
courtesy of Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division
Facebook’s chat function is blowing up. It’s 3 p.m. on a Sunday in January and the four candidates running for mayor of St. Louis are participating in a virtual forum hosted by racial justice organization Action St. Louis. By the end of the event, 19,000 viewers will have logged on to watch Board of Aldermen President Lewis E. Reed, 20th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer, Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones, and Southwestern Electric Cooperative vice president Andrew Jones weigh in on topics ranging from environmental racism to the expansion of the Special School District.
The Reverend Michelle Higgins, one of the moderators, asks candidates what they would do as mayor to ensure equitable redistricting. The census numbers have not come out quite yet, but when they do, city ward boundaries will need to be redrawn to reflect shifts in the population. The goal is for all wards to represent nearly equal numbers of people.
Also, ward reduction is supposed to take place this year. In 2012, voters passed Proposition R, which asked whether they wanted to amend the city’s charter and slash the number of wards from 28 to 14. With 28 wards and a (pre-census) population of 308,000, St. Louisans are almost hyper represented. Julius Hutawa’s 1870 map of St. Louis shows 12 city wards in a smaller geographic region than today. The population at that time? Somewhere around 310,000.
It’s 2021, and we’re still stuck in the middle of a pandemic. The closure of the city Workhouse is in limbo. Last year, the homicide rate was the highest in 50 years. Redistricting and ward reduction seem like, well, the least relevant topics ever. Yawn, next. But they also touch nearly everyone in the city, and, unlike some other issues, loaded with unknowns, redistricting is definitely happening.
And this from Spencer, whose turn it is to speak: “The elephant in the room here when it comes to ward reduction is that it’s supposed to go into effect at the end of this year. ... We have known about this for eight years; we’ve had the same leadership at the board the entire time, and we’ve done nothing to prepare for it—nothing to prepare for what voters instructed us to do.”
And the mayoral candidates have different opinions on what the process should be to redraw the ward boundaries in a way that’s fair to all.
Mark Your Calendar
The primary municipal election will be held March 2. The last dayto register for the April 6 general election is March 10.
Redistricting in St. Louis can get a little spicy. In 2001, the city made national news when it redrew ward boundaries, removing the 20th Ward from North St. Louis and plopping it down south, near Benton Park. The pushback was fierce. While debating the move during a filibuster, Alderwoman Irene Smith was denied a bathroom break. Surrounded by aides holding up sheets to conceal her, she appeared to relieve herself in a wastebasket. Grainy video shows Board President Jim Shrewsbury looking on in bewilderment as someone yells, “We don’t trust him. He’s a sexist and a racist.”
“I was a freshman alderman then,” Reed begins. “It’s that kind of thing we cannot afford to repeat in the city, but it’s exactly the kind of thing we would end up with if we say, ‘Hey, Judge, draw this without regard to anything.’”
Reed is referring to a process of redrawing the boundaries with the input of independent parties, including community members and demographers. Candidates Andrew Jones, Tishaura Jones, and Spencer prefer to redraw the boundaries in this way.
But Reed says that to decide on the new wards, coalition-building among aldermen is necessary. A map needs 15 votes to be moved on to the mayor. What happened in the past, he says, is that a group of 15 aldermen would coalesce and draw up a map favoring them—and leave the other 13 out. Those maps always ended up contested.
The 2010 census revealed a large population loss in North St. Louis. In 2011, the fear was that the board would have to eliminate Black wards to balance the map. Reed asked that every alderman work with his or her neighbors to adjust the lines, bringing a spirit of cooperation to the table. They’d use mediators, and they’d take any disputes they couldn’t solve to Reed. They were able to pass the map with a unanimous vote. The St. Louis American praised the outcome: “No knife fights this time.”
If elected mayor, Reed would want to be involved in the redistricting process, to leverage his relationships with the aldermen. He remembers, in 2011, an alderman who knew that if they redrew the map in the way that was fair, he wouldn’t get re-elected. The new boundary would include supporters of his opponent. “He said, ‘You know what? If this helps get a good map done and keeps everybody on board, let’s do it,’” Reed recalls. They did it. And he lost.
But can voters count on that same spirit of cooperation 10 years later? And should they?
“I think it’s only fair, in this case with the aldermanic wards, to have an independent commission, because [otherwise] you get into turfism,” Tishaura Jones says. For Jones, a successful redistricting would result in six or seven aldermen of color—not just Black aldermen but also representatives of the city’s growing Asian and Latinx populations. “The one thing that I am sort of fearful of is sheer population,” she says. “Our population is declining, especially in North St. Louis, so you would have a larger geographic ward. Then it becomes more difficult to make sure that you can draw wards that will get you equal representation based on our population.”
