Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday approved maps with updated council districts based off the most recent census.

A nine-member Reapportionment Advisory Committee — formed in late September — drew up a version of the map based on the 2020 census.

The map aimed to ensure that two of the city’s nine council districts were majority-minority districts — districts where minorities constitute a majority of the population. The group also worked to ensure districts were contiguous and relatively even in population.

The committee in April provided City Council with their draft of the redistricted map, which consolidated Oakland into two districts rather than three.

City Council last week tweaked that map in response to complaints from residents in the Polish Hill and Bon Air neighborhoods, who opposed the committee’s initial proposal to move them into new districts.

To allow those neighborhoods to stay in their existing districts, the Strip District was moved from Councilwoman Deb Gross’s District 7 to District 1, represented by Councilman Bobby Wilson. McKinley Park jumped from Councilman Anthony Coghill’s District 4 to District 3, represented by Councilman Bruce Kraus.

The map approved Tuesday leaves Polish Hill and Bon Air in Districts 7 and 4, respectively.

Councilwoman Erika Strassburger was the only council member to vote against the new map. She told council members last week that she generally felt the final product was a “great map,” but had to vote against it because people in her district were unhappy. She did not specify what issues they saw with the map, but acknowledged “there wasn’t a whole lot of options to change it in the way we wanted to.”

Councilman Ricky Burgess was not present for the vote.

The new map will go into effect on Jan. 1.

Redistricting is typically done every 10 years to ensure districts remain relatively equal in population after a new census.

The process may, however, need to be redone before the next census if Pittsburgh annexes neighboring Wilkinsburg, something officials have been investigating after striking down the initial annexation proposal. If Pittsburgh takes on Wilkinsburg’s population, City Council maps would need to be redrawn to even out population.

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