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Historical Summer 2018 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Ward reduction is back on the agenda at the Board of Aldermen.
The City of St. Louis is divided into 28 wards and any change to that number requires an amendment to the city charter.
In 2012, the voters passed Proposition R, reducing the wards to 14 after the 2020 census.
It was the presidential election in which Barack Obama was elected so voter turnout was very high — 74% in fact.
The measure passed with 61.5% of the vote, approximately 80,000 people.
In the 28th ward, the measure passed by over 80%.
The measure had built in lead time to prepare for the reduction.
We are six years in and now is the time to start thinking about the opportunities and challenges presented by ward reduction and how to address them.
I introduced Resolution 12, which is currently moving through the Board of Aldermen, to do just that.
It establishes an advisory committee to look at the effect of ward reduction on the delivery of city services and how we can reduce the board while remaining strong advocates for our constituents, addressing racial inequity, and improving overall governance.
As someone who has served almost a year on the Board of Aldermen, I can already see how a reduced board would improve efficiency and effectiveness.
While the population of the City of St. Louis has decreased from a high of almost one million people to around 310,000, the number of representatives in city government has stayed the same.
As population has decreased in some parts of the city and grown in others, the geographic size of the wards has varied greatly.
This means, for instance, that some aldermen have many more miles of streets and sidewalks than others or have to maintain more parks. Our current system does not account for those disparities.
We have an opportunity through ward reduction to look at issues like this- -and other ways that the current system isn’t working — and fix it.
The advisory committee will need to hear from residents about what works and doesn’t work in our current system.
I am committed to seeing that ward reduction happens in a way that is just and equitable and benefits all St. Louisans. Stay tuned for how you can get involved.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2018.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2018_06.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
