Friday, March 16, 2012

Senate District re-gerrymandered to favor Toby

Proposed Senate District 11 - February 2012
Major changes to already-gerrymandered maps making them MORE gerrymandered (which we thought was impossible) occurred between the initial proposals made in February and those submitted by the Republican State Senate Majority on March 14th.
Proposed Senate District 11 - March 2012
The changes to State Senate District 11 (Tony Avella) and the "Asian" State Senate District 16 are among the most dramatic. These include:

- Bay Terrace and the umbilical cord that is the Cross Island / Whitestone Expressway have been added into District 11, making it much more regular-looking, and removed from District 16. District 15 no longer looks like a lobster. Now it only resembles roadkill afer about five cars have run over some poor animal.

- Much of North Flushing, Kissena Park, East Flushing and parts of Broadway-Flushing and Auburndale have been removed from District 11 and placed in District 16.

- The western half of downtown Flushing (west of Main Street) to the LIRR is in District 11, as is Mitchell Linden/Linden Hill and several public housing projects, including the Bland Houses and Latimer Gardens.

- Near Queens College, Pomonok/Electchester has been moved from District 11 to District 16. Just to the east, large areas of Fresh Meadows, including the almost the entire apartment complex, have been moved from District 16 to District 11. In turn, the area of Bayside around Queensborough Community College has been switched from District 11 to District 16.

- In far eastern Queens (Bellerose and Queens Village), the most interesting map change is the removal of the Creedmoor Campus from District 11, placing it in Malcolm Smith's district. There was no reason to do this, as it is a completely non-residential area.

This was clearly done to stop Avella from blocking the ICCC development, which takes an act of the State Legislature to transfer State-owned land to a private entity. "Home rule" meant that Avella has continuously blocked the bill that was submitted on behalf of ICCC by other elected officials eager to see this development happen - for reasons still under investigation by both the Attorney General and Inpsector General of New York State. This district shift is tantamount to removing the one unmovable obstacle - Avella - in the ICCC's path in building 9-story apartment buildings for their own membership in a single-family neighborhood, aided and abetted by certain elected officials.

Read about the continuing investigation into corruption and giveaways of state land at Creedmoor right here on Queens Crap.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

The old squid just cant give it up.

She's so affixed to her Albany seat...it'll take crazy glue solvent to remove her rump.

The alternative is to carry her out attached to it.

Before John Liu, the Staviskys had the largest campaign war chest in the business, so she has the financial edge on Avella.

Too bad!

Anonymous said...

These Pols are stealing from us in every which way! Bring back (2x) term limits now!

Anonymous said...

The headline is "Senate Districts re-gerrymandered to favor Toby" but the map shows Tony's district, not Toby's district.

Anonymous said...

TERM LIMITS. The only way to get rid of the vermin.

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 2:

You can't bring back what wasn't there. The state government has never had term limits, unfortunately.

Queens Crapper said...

Tony and Toby are in the same district now, that's why.

Anonymous said...

What a creep. A liar who nevers answers to her constituents and has done nothing to better our lives in Queens
Out she goes!

Anonymous said...

do you really believe that two machine democrats did not agree on this re-district plan?

did not one work for the other's husband, leonard stavisky ?

as it is said "birds of a feather,stick together ".

Queens Crapper said...

No, they didn't collaborate on this because they both live in the 11th district now and still have to run against each other in a primary. DUH.

Anonymous said...

Head line in western Queens: Mike Gianaris is saved!!!!

Not bad for a person who is spending his constituents money building his career by ignoring his district's needs.

The other sweet thing is that the deal involves a bunch of insiders getting together 10 year from now ... and doing the same thing.

But, as the Queens newspapers said, Mike's job is safe. That is the most important thing they can get out of this.

They must really think that we are a bunch of old ladies from the old country and we dress in black.

Anonymous said...

They don't have to run in the same district or in the district they live in. Tony could run in the 11 district, and Toby in the 16 district.

Queens Crapper said...

Absolutely untrue. You have to have lived in the district for at least a year in order to run. State rules are not like Congress.

Anonymous said...

That's normally true, QC - except in redistricting years, when they can run in any district they want provided that you move to the new district before the next election.

Stavisky definitely does not want to move from her fancy waterfront high-rise in Beechhurst to run in the "Asian" district.

And to the previous Anon, the Democrats in the State Senate were locked out of the decision-making process because they are in the minority. These maps were made up by the Republican Majority in order to add a 63rd seat in order to maintain their slim majority for another decade.

According to every good government group out there, they are the most gerrymandered districts that have ever been created (and look it from the maps shown above).

Queens Crapper said...

Exactly. Tony's going to run where he lives and Toby doesn't want to move. Which means Evan better broker a deal that allows Tony to have the congressional seat so Mama doesn't have to primary him.

Anonymous said...

with the past two months local p.r.photo ops. that tony has been targeted in (since the liu scandal was exposed), is it not obvious that he is actually positioning for a Mayoral run ? when LIU bails out.

TUBBY takes it all...very convenient????

Anonymous said...

I have no problem with Tony running for Mayor, so if he's positioning himself to run for that, fine. And he'll do that regardless of what Liu does (and does it matter what Liu does any longer? Politically, he no longer exists.).

Personally, I think Tony's gearing himself more to run for Ackerman's seat (that doesn't sound right) than anything else.