COMMENTARY

Cleveland's New 15-ward Maps

A mistake and a missed opportunity

At its monthly City Council meeting on Monday evening January 6, 2025,  president Blaine Griffin rushed the proposed 15-ward map to passage. The new map may have corrected some redistricting errors of ten years ago, but it hurt the Square in two ways: a mistake and a missed opportunity.

Above: an enlarged segment of the final redistricting map. Ward 3 streets are shown in light blue. Source: City Council's Redistricting page

The Mistake

Shaker Square was split.  The west and east sides of North and South Moreland Boulevards, in the same ward for 80 years, will be in different wards (6 and 3). These pages and others, such as Cleveland's League of Women Voters, reported the problem. Sadly, this simple "fix" wasn't made.

The Missed Opportunity

The new Ward 3 has a small thumb-like extension in its northeastern corner. In it are Shaker Square. the homes and townhouses on the CHALK streets and the condominium apartment buildings along Shaker Boulevard. Its more than a thousand residents support the Square. They know Council President Blaine Griffin as a long-time friend of the Square, whose leadership in 2022 saved it from foreclosure and put it in strong hands.

Griffin's Ward 6, which includes the Cleveland side of Larchmere, could have expanded east to the city limits to include those residents. Larchmere and Shaker Square would, at last, be in the same ward. To restore Ward 3's lost population, move some streets south of Buckeye Road from Ward 6 to Ward 3. That also makes ward boundaries less jagged and ward 3 more compact. In my view, that's a "win" for everyone.

Arnie Berger
January 16, 2025

Below:

Weeks after watching the January 6 City Council meeting online I sent a letter to the Plain Dealer which published it on February 12, 2025