Pittsburgh's council, school board districts to be redrawn using 2020 census figures

If you like to look at and draw maps, crunch population and demographic numbers and you live in the City of Pittsburgh, there’s an unpaid gig that requires regular meetings for the next year or so.

The process to redraw Pittsburgh’s city council and school board districts will begin later this month with appointment of the reapportionment committees. Those volunteers will be charged with coming up with a plan that divvies up the city into nine sections that evenly distribute the city’s population and ensure a chance for minority representation in local government.

City Council President Theresa Kail-Smith has asked council members to submit candidates for the two committees that will guide the process. Each council member can appoint one person.

One committee, with one member appointed by each councilperson, will redraw the city council districts. Another committee — with three members appointed by council, three by the mayor’s office and one by Mount Oliver borough — will be charged with drawing the school board districts.

The appointments need to be made by Sept. 30, Kail-Smith said.

It’s a process done after every census.

In 2011, longtime Pittsburgh political consultant Matt Merriman-Preston, who runs Ampersand Consulting based in Lawrenceville, led the committee tasked with drawing the city council districts.

Being on the committee requires a year-long commitment, monthly meetings and a willingness to “sit down with maps and see what the options are,” Merriman-Preston said.

In 2011, the committee sought opinions from outside experts about how to ensure there are districts where a majority of residents are Black or people of color and how to keep their populations equal, he said.

“I remember it being a pretty smooth process,” he said.

Based on 2020 census numbers, the population and makeup of the city has changed.

The population dipped from 305,704 in 2010 to 302,971 in 2020, a drop of nearly 1%.

RELATED: Allegheny, Butler, Washington counties show population growth in 2020 Census

So I think @mattmp may have dumped this out there already. So a check for him, but if you have not seen it this is how population change by Pittsburgh city council looks over the decade: pic.twitter.com/ccQ5L8BvWT

— ???????????????????? ???????????????????? (@chrisbriem) August 12, 2021

Six of the nine city council districts lost population, according to census data analyzed by Chris Briem, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research.

Areas losing population

• District 1, which includes the North Side and is represented by Bobby Wilson. It saw a 6.4% dip in population — 32,415 in 2010 to 30,352 in 2020 — although much of the loss can be attributed to closing of Western Penitentiary.

• District 9, which includes East Liberty, East Hills, Friendship, Garfield, Homewood, Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar and North Point Beeze. It’s represented by Ricky Burgess. It lost 8% of its population, going from 32,837 in 2010 to 30,205 in 2020.

• District 3, which includes Allentown, Arlington, Arlington Heights, Beltzhoover, Central Oakland, Knoxville, Mt. Oliver, Oakcliffe, South Side Flats, South Side Slopes, South Oakland and St. Clair. It’s represented by Bruce Kraus. It saw a 3% population decrease in population, from 34,641 in 2010 to 33,599 in 2020.

• District 5, which includes Glen Hazel, Greenfield, Hays, Hazelwood, Lincoln Place, New Homestead, Regent Square, Squirrel Hill South and Swisshelm Park. It is represented by Corey O’Connor. It saw a 1.3% decrease in population, from 34,755 in 2010 to 34,296 in 2020.

• Districts 4 (South Hills) and 2 (West End) also lost population, according to the census.

Areas gaining population

• District 8, which includes Oakland, Point Breeze, Shadyside and Squirrel Hill, was the region with the largest population growth, 6.4%, from 34,390 in 2010 to 36,593 in 2020. It is represented by Erika Strassburger.

• District 7, which includes Bloomfield, Friendship, Highland Park, Lawrenceville, Morningside, Polish Hill, Stanton Heights and the Strip District, also grew, by 4.9%, from 33,955 in 2010 to 35,608 in 2020. It’s represented by Deb Gross.

• District 6, which includes Perry Hilltop, Downtown, Uptown, the Hill District, and parts of the North Side and Oakland, also showed nominal growth of .8%, going from 32,455 in 2010 to 32,730 in 2020. It’s represented by R. Daniel Lavelle.

City of Pittsburgh neighborhoods with the largest population increases 2010-2020
(https://t.co/WKb2yOKGGs) pic.twitter.com/6QWfdQsemf

— ???????????????????? ???????????????????? (@chrisbriem) August 25, 2021

Data for school board districts’ population changes wasn’t immediately available.

One of the things people who serve on the committees will have to contend with is the increasing number of people who identify as being part of two or more races, Merriman-Preston said.

“There’s been a big jump in that,” he said, and it factors into how to draw the districts so some of them have a majority population that includes people of color.

The new districts will be approved next year.