Screengrab from the City of St. Louis' YouTube
Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed gives a round of applause to the alders for passing the redistricting map.
The Board of Aldermen passed a fourteen-ward redistricting map today. With 28 votes of approval, the map now heads to Mayor Tishaura Jones’ desk for either a final approval or veto.
Just after the vote was recorded, Board President Lewis Reed gave the aldermen a round of applause, calling the moment historic.
“When you think about what you’ve just done in terms of cutting the wards in half and you all were able to put your differences aside and get this bill done for the betterment of St. Louis, that’s just awesome,” Reed said at the meeting. “It’s a historic day for St. Louis, so I just want to thank you all for that. Congratulations to all of you.”
The redistricting process was led by Reed and the Board of Aldermen's thirteen-member Legislation Committee. For weeks, the map was a center of debate among St. Louis, with activists and organizations taking issue with the transparency of the redistricting process. The first draft of the map — released on November 1 — had pixelation issues and wasn’t interactive, while the second map, released on November 9, resolved some of those issues but still had some upset at the way the process was being handled.
Individual maps provided by the City of St. Louis
On the left, the first draft of the ward map. The Board of Aldermen approved the map on the right on December 14.
Reed has pushed back against the complaints, saying the process had "more hours of public hearings on this bill than any bill" he's seen since 1999. The Board of Aldermen opened up opportunities for the public to weigh in and allowed public comment on the map from November 1 to November 20. The mayor has expressed that she is content with the amount of public input given, but has yet to say if she will approve or veto the map when it arrives on her desk.
The mayor's office provided a statement hours after the Board of Aldermen meeting, saying Jones "appreciates the hard work of the members of the Board of Aldermen throughout this process, as well as the City Counselor and Planning Department for providing their expertise." The statement added they will provide more updates as they become available.
St. Louis City Counselor Sheena Hamilton has said the map does meet legal requirements. On the map, there are seven minority preference wards and seven white preference wards. More than 85 percent of neighborhoods have been kept together in one ward and intact, as well.
St. Louisans first voted to slice the number of wards in half in 2012, a shift the city hasn’t seen in 100 years. The new map will affect the Board of Aldermen representation after the April 2023 election. The Board of Aldermen must pass the map before December 31.
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