Some city residents are saying that the city’s healthiest and most robust neighborhood — Allentown and the Elmwood Village — deserves it’s own Common Council district. And they don’t want to wait until the 2020 census for the next redistricting. They think the city charter should be amended to add another seat to the 9-member legislative body.
Currently the neighborhood is divided between five districts: North, Delaware, Fillmore, Ellicott, and Niagara. Many observers say that the current map prevents the neighborhood’s constituency of educated, socially liberal, fiscally moderate professionals and creatives who live in the district from electing a ‘good government’ candidate to the Common Council.
Current councilmen are afraid that a politically empowered Elmwood Village could threaten their political leverage. They are afraid that a louder and more politically relevant ‘organized-left’ in this region could cause serious political instability in the region’s more conservative Democratic party, already known to be divisive and tribal.
The next redistricting process would occur in 2021, after the next US Census is performed, unless the council acts to amend the city charter to add a legislative district to the council.
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