BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
New York state’s intention to weed
out political gerrymandering and vote
dilution in its decennial redistricting
mapmaking process, was supposed to
be through an independent bipartisan
state commission. Because of a 2014
amendment in the state’s constitution,
the 10-person New York Independent
Redistricting Commission (NYIRC) is
tasked with handling federal and state
district lines in an effort to depoliticize
the redistricting process that takes
place every 10 years after the census.
However, when the NYIRC failed
to reach consensus on future maps for
the next decade and instead released
competing maps in September — a congressional
map designed by Democrat-
and Republican-leaning members of
the board — it left many Bronxites and
elected offi cials with a familiar distaste
for a process that has been criticized for
political erasure of minorities and creating
mismatched congressional constituencies
throughout the Five Borough
area.
“After a thorough review of the New
York State Independent Redistricting
Commission proposed state Senate district
maps, I have become increasingly
concerned that these proposals would
effectively split neighborhoods that are
cohesive communities,” said Progressive
state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who
represents District 33 which covers the
central and South Bronx, and also overlaps
with the 13th, 14th and 15th congressional
districts. “This will not only
lessen the electoral power of Bronx residents,
but it could make advocating for
some of the hardest hit and most underserved
areas in my borough even more
challenging,”
In the Bronx, areas like Bedford
Park and Riverdale are represented
by, at most, three sitting state senators,
causing an infl ux of confusion on who
to contact for residential issues. Other
areas like Claremont and Crotona Park
are split between just two representatives.
In some districts, such as state Sen.
Alessandra Biaggi’s 34th District,
Bronx constituents are intermixed
with Westchester constituents, creating
an issue that redistricting analysts
say can cause issues for elected offi cials
trying to assess quality-of-life issues in
vastly different zip codes.
“When you have districts that yoked
together very far distant areas, which
we have a lot of in New York City, it
causes issues,” said Karen Young, a redistricting
expert with #DrawDemocracy.
“The issues in Westchester, especially
certain parts of Westchester, are
very different from the Bronx.”
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The New York Independent Redsitricting Commission failed to come to a consensus on a
new map of legislative district lines for the state.
And at a hearing at BronxWorks
in the Grand Concourse section last
month, some residents took issue with
the proposed maps including a plan to
group residents from 138 Street all the
way up to 197 Street, while small portions
of the western border of the neighborhood
would be served by District 30
state Sen. Cordell Clare, who currently
represents primarily Northern Manhattan.
There’s also concerns that proposed
maps would split long-standing Black
communities along Webster Avenue,
by separating Crotona Park from the
residents along Webster Avenue, who
live adjacent to the park. An issue, Rivera
said, that would be doubly complicated
by having two different state
senators serve the local needs of one
community.
One of the proposed maps draws a
line that removes Co-op City — one of
the Bronx’s most active voting blocs
— out of District 12, in lieu of combining
it with upper Manhattan neighborhoods.
Despite an earnest rebranding of
the redistricting process and a desire
to depoliticize it, the state’s redistricting
process remains under heavy scrutiny.
“It’s a mess,” said Barry Young, a
resident of Morrisania. “There’s no
congruency, fairness or intelligent
design in this process, ‘independent’
body or not. It’s about drawing up
power plays and shrinking the power
of people who don’t play ball.”
While NYIRC stated at the hearing
last month that they are “blind to politics,”
many are still dubious on how the
commission plans to address mapping
changes that displace residents like
Laurel Green. Prior to the 2010 redistricting
process, Green was voting in
the 33rd Senatorial District, but said
she was displaced into the 36th District
— which is represented by state Sen.
Jamaal Bailey — through gerrymandered
lines.
“I was (living) in the New York State
Senate District 33rd, and due to gerrymandering
I now vote in the 36th Senate
District,” said Green. “For some
people, this is fi ne, but this is another
example of dividing up the Bronx.”
While some Bronxites are fi ghting
for their place on the new maps,
some groups are fi ghting for more political
representation, especially with
the consequential 2022 midterms approaching.
According to 2020 census
data, New York’s Hispanic population
not only grew — the group makes up
28.3% of the city’s population — but became
the predominate racial group in
the Bronx at a 54.8% clip.
Any new map, proposed or approved,
must accurately refl ect
changes in the most-recent census,
said Cesar Z. Ruiz, a member of the Latino
Justice Project, a nonprofi t civil
rights advocacy group.
“The spirit of (this process) is really
protecting voting power of not just
Latino groups, but Black groups and
Asian American groups across the
board,” said Ruiz. “The redistricting
process has historically been a problem,
given past iterations of very partisan
and gerrymandered (redistricting
lines) in a way that really discounts the
voice of minority communities.”
Latino Justice unveiled its own set
of maps, for congressional and state
Assembly districts, late last month and
said their maps can address underrepresentation
among Asian Americans
— who account for 7% of the U.S.
population but only represent 3% of
congressional members — and other
groups such as Black communities,
which has historically been disenfranchised
by the process.
“The NYIRC’s congressional proposals
divide communities of color and
work to diminish the ability of communities
of color to elect candidates of
their choice. In contrast, the Latino
Justice Project proposed congressional
districts maintain and strengthen
the voting power of New York City’s
Black, Latino and Asian communities,”
the group said in a statement.
Map proposals need to be approved
by the state Legislature, which can
draw its own lines if it rejects two
rounds of proposals. Redistricting for
City Council seats is governed by a different
local process. The Legislature
will review the maps during the start
of the legislative session in January
to either approve or reject them. The
maps must be in place by March next
year so candidates can begin collecting
signatures to get on the ballot for
the June 2022 primaries.
Bronxites, pols delve into
redistricting mapmaking process
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