Some alderman see no need for Evanston ward remap

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Updated: February 27, 2012 8:48AM

Based on figures showing little population growth city wide, some Evanston City Council members are advocating the city forgo an extensive remapping of ward boundaries — an exercise that has triggered extensive debate in the past.

City population grew by a mere 247 people between the 2000 and 2010 census, officials said, releasing figures before Monday’s regular council meeting.

Population in Evanston rose from 74,239 in 2000 to 74,486, according to the 2010 census, a .33 percent increase, officials said.

With that small of an increase, aldermen are under no mandatory requirement to redistrict, Corporation Counsel Grant Farrar told council members.

While the change citywide was low, however, some wards showed greater population growth or loss than others since the last census.

The city’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th wards showed substantial gains in the 18-and-over voting population. (See accompanying map.)

Other wards showed population dips, such as the far south 9th Ward.

No minority figures

Officials didn’t release minority representation by ward, figures that were the basis of extensive remapping the last time officials underwent the process, in 2003. In that remapping, officials also considered maps which would split the Northwestern University student vote — a potent force in some elections — between wards.

Reacting to the figures Monday, several council members, including Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, spoke of forgoing remapping, citing the small change in the citywide figures.

Some others, though, spoke of tweaking boundaries, or more, inquiring what the public process would be in such a case.

In the 9th Ward, which has lost population, Alderman Coleen Burrus spoke of minor adjustments to boundaries.

Some boundaries between her ward and the 8th “just don’t make sense for compactness and contiguity,” she said. The same goes between the 9th and 4th wards, where Main Street serves as one of the boundaries.

But a number of other aldermen, some longtime members of the council, spoke of leaving things as they are or making small adjustments, if anything.

The last remapping turned out “very costly and very painful for some of us,” said 8th Ward Alderman Ann Rainey, the senior member of the council.

“We had an increase of 230 people in this city,” she said, referring to the figures. “It just does not warrant upheaval among the wards.

“What’s the purpose of that … to give one alderman an advantage over another alderman? That’s not the way we work anymore.”

Tisdahl, who served as 7th Ward alderman at the time of the last redistricting, concurred, using the word “painful” to describe the discussions last time.

Council members, she said, would be better off “spending more time on substantive issues“ rather than “which block is best, in or out of your ward.”

But Grover, in the 7th Ward and in her first term as alderman, said she is not looking to cause pain through the issue, “but if there are ways we can do a little rebalancing, it might be worth discussion.”

Burrus, also in her first term, said the dynamics were different last time, with dividing students and Northwestern-city relations fractionalizing issues.

She said officials should look at what’s in the residents’ best interest on whether to draw up a map, “not what’s easiest for us.”

Officials plan to continue the discussion, providing more detailed figures on minority composition.

In any redistricting, council members would have to adhere to certain principles, as set by the 1970 State Constitution, said Farrar.

They are “one person, one vote; fairness to minority groups; compactness of districts; contiguity; and fairness to political parties,” the latter of which is not applicable to Evanston, where municipal elections are nonpartisan.

If aldermen are to remap, he recommended that an ordinance establishing a new ward map be done no later than Aug. 1, 2012.

Asked what public process would apply, if aldermen wanted to delve into the matter, Farrar said the issue, along with most issues in Evanston, “lends itself to an open process.” That would mean complying with requirements for public gatherings as stipulated by the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

He said the technology in place, more sophisticated than that used in the 2003 redistricting, should “drive the issue,” producing information for aldermen to consider in deciding where they want to go.