29,628 Cuyahoga County residents — a little more than 2% of the county’s population — will have a new county district when the new map, approved this week by the Cuyahoga Couny Districting Commission, goes into effect for 2022 elections.
The map, drafted and finalized on a shortened timeframe due to the delay in the Census caused by the pandemic, nevertheless took into account seven public meetings and recommendations from hundreds of residents and organizations.
District 7, which is entirely within Cleveland, saw the most dramatic shifts in boundaries. It, along with Districts 8, 9 and 10 remain minority majority districts, according to the commission.
The process, according to commission member Kenneth Lumpkin’s interview with Ideastream Public Media, is never easy, and some hope it’ll be different in ten years when the county districts will be redrawn again.
“Obviously it’s not perfect. When I listen to the comments from the state meetings, I see there’s so much difference of opinion as to how this process should be done. Even at this level, there was a lot of differences,” Lumpkin told IPM. “We got through it 10 years ago, and we’ll get through it today.”
The old map, for comparison, is below.
This article appears in Aug 25 – Sep 7, 2021.
