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Sweeney Details Ward Drawing Process

sweeney.jpg
sweeney.jpg

With the residential decrease heavier in certain areas of the city, those wards were going to have to expand geographically; to stay level in terms of representation - roughly 23-thousand folks per council member...

But word got out of possible substantive changes angered some people, and though a few rumors proved to be wrong - some others were not...
Among the changes are the representation in several neighborhoods - and boundaries in virtually every ward.
Downtown was partly divided, while areas like Ohio City and Glenville were nearly consolidated under one representative.

Yet the full council voted 17-2 to accept the new map, as drawn by consultants and City Council President Martin Sweeney.
Saying no was Joe Cimperman, who represents downtown and the near west side - and Mike Polensek, who represents most of Collinwood and the Northeast corner of Cleveland.
Sweeney explains some of why the changes happened as they did - and started by challenging those who said the process was done behind closed doors.

Rick Jackson is a senior host and producer at Ideastream Public Media. He hosts the "Sound of Ideas" on WKSU and "NewsDepth" on WVIZ.