Community board says take the city out of the county

 
Queens Post

A Community Board 2 taskforce created to evaluate the proposed changes to the boundaries of Council District 26 has rejected the NYC Districting Commission’s preliminary draft plan.

The commission released preliminary maps in July for all 51 council districts—although the revised Council District 26 map stood out since the district’s boundaries would be subject to major change. The map would see the Woodside portion of the existing district split among four council districts; Ravenswood and Queensbridge would be gone; and Roosevelt Island and a portion of the Upper East Side would be added.

The proposed district would be comprised of approximately 173,000 people, with 36,000 people from Manhattan and 12,000 from Roosevelt Island.

 CB2 is deeply concerned about the impacts to our community that the draft redistricting scheme may produce,” according to a statement released by CB2’s taskforce. “It is critical that our voices are heard loud and clear to ensure proper representation, prevent disenfranchisement, and to ensure marginalized communities are not divide and diluted.”

The taskforce, which was created by CB2 chair Morry Galonoy, argues that the revised district would have an adverse impact on residents who live within Community Board 2 and all residents who reside in Council District 26 today.

It also says the proposed map does not comport with the city charter since the commission is required to keep neighborhoods intact, limit crossover districts (as in across boroughs) and avoid oddly shaped districts.

The taskforce says that the change would see less representation, attention, resources and discretionary funding awarded to residents of community board 2.

The taskforce also said that the proposed Council District 26 would paint an entirely different picture of the residents who currently live in the district—as well as the services offered. The taskforce highlighted the following:

–The average income within the district would go from $80,000 to $110,000—overstating what current residents earn.

—The racial and cultural demographics would see the white non-Hispanic population grow to 44 percent of the population, up from 29 percent—reducing the influence and representation of communities of color who live in the district.

—The proposed district would include major hospitals on the east side of Manhattan, but community board 2 residents would still have no hospital or place to give birth within its boundaries.

—The revised district has more schools within it, which would make it tougher for schools to get funding or to build additional schools in community board 2.

The taskforce also concludes that it would be much tougher for the councilmember to provide services in the revised district.

New York Democrats gerrymandering attempt kiboshed

City and State 

 

New York’s highest court tossed out both congressional and state Senate district maps on Wednesday, ruling that they were both drawn in violation of the constitution.

In a majority 4-3 decision, the state Court of Appeals ruled that the maps must be redrawn by a neutral expert, acknowledging that “it will likely be necessary to move the congressional and senate primary elections to August,” Chief Judge Janet DiFiore wrote, ordering the Supreme Court to oversee the process.

While the court ruled both maps were procedurally unconstitutional, the judges wrote that the congressional map was clearly gerrymandered “with impermissible partisan purpose.”

The decision comes after the new, bipartisan Independent Redistricting Committee, established by voters in 2014, failed to come to an agreement on the electoral maps, putting the power in the hands of the Democrat-controlled state Legislature, which approved the newly redrawn maps in February. 

“The legislature responded by creating and enacting maps in a nontransparent manner controlled exclusively by the dominant political party – doing exactly what they would have done had the 2014 constitutional reforms never been passed,” DiFiore wrote. 

The now-voided maps would have given Democrats advantages in 22 of the state’s 26 congressional districts. The new state Senate map redistributed two more of the 63 districts to New York City, following population trends, and gave  Democrats a better position in three Republican-held districts. 

After Democrats released the maps, Republicans promptly filed a lawsuit arguing that the process for approving the maps was “constitutionally defective” and that the congressional map in particular was “unconstitutionally gerrymandered in favor of the majority party,” according to the decision issued Wednesday.

Lizzie Three Times

 

Queens Post

After losing a nail-biter of a race against incumbent Borough President Donovan Richards last summer, former Queens Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley appears to be reentering the Queens political world once again — this time for state Senate.

Crowley has officially filed to run for the newly created state Senate District 17, which peels off areas from several existing Queens and Brooklyn senate districts. The new district covers portions of Greenpoint, Long Island City and Sunnyside to the west—and sections of Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale, Woodhaven and Richmond Hill to the east.

Crowley would be a familiar face in much of the Senate district after serving as the city Councilmember for the overlapping 30th council district—representing Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village and Ridgewood—from 2009 to 2017.

In her county-wide race for borough president last year, she came within a percentage point of unseating Richards, an incumbent to whom she had lost a special election for the borough presidency a year before.

 Election results from the 2021 primary show that she won most election districts that make up the new Senate District by making public safety a top concern, reportedly running ads that knocked Richards for his efforts to reduce the NYPD budget as a member of the city Council in 2020