East Bronxites ripped from borough
with Congressional District 3
BY ALIYA SCHNEIDER
The new Congressional District 3
strips the eastern-most Bronx neighborhoods
from the borough and combines
them with parts of Westchester, Queens
and predominately the north shore of
Long Island, leaving some Bronx residents
feeling disenfranchised.
East Bronxites sent an open letter
with a live petition attached to Gov.
Kathy Hochul, state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi,
state Assemblyman Michael Benedetto,
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
and state Sen. Majority Leader Andrea
Stewart-Cousins on Feb. 2, which, as of
Tuesday, has now been signed by more
than 130 residents.
“Frankly, we have about as much in
common with someone in Smithtown,
Long Island as we do with someone
on the planet Mars,” the letter stated.
“These plans are being rushed through
without a public hearing because such
a hearing would expose these obvious
truths.”
The new districts — which will offi
cially shift in January 2023 — were
unveiled on Sunday, Jan. 30; the state
Legislature passed them on Feb. 2, and
Hochul signed them on Feb. 3. District 3
has been represented by U.S. Rep. Tom
Suozzi, a moderate Democrat who is forgoing
reelection to make a bid for governor.
The new District 3 absorbs half
of Throggs Neck, Edgewater, Silver
Beach, Locust Point, Country Club,
Orchard Beach, City Island and part
of Pelham Bay Park, all of which were
previously part of District 14 per the
prior lines that were drawn in 2012 and
will stay intact through 2022. District 3
now also travels through Westchester
by way of Pelham, and goes all the way
up to Rye Brook, absorbing parts of former
districts 16 and 17. The new district
dips into northeastern Queens and covers
the North Shore of Long Island from
Kings Point to Nissequogue, an area
that was mostly already in District 3,
except for the eastern-most part, which
was in District 1.
All in all, the waterside Bronx residents
are concerned their collective
voice will be diminished when it comes
to advocating for local issues.
“Who do you think the new Congressional
Representative from NY-03 will
listen to?” the letter said. “We are taking
a big step backward, and once again
the Bronx is being short changed to
benefi t affl uent Long Islanders. You are
taking solidly lower and middle income
neighborhoods of the Bronx that are in
need of equitable funding and throwing
them together with some of the wealthier
areas of the state. We don’t go to the
same schools, take the same transportation,
have the same municipalities or
services nor do we share the same problems
or interests.”
The new District 3 will be almost
40% more white than U.S. Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez’s former District 14,
which the Bronx shoreline communities
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have been a part of. Ocasio-Cortez
declined to comment for this article.
The east Bronxites will be emerging
from a district that is just under
21% white, 48.5% Hispanic, almost 19%
Asian and more than 8% Black, to one
that is 60% white, just under 18% Hispanic,
almost 15% Asian and just under
4% Black.
They will also be shifting from a district
where almost 74% of votes in the
2020 presidential election went to President
Joe Biden to one that leans more
Republican, as only 57% of the new
District 3 population voted for Biden.
Prior to the newly drawn lines, District
3 only encapsulated the North Shore of
Long Island and parts of northeastern
Queens, and was almost 62% white, just
under 13% Hispanic, 19% Asian and
just under 3% Black.
After Hochul signed off on the new
districts Thursday, Biaggi, a Progressive
from Pelham, viewed the new district
with optimism in a statement to
the Bronx Times.
“As a resident of the new NY-03 District
myself, I think there is a lot more
that unites us than divides us, and this
district gives us a real opportunity to
bridge communities along the Sound,”
Biaggi said. “The best representative
for this district will be one who understands
the needs of the east Bronx,
and who will fi ght for working families
from Suffolk to Westchester.”
A few days later, on Monday, Biaggi
announced she is running for the congressional
seat.
Benedetto, who represents the east
Bronx in the Assembly, told the Bronx
Times he was disappointed with the
congressional lines, and said the district
may have to be “sacrifi cial land”
for the “greater good for the entire state
of New York.”
He said on Wednesday — the day before
Hochul signed off on the new maps
— that two of the prospective candidates
for the new District 3 — neither
of which are Biaggi — already reached
out to him, and he feels an obligation to
educate them on the district’s needs. Six
Long Island Democrats have already
announced bids to represent District 3.
“And I will be telling them of this
district and how we are afraid that they
will get elected and then disappear and
not pay attention to us,” he said.
The Newsday editorial board referenced
estimates that the new District 3
consists of 66% Long Island voters, 20%
Westchester voters, 11% Queens voters
and 3% Bronx voters.
Benedetto said he was told the new
district consists of about 800,000 people,
30,000 of which are from the Bronx,
making the borough just under 4% of
the overall district.
Minority advocacy groups expressed
disappointment in the new districts,
and Republicans fi led a lawsuit
in the New York Supreme Court that
claims the new maps violate the state’s
constitution.
East Bronxites who have been part of Congressional District 14 are being pulled into District
3, becoming just a sliver of the district. Photo courtesy New York State Legislative Task Force
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