Who cares about ward boundaries?
The boundaries of St. Louis’ 28 wards change every 10 years, following the decennial census. The idea is each ward should have the same number of residents after redistricting. But does anyone care about where the lines are drawn? Does anyone care if a business relocates from one ward to another within the city? The answer is yes, some aldermen obsess about the ward they represent to the point a property across the street from the ward doesn’t matter to them. This provincial way of thinking hurts the city as a whole.
In May Ald Kacie Starr Triplett tweeted the following from @KacieStarr:
“Patricia Stevens College is relocating to the 6th Ward. That’s approx 200-300 college students walking, visiting, shopping in downtown”. 6:53 AM May 26th via UberTwitter
Wow, 200-300 more people downtown! Wait, where are they relocating from? Oh, from North 4th St, less than a mile away and also downtown. They are leaving the current 7th ward and moving to the 6th ward, not really a gain. Someone walking from the old location to the new location would pass through a bit of the 5th Ward on the way. Most of our aldermen are guilty of this.
I’m very pleased Stevens Institute rehabbed a building near me for their new facility, I just wish our aldermen weren’t so narrowly focused on their 3.6% of the city. We need elected officials who will view the city as a whole and work to improve 100% of the city.
– Steve Patterson
Another argument for fewer, larger wards and fewer aldermen.
Having some members of the boa elected by the population at-large would be helpful in giving a citywide perspective.
Similar to the fact that we need city officials throughout St Louis County to look at the St. Louis region as a whole at not just their municipality (St. Louis City, Maplewood, Clayton etc.)
Im glad that Patricia Stevens is moving into the 6th ward. Im happy that our Alderwoman is promoting possitive things happening in the city and ward.
Thanks for the input, Patricia.
Totally agree. 10 wards seems about right for a city of 350,000.
I would suggest your readers work to pressure our Alderpeople to create sensible and productive Ward boundaries. FOCUS ON THAT. Bitching about the number of Wards is not productive. If you people think you are going to convince half or so of the aldermen to voluntarily give up their jobs and power you are completely insane.
You can, however, convince them to maintain boundaries that reflect communities and community power. You can convince them to provide relatively equal representation to various ethnic and social groups. You can convince them to make the boundaries geographically logical.
Politicians primarily care about their jobs. Starting with a point of “you should just quit” is nonsensical. Starting with a “represent us or we won't vote for you/donate to your campaign” is about the best you can do.
Agreed, enough of this stupid gerrymandering. Craig Schmidt's ward is so ridiculously shaped it's past the point of being funny. Not commenting on Craig, just the shape of his ward. Do we really think that that is the best way to provide government services through the city council. Likewise, Tower Grove East is carved up between no fewer than five council members.
Short-term, we won't be able to reduce the number of wards. And one, unspoken, “given”, in any boundary changes, will be keeping existing aldermanic residences in “their” ward (when boundary changes will need to happen is response to the new census data). Much like legislating them out of a job, redistricting them out of one is a big no-no, as well.
“…redistricting them out of one is a big no-no, as well.” Unless you're Sharon Tyus, and you piss off the wrong people, and then it's “yes-yes”. The 20th used to be on the North side, and then it wasn't. Now it's Craig Schmidt's ward. And that will probably change as well. The only way to get past the small-minded antics of many aldermen is to move them off the screen. Run as many candidates as possible who aren't beholden to the Dying Machine and the Big Biz interests. Then we go for Charter reform, etc. That's a fairly long slog…
The 25th ward used to be in the CWE but in the 70s that Alderman suggested a reduction in wards and his ward got moved out from under him.
Even more obvious is the central division of the Cherokee business district and the South Grand business district.
Here in Kirkwood we have four elected Aldermen who are “at large” and not elected by any particular segment of the city. We regularly have people complaining that they want an Alderman who will respond to “their” needs, but I think the at large system is the right way to do things that make sense for the entire community.
The downside to all at large representation is you are less likely to elect minorities. The alternative is our system where many have been in office 16-24 years. One over 30 years!
