The city council voted 6-1 Tuesday to commission an independent review of its seven council district boundaries, responding to population estimates showing Foundry Row's biotech-driven growth and Lowertown's continued population loss have left the districts increasingly uneven in size.
The review, approved 6-1 with only Council Member Terrence Boudreaux dissenting, will task an outside demographer with analyzing interim population estimates across the city’s seven council districts and recommending whether boundaries should shift before the next full census-driven redistricting is legally required. City Manager Marcus Whitfield told council members the estimates show District 5, covering Foundry Row, has grown by an estimated 22 percent over the past several years as former factory buildings are converted into lofts and biotech office space, while District 2, covering Lowertown, has continued a slower but steady population decline.
“Right now, a resident’s vote in Foundry Row and a resident’s vote in Lowertown don’t carry the same weight, because the districts are supposed to be roughly equal in population and they no longer are,” Whitfield said. “That imbalance only grows if we wait for the next full census to address it.”
Lowertown’s lone dissent
Boudreaux cast the sole no vote, arguing that redrawing district lines while Lowertown’s population is falling could dilute the neighborhood’s political voice at precisely the moment it needs it most. “Every time this city talks about redistricting, it’s because some other neighborhood grew and now wants more of the map,” Boudreaux said. “Nobody ever proposes redrawing lines to give a shrinking, disinvested neighborhood more representation, only less.”
Council Member Luis Bettencourt, whose Foundry Row district has absorbed much of the city’s recent growth, said he understood Boudreaux’s concern but believed an accurate map served everyone’s interests, including Lowertown’s. “If the review finds Foundry Row needs to shrink geographically to stay balanced with other districts, I’ll support that,” Bettencourt said. “A resident here shouldn’t get more of my time and attention than a resident in Lowertown gets from their council member, and right now, on paper, that’s closer to true than either of us would like.”
I’m not against fairness. I’m against a process that always seems to start when growth neighborhoods want more say, and never starts when disinvested neighborhoods are losing population because people were pushed out or gave up and left. Fix the second problem first, and the map will take care of itself.
Terrence Boudreaux, City Council Member, District 2 (Lowertown)
A politically sensitive timeline
The review’s timing has drawn scrutiny given that council election filing recently closed, with contested races for the at-large presidency and the Foundry Row seat now underway. Council President Walter Kowalczyk said the review’s findings would not be implemented, if adopted at all, until after the current election cycle concludes, to avoid any appearance that boundaries were being redrawn to influence an active race. “Nobody in this chamber is voting on a map that affects candidates who have already filed for this cycle,” Kowalczyk said. “That would be indefensible, and I won’t allow it.”
Council Member Denise Okafor, representing West Bellwater, said her district’s population had also grown modestly with the expansion of manufacturing jobs near the community college’s second campus, and she wanted the review to consider whether West Bellwater’s boundaries needed adjustment as well. “This shouldn’t just be a Foundry Row and Lowertown conversation,” Okafor said. “Every district’s shape should reflect where people actually live today.”
Whitfield said the demographer’s report is expected within four months, after which the council would hold public hearings before any boundary changes could be adopted. He estimated the review itself would cost roughly $85,000, funded through the current year’s general fund contingency.
Council Member Aisha Muhammad said she wanted the demographer’s analysis to go beyond raw population counts and also examine voter turnout patterns by district, arguing that a district can be numerically balanced yet still underrepresented if its residents vote at lower rates because of language barriers, work schedules or distrust built up over years of disinvestment. “Equal population on paper doesn’t automatically mean equal voice in this chamber,” Muhammad said. “I want the consultant looking at both numbers.”
Council Member Patricia Yoon, whose downtown district has remained relatively stable in population, said she supported the review mainly as a matter of good governance rather than self-interest. “District 1 probably isn’t the district facing the biggest change here,” Yoon said. “But I’d rather we get ahead of this now, with real data and real hearings, than scramble to redraw the whole map under a court order after the next census forces our hand.”