David Green, like many of his neighbors, was shocked this month to learn that the proposed redistricting map unveiled by Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin would drastically change Ward 12, which would be split into six different wards.
“Six ways? Oh my lord!” Green said. “It’s like they took a pie and made it into six pieces.”
Green, 68, lives just south of Fleet Ave. with his son, would most likely be represented by a new council person.
“If Rebecca’s gone, who we gonna call?” Green added. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
Green’s anxiety—that the necessary redrawing of Cleveland’s wards signals total political shake up—is bound to be shared by Clevelanders who have grown used to the current ward maps, their current council folk and all the approaches to city services and new legislation that come with such habits.
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But some areas of Cleveland are facing more drastic changes than others. Those in the far west side’s Ward 17 are just switching to number 15. Ward 16 is losing a sliver when it becomes Ward 13. Ward 1 would give a bit of its northwest edge to the soon-to-be Ward 2.