10.