Spencer also believes that if the redistricting process is centered on citizen involvement, “we’re going to have better results than having it be based on backroom deals with the Board of Aldermen.” Aldermen, who best understand how the government works, could have input in planning, say, how to increase support staff to do things like answer constituent calls. But if elected mayor, Spencer says she would lead conversations with the public to get them involved, should the board president choose not to.
“Success, in my view, looks like a process that the citizens are involved in, they feel good about, and that results in increased trust in government,” she says. “At every level of government, people are discouraged and, in some cases, disgusted. It’s imperative that especially at the local level, we root our decision-making and our processes in building trust with our communities.”
Meet the Candidates
HEADING TO THE POLLS FOR THE PRIMARY ON MARCH 2? HERE ARE THE MAYORAL CANDIDATES WHO WILL APPEAR ON THE BALLOT.
Lewis E. Reed
CV: Reed, now president of the Board of Aldermen, began his career in local government as Sixth Ward Alderman. He worked in the private sector for Edison Brothers Stores and SSM Health Businesses
PRIORITIES:
1. Improving public safety
2. Cultivating economic empowerment and creating jobs
3. Rebuilding the economy in the wake of COVID
4. Improving education
CV: The 20th Ward Alderwoman started her public service career in 2015. Earlier, she worked as a mathematical modeler for the Mattson Jack Group.
PRIORITIES:
1. Rebalancing the budget
2. Ensuring COVID-19 vaccine access
3. Improving public safety
4. Eliminating racial disparities and environmental racism
5. Revitalizing neighborhoods
6. Creating a regional plan for growth
7. Improving education
Tishaura O. Jones
CV: The St. Louis treasurer began her public service career as Democratic Committeewoman of the Eighth Ward; she also served two terms in the Missouri House of Representatives. She was previously vice president of public finance for the investment banking firm Blaylock Van.
PRIORITIES:
1. Improving public safety and declaring gun violence a public health crisis
2. Leading COVID-19 recovery and making vaccines available and free
3. Encouraging economic development and mobility
4. Fostering stronger regional partnerships
5. Putting racial equity at the center of everything
Andrew Jones
CV: The former Ameren employee is now executive vice president of business development and marketing at Southwest Electric.
PRIORITIES:
1. Addressing violent crime
2. Ensuring economic, business, and community development
3. Improving workforce development
4. Improving education
MORE TO KNOW
Here’s the Issue
WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND ON THREE URGENT NEEDS IN ST. LOUIS
When the new mayor steps into power, they’re going to have to hit the ground running. Here are some important pieces of the candidates’ platforms in the areas of COVID-19 relief, public safety, and equitable investment and development.
COVID-19 RELIEF
Tishaura O. Jones (TJ) In addition to ensuring a healthy number of testing and vaccination sites citywide, Jones would advocate for a more regional approach to mask mandates.
Cara Spencer (CS) When it was revealed that the COVID-19 vaccination rate is higher in the county than in the city, Spencer stated that St. Louis needs more transparency on why that is.
Lewis E. Reed (LR) Reed’s focused on extra COVID relief funding, but he says that the next step is ensuring vaccine access.
Andrew Jones (AJ) Jones trusts scientists to lead COVID response but adds that decision-making should take into account getting people back to work safely.
PUBLIC SAFETY
CS: Spencer released a 10-step public safety plan divided into three sections: reducing violent crime, public safety beyond traditional policing, and building trust in communities.
LR: Reed helped bring the Cure Violence program to St. Louis. The next step is to get a handle on the unemployment rate.
AJ: Jones is in favor of a reform in police leadership that would allow officers to focus on solving violent crimes.
TJ: Jones would declare gun violence a public health crisis and look at the people responsible for the largest portion of crime.
EQUITABLE INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
AJ: Instead of creating laws around development that might scare away prospective businesses, Jones would have conversations about how they can improve their bottom lines.
TJ: Jones plans to work with development agencies to create guides for equitable development and link neighborhood development organizations to important resources within city government, among other things.
CS: Spencer would support using federal and local money to stabilize neighborhood blocks, including creating affordable housing and market-rate developments. Vacant city-owned properties could be returned to residents.
LR: Reed maintains that it’s important to invest in areas that have been underinvested in for years, such as neighborhoods in North St. Louis.