Cleveland Council will lose 2 members due to declining city population

Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin (Ward 6) has hired consultants to help redraw the city's ward boundaries this year.

The council will lose two members due to the city's declining population. There are currently 17 members. There will be 15 after the 2025 general election.

Why it's happening

A 2008 charter amendment requires the city council to shrink when there's a decrease in Cleveland's population. Numbers from the 2020 U.S. Census showed the population fell to 372,624 from 396,815 in 2010.

The most current U.S. Census estimate lists the city's population as 362,656.

The ward boundaries must be redrawn before the city's 2025 elections.

Who's making the map

The city will spend $100,000 to redraw ward boundaries.

Griffin hired Bob Dykes of Triad Research Group to create the new map. He has helped redraw the city's ward boundaries since the 1980s. Mark Salling, a Cleveland State University geographer and political consultant Kent Whitley, will assist with the process.

The new wards must be comprised of approximately 24,842 residents. Information from the City of Cleveland Open Data shows East Side wards fall below the number, while most West Side wards are at or above it.

For example, Ward 3, which includes Ohio City and Downtown, has 30,059 residents.
Ward 1, on Cleveland's Southeast Side, has 17,681 residents.

Griffin said it will be challenging to redraw the city's ward boundaries. He said population density varies around the city. For example, there are more abandoned homes and vacant lots on the East Side.

"You have to look at some of those kind of things as well to try to make sure that we’re not overburdening one ward with more of the problems than others," he said.

Why shrink?

Some council members and residents wanted to keep the council at 17 members, which would require a new charter amendment and voter approval.

They argued it would help members provide better constituent services to residents.

I can pick up my phone right now and call Mike Polensek (Ward 8 council member.) If he’s busy, I leave a message, he’ll call me back within 24 hours— he will call you back," said Greg Pollard, a Cleveland native and retired Cleveland police officer.

"Unfortunately, you can call the city, you may get somebody, but are they gonna respond to you within that time limit? No." he said.

Griffin and other members supported following the charter and argued it would appear self-serving to amend the city's charter.

"Many council members did not feel like that would be a good look in the community because they felt like it was about job preservation," Griffin said.

But he agreed council members play a critical role in their communities.

"I would have liked to have not seen this happen," Griffin said.

"Council people are the closest to the public," he said. "They may not talk to their congressperson, they may not even talk to their mayor, but you best believe they see their council person in the grocery store, they see their council person in the neighborhood; council is the one place that people can interface and interact with government so it’s a very important role for people to be able to understand government and to be able to get things done for their community."

When it's happening

"Whoever is going to be in charge of this, should actually look at the neighborhoods," Pollard said.

Pollard said some residents are still angry over how wards were redrawn in 2013 when the council shrunk from 19 to 17 members.

He said the current map splits up established communities and combines others.

For example, Ward 10 stretches across the northern part of the city's East Side.

"It doesn’t make sense to me that you’ve got a ward that goes from the Euclid border all the way down to East 40th Street," he said.

While Cleveland has lost population, he said it doesn't have to lose its character.

"We have to keep the neighborhoods together," he said. "Strong neighborhoods are what make Cleveland Cleveland."

The new ward map is expected to be ready by the end of this year.

Other key dates include the following:

• June 11, 2025 - Filing deadline for potential Cleveland City Council candidates
• Sept. 9, 2025 - Primary election (for wards with more than two candidates)
• Nov. 4, 2025 - General election