Columbia council finalizes new voting boundaries amid gentrification concerns
Columbia City Council on Tuesday finalized new municipal voting boundaries to align with population changes identified by the 2020 census.
The new map realigns the city’s districts to have a more even racial makeup after uneven population growth over the last decade, particularly a surge of white population growth downtown.
Council gave initial approval to the changes at its meeting Dec. 7, despite urging from residents to slow down the process.
Columbia council of neighborhoods president John Black, who was at Tuesday’s meeting but did not speak publicly, said in an interview that he hoped council members would delay the final vote.
Black said he was not contacted by the city for feedback from his organization, which represents more than 100 neighborhoods across Columbia. He said that wasn’t necessarily unusual, but he is hoping for better collaboration between the neighborhood council and the city.
His organization had hoped to provide input gathered from the various community associations contained within the council of neighborhoods.
The proposed maps had been on display at City Hall since Nov. 22, but Black worries that fatigue after the mayoral election left residents less engaged in the redistricting process.
“Frankly, a lot of people were burnt out from this election process,” Black said. “I don’t think the input has actually been received.”
No one spoke against the final maps at Tuesday’s council meeting.
At the Dec. 7 meeting, several residents worried gentrification would persist, particularly in District 2, which comprises parts of downtown and north Columbia.
At that meeting, Elizabeth Marks, a resident of District 2 and vice chair of the Coalition of Downtown Neighborhoods, asked the council if ongoing development could be considered when drawing the new lines.
She and others worry that market- and luxury-rate housing will outpace affordable units in the area surrounding downtown, further gentrifying the area and potentially forcing a white majority in the District 2 electorate.
“These are wonderful old houses, and they’re highly desirable. They’re less expensive than in the downtown core,” she said at the time. “And so our concern is that down the road because of gentrification and because of housing costs, we won’t have an equal playing field for Black and white candidates.”
Outgoing Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine addressed that concern while discussing the new maps Tuesday. She said the maps as they are drawn do a good job of ensuring Columbia complies with federal voting rights laws that require the racial makeup of a district be even enough for a minority candidate to have the same opportunity to be elected as a white resident.
But she acknowledged future growth could jeopardize that balance and urged the remaining council members to be intentional about the city’s development.
The final maps are available online at citycouncil.columbiasc.gov/redistricting.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 2:13 PM.