In St. Louis, you have Caucasians, African-Americans and everyone else. From the 2000 census:
White: 152,666
Black or African American: 178,266
American Indian and Alaska Native: 950
Asian: 6,891
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander: 94
Hispanic (may be of any race): 7,022
Other: 2,783
So, are you saying that going to (more) at-large representation would (potentially) disenfranchise whites, the largest minority group in the city?! Hmmmm, that could explain why we like our present system . . .
Really? Are you serious? Minority has to do with history– that is not erased the day population goes from 51/49 to 49/51.
Most alderman are “guilty” of what — being excited about positive new developments in their ward?? Like you, I am pleased to see a formely vacant building beautifully renovated and made home to a new business. Not sure why you think Alderman Triplett shouldn't be enthusiastic about the same.
Their ward? What about our city?
False distinction. You seem to suggest that an alderman who celebrates progress within her ward is somehow not concerned with the progress of the city as a whole. Yet I think you'd agree that anything that contributes to a strong downtown improves the entire city.
How exactly does an existing downtown business moving to another location that happens to be two blocks into a neighboring ward improve downtown?
Because they didn't move to Clayton, Maryland Heights, O'Fallon, Atlanta or Dallas? By definition, an alderman is elected to represent the interests of his or her ward and its constituents. Part of their job description is to go to ribbon cuttings and make speeches. And, unlike the county, we're not using TIF's to move businesses within the city.
You are assuming the business was considering leaving. But suppose it was, then they should say they helped keep it in the city, not pretend like they brought it into downtown.
Ahh, wordsmithing. The tweet stated “Patricia Stevens College is relocating to the 6th Ward. That’s approx 200-300 college students walking, visiting, shopping in downtown”. I guess it all depends on your perception/definition of “downtown”. And given the character limit on twitter, adding qualifiers like “this part of” may simply have not fit. And no, I didn't read anything into the tweet about anyone “pretend[ing] that they brought it into downtown'. If anything, I read it as a rare save, where an existing business is actually staying, investing in and growing downtown. Bottom line, they're staying, they renovated a building and I expect that they'll want to grow larger and attract more students – all good things. Just because one minor politician claims a win on twitter isn't a big deal . . .
Pure speculation on your part that something had to be done to prevent them from leaving. The 200-300 college students have been downtown for years , that didn't change – except the address, zip code and ward.
Agree. I just don't get your negative reaction to one alderman welcoming a business into their ward. Relocation is usually viewed as a good thing, since it signifies an increased confidence in the economy and a willingness to make a long-term commitment. Moving from one downtown ward to another downtown ward didn't make “downtown better”, but it also didn't make the larger “downtown” any worse. Other businesses have recently relocated downtown, as well (Arcturis, to name one), and, hopefully, wil continue to do so. Should their alderman simply ignore that reality? We live in a mobile society and changing one's “address, zip code and ward” ain't no big deal! (And while this “win” for the 6th ward may be perceived as a “loss” for the 7th ward, in the larger scheme of things, it only really matters to political wonks.)
When you follow all 28 and attend many openings you see how narrow their view really is.
Don't disagree, but who really cares? Like the title of this post – “Who Cares About Ward Boundaries?” Mostly it's just the political establishment and the wonks. Sure, politicians like to stroke their own egos, but for Joe Average Citizen, it's more about results and less about process and self-promotion. I support reducing the number of wards in St. Louis – half or fewer would be great. But as far as reacting to benign tweet like this one, there are much bigger issues out there . . .
Actually I will disagree with you here. One admirable aspect of those openings that you reference is how many elected officials (aldermen as well as other officials) consistently turn out to support each other and celebrate progress in all areas of the city. Of course, aldermen celebrate what goes on within the boundaries of their wards — that's simply an outcome that occurs when representatives are elected from geographic districts — but you're unfairly ignoring the extent to which they collaborate with each other and support positive developments that occur outside of their districts. There are indeed much bigger problems facing this city than the one you've chosen to complain about here.
I rarely see more than one other alderman at such events. Usually it is only the one alderman for that ward.
With only 7 district-based council members, Charlotte's “aldermen” represent over 100,000 people each on an 11-member body with a Democratic majority and an African-American mayor. And the image of St. Louis being old-style politics of ward-committee machines verses Charlotte as the “New South” may be a factor for the DNC 2012 convention.
Same basic concepts apply to Denver, and may have been an asset in attracting the 2008 DNC convention.