Take a map of Savannah and draw a rectangle bounded by River Street, East Broad Street, Victory Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (the old West Broad Street).
The neighborhoods inside our box are very different, but they share similar concerns related to historical patterns of development.
Those concerns include appropriate application of mixed-used zoning, parking requirements, speeding traffic on one-way streets in residential areas, poor maintenance of commercial properties, package alcohol sales, panhandling and on and on.
Sure, we have some of these same problems in other neighborhoods, and citizens throughout Savannah share concerns about crime, education and other major issues.
But the problems and potential solutions play out differently in areas with radically different development patterns.
Go west of our big downtown box and the development pattern changes pretty quickly, largely because of the historical impact of the railroads and the ports.
By contrast, the east side of downtown — at least as far out as Waters Avenue — shares many development traits with the neighborhoods in our big box.
Now, a brief City Talk foray into politics.
If some of these downtown neighborhoods share so many of the same problems, in some cases chronic ones, what’s the best system of political representation?
Right now, our downtown box is carved up, with pieces of it in three different aldermanic districts.
For example, under the current map, residents on the north and east sides of Forsyth Park are in District 2, while many who live west and south of Forsyth are in District 1, which extends west as far as the county line.
And many of the residents who live between 34th Street and Victory Drive are in District 5, which extends all the way south to Savannah Mall.
So, here’s the question of the day. Are these older, inner-city neighborhoods better served by being in a single district so residents can share their concerns with one councilperson or by being carved up as they currently are?
Of course, the mayor and both aldermen-at-large are elected citywide, so residents routinely go to them with problems.
And all of our City Council members hope to serve the interests of residents throughout Savannah.
Still, isn’t there something to be said for adjacent neighborhoods with similar concerns having the same alderman?
What changes are in the draft map for new local voting districts?
The city is in the midst of redrawing district lines based on data from the 2010 Census.
City officials are in consultation with the Metropolitan Planning Commission about the new map. They need to ensure that each of the districts has approximately the same population (about 22,444).
They will also be making sure that several districts are majority-minority. That’s not hard to do when almost 62 percent of the city’s population is classified as “non-white.”
It’s impossible to know what sort of political wrangling will go on behind the scenes before a final map is approved, but I’d encourage voters to take a look at the most recent draft map available on savannahnow.com.
I’m sure some folks won’t be happy to see themselves in a different aldermanic district, but the proposed map makes more geographical sense than the current one.
Snaggle-toothed lines are smoothed out to a degree, including in the greater downtown area.
The big box that I imagine above would be almost entirely in District 2, with only the northwest corner of downtown remaining in District 1. More than 5,800 residents in the downtown area would be moved into District 2 from either District 1 or District 5.
For those of us who believe that district lines should generally follow historical development patterns, the draft map debated recently by City Council looks pretty good.
Mary Osborne, the current District 2 alderwoman, expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed configuration and noted the reduction in the non-white percentage of her district. Plus she will be faced with the problem of getting to know so many new constituents before the next election.
But the issues involved here transcend the concerns of any individual politician. And it’s worth noting that even under the new map, District 2 would still have a non-white percentage of nearly 62 percent, about the average for the city as a whole.
If current population trends continue over the next decade, we could eventually see the entire downtown box bounded by River Street, East Broad Street, Victory Drive and MLK represented by a single alderman.
What are other big changes?
The expansion of District 2 further west also means some significant changes for District 3, which would include a few neighborhoods west of the Truman Parkway.
Further south, a largely non-white neighborhood with a population of 2,361 would move from District 4 to District 3, while a largely white neighborhood of 1,951 would move from District 3 to District 4.
There are a couple of other significant changes affecting Districts 4, 5 and 6, but most Savannahians would remain in the same districts under the proposed map.
I hope citizens will take a look and engage in some level-headed discussion.
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via http://www.billdawers.com and billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, GA. 31401.