CLEVELAND — Lost in the historic 2008 election of President Barack Obama was the series of charter amendments on the ballot that day that Cleveland voters were asked to approve. Included among them was one that would permanently tie the number of council seats to the city's population.
After all, when 23-year-old Dennis Kucinich was sworn in as one of the city's 33 council members in 1970, the city had roughly 750,000 people.
Over the next decade, though, Cleveland would lose nearly a quarter of its population, and council made the decision in 1981 to cut its ranks by more than a third to 21.
It would stay that way for 27 years, but with the population down another 24 percent in that span, it was that 2008 decision of the voters to make the permanent move to have one ward - one council seat for every 25,000 residents that forced council's hand.
When they eliminated two seats in 2009 and another two in 2013, there were complaints of pitting council members against each other and breaking up neighborhoods like Old Brooklyn and Mount Pleasant.
"What foreclosure and predatory lending couldn't do to Mt. Pleasant this great body under your leadership has done," said then-Councilman Zach Reed. "It has destroyed Mt. Pleasant."
Fast forward more than a decade later, and council heard similar concerns this year from residents like Greg Pollard, who grew up in Glenville. He says Ward 10 is an example of what dividing a community looks like.
"You've seen the map," Pollard said. "You've got a ward that goes from the Euclid border all the way down to East 40th Street?"
However, with the city's population down to 372,000 in the 2020 census, the only way to avoid cutting two wards next year would have been to go back to the ballot box and override what voters approved in 2008.
"Many council members didn't feel like that would be a good look in the community because they felt like it was about job preservation," said Council President Blaine Griffin.
Over the next few weeks, you can be sure the new districts will be discussed and debated. What neighborhoods will be most impacted, and what council members may be forced to run against each other or decide not to run at all? That was the decision of Ward 15 Councilwoman Jenny Spencer, who announced earlier this year that she would not be running for re-election.
