Pittsburgh City Council tweaks redistricted maps as finalization nears
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Pittsburgh City Council on Wednesday amended redistricted council maps so that the Polish Hill and Bon Air neighborhoods would remain in their existing districts.
The nine-member Reapportionment Advisory Committee — formed in late September — drew up a proposed map based on the 2020 census. Their map aimed to ensure that two of the nine council districts were majority-minority districts, where minorities made up a majority of the population. They also were tasked with crafting a map where districts were contiguous and relatively even in population.
The Reapportionment Advisory Committee in April presented City Council with their draft of the new map.
It consolidated Oakland into two districts, rather than three, and made other changes to ensure two districts maintained majority-minority status.
It also moved Polish Hill and Bon Air to new districts — moves that were not popular among residents of those neighborhoods.
On Wednesday, City Council introduced a new map, which allowed Polish Hill and Bon Air to remain in Councilwoman Deb Gross’s District 7 and Councilman Anthony Coghill’s District 4, respectively.
To achieve that, the entirety of the Strip District was moved from District 7 to District 1, represented by Councilman Bobby Wilson. McKinley Park was moved from District 4 to District 3, represented by Councilman Bruce Kraus.
the council is expected to officially adopt the redistricted map next week.
The new districts will go into effect on Jan 1.
“We as city council, we tried to follow what the people were telling us,” Coghill said of the new map, which council unanimously voted to amend Wednesday.
During a series of public hearings with council, several community members had expressed concerns about the proposal that would have moved Polish Hill and Bon Air to new districts.
“District 1 is clearly a district that predominantly represents the North Side,” Polish Hill resident John Rhoades said. “But we obviously are not a North Side neighborhood, and we fear our neighborhood will lose much of its voice and be driven away from communities that share our interests.”
Gross, who will continue to represent the area based on the latest map, said people in Polish Hill felt a connection with neighboring Lawrenceville and Bloomfield, whose communities are similar to theirs.
“Part of why I wanted to move to the neighborhood and love living there so much is because it is a close-knit and collaborative neighborhood,” Polish Hill resident Elizabeth Fein said, explaining that she and others in the community work closely with Gross’s office and nearby communities.
Coghill said the people of Bon Air wanted to stay in a district with Beechview and Brookline, which share similar community characteristics.
“They’ve been there for 40 years,” he said.
Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, whose district is set to shrink slightly, said the process should be a reminder of how population loss and demographic changes are impacting every area of the city in some way.
“If there’s ever a time when we have to all recognize that uneven growth, and population growth in some parts of the city, and population loss in some parts of the city affects us all, this is it,” she said.
Strassburger said she generally felt the finished product was a “great map” that ensured many people “have gotten what they needed and wanted.”
Still, she said, there were people in her district who were unhappy with the redistricted map. Strassburger did not specify what issues they saw with it, and acknowledged “there weren’t a whole lot of options to change it in the way we wanted to.”
Because of opposition among her constituents, Strassburger voted against the measure. All other council members present Wednesday voted in favor in a preliminary vote. Councilman Ricky Burgess was not present.
The process is done every 10 years, based on census data.
There is a chance, however, that the process will need to be redone sooner this time. If Pittsburgh annexes neighboring Wilkinsburg — something officials have been investigating despite striking down the initial annexation proposal — maps would need to be redrawn to accommodate the new population and ensure districts were still relatively even in population.