Since November, Cleveland City Council has taken steps to gather the information needed to comply with the change to Council structure required by the new Charter provision.  Council hired TRIAD Research, who partners with Pollmet Inc., to assist in redrawing the ward lines.  Assistance was solicited from Cleveland State University (CSU) to compile 2009 population estimates required by the Charter amendment and needed to configure ward lines. 

In February, the CSU team, led by Dr. Mark Salling, determined that Cleveland’s population now stands at approximately 427,500.  Under the new Charter provision, this requires the number of Council wards to be reduced from 21 to 19.  This population estimate was achieved through an analysis of the 2000 census track numbers and the use methodologies that allow for 2009 block by block estimates that go beyond 2000 census counts.  TRIAD Research and Pollmet Inc. used this data to draw the proposed ward lines to be presented to the Council.  

Cleveland City Council provided TRIAD Research and Pollmet Inc. with some guiding principles, including working with each individual Council Member and keeping neighborhoods and business districts intact where possible. 

Council Members were specifically asked to go back to their residents, discuss possible ward boundaries and bring comments back to Council’s consultants.  Input was also solicited from Cleveland’s community development organizations, asking them to forward input from their membership in addition to weighing in as the organizations that most closely touch the community.  TRAID Research and Pollmet Inc. have spent many hours meeting with Council Members individually and in groups. 

In attempting to redraw lines using Cleveland City Council’s guiding principles, TRAID Research faced the challenge of the City’s geographical boundaries, including Lake Erie and multiple suburbs.  Because block by block data is available, lines could be more strategically drawn to reflect neighborhoods, Statistical Planning Areas (SPAs) and economic impact areas.  However, since Cleveland has many neighborhoods, several strong economic impact areas and 36 SPAs that range in population from 1,000 to 34,000, it was inevitable that some areas would still be divided between more than one ward. 

The proposed lines being presented to Council reflect the guiding principles given to the consultants as much as was possible. Some facts about the proposed lines are: 

• More than 80% of the people in the City remain in the same ward they live in now.

• It is not likely that many people will have to be shifted to a new ward when redistricting occurs in 2011 for the 2013 election.

• The Kamm’s Corners SPA, currently divided into Wards 19, 20 and 21, is all in one proposed ward. 

• The core Asian community that is located east of downtown (current Wards 7 and 13) is wholly within one proposed ward.

• One of the proposed wards has a population that is more than 40% Hispanic. 

• More of the Clark Fulton SPA (current Wards 14, 15 and 16) is in one proposed ward.  The two blocks of the Clark Fulton SPA that fall outside of the proposed ward containing it do not have a high concentration of Hispanics

• More of the Hough SPA (current Wards 7, 5, 6, 8 and 9) is in one proposed ward.  The portions of Hough that fall outside of the proposed ward containing it are a part of the Cleveland Clinic or separated from the remainder of the community by Doan Creek. 

• The proposed boundary between current Wards 17 and 18 reflects the boundary between the 1st and 2nd Police Districts.  Currently, a few blocks of Ward 17 are in the 2nd District.

• The Warner-Turney neighborhood, which is physically separated by a ravine from the rest of the South Broadway SPA it belongs to, is wholly within one ward in the proposal.  Currently and historically it has been split between Wards 2 and 12.

• Aside from Warner Turney neighborhood, the remainder of the South Broadway SPA is almost wholly in one of the proposed wards.

• 90% of the Central neighborhood (current Ward 5) remains within one ward in the proposal.

• The Lee-Miles SPA (current Ward 1) remains wholly within one ward in the proposal. 

• The Euclid-Green SPA (current in Ward 10) remains wholly within one ward in the proposal.

• The Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood (current Ward 17) remains wholly within one ward in the proposal.

• The Old Brooklyn Center SPA (currently Wards 14 and 15) remains in two wards in the proposal.

• The Old Brooklyn SPA (current Wards 15 and 16) is divided into three wards in the proposal.

•  60 % of the Mount Pleasant SPA is within one ward in the proposal.