Commission Rejects Revised City Council Map That Would Redraw Uptown Boundaries

How to preserve minority voting power remains a puzzle, commissioners say.

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Above, from left: the current City Council district map from 2012, the controversial preliminary map released in July and the revised, unreleased map voted down today.

 

By George Fabe Russell

 

The New York City Redistricting Commission—tasked with redrawing boundaries for City Council districts—narrowly rejected a revised map today, partly because it didn’t go far enough to preserve the political clout of minority groups, including constituents in Uptown neighborhoods.

Maria Mateo, a member of the commission who voted to spike the plan, said she had “grave concerns over dilution of the Dominican vote.”

Commission member Marc Wurzel, who also voted with the majority, said the panel needed to continue working on the political map. “I’d rather not meet a deadline or push that deadline to get something right,” he said.

The plan rejected in an 8 to 7 vote was a revision of a redrawn political map that was released in July and provoked a record 8,300 comments from constituents, including many at public hearings, according to the commission. A sticking point for any map is how neighborhoods may be splintered by tweaks to the political boundaries. The commission will now have to go back to the drawing board.

New districts must be in place before the next City Council elections in November 2023. The map is adjusted every 10 years to reflect population changes based on data from the U.S. Census. Demographics are also taken into account.

“I believe both in the substance and the process” of the revised map, said Dennis Walcott, chairman of the Redistricting Commission, who voted to approve it. “I think the commission has done an excellent job meeting its responsibility and its due diligence.”

Kevin Sullivan, another commissioner, also voted to approve the latest proposal. His only intention was “to take it to the next stage of the process,” he said. “I think it is time for us to hear from the City Council itself.”

The city’s charter prohibits breaking up “neighborhoods and communities with established ties of common interest and associations,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said at a hearing last month. Many elected officials representing Uptown constituents expressed concern that the preliminary map would do just that.

Shaun Abreu, a council member representing District 7, said last month “the ultimate effect” of the commission’s preliminary map “will be dilution of the Latino vote, denying them a stronger voice in local representation.”

Kristin Richardson Jordan, a council member representing Central Harlem’s District 9, spoke last month about similar concerns about African-American voters in the Uptown neighborhood. “We need to make sure Harlem has a Black plurality,” she said.

State Assemblymember Al Taylor noted that District 9 is the only City Council district in Manhattan with an African-American representative. The commission’s preliminary map increased the proportion of District 9’s Black population, but not enough to create a majority, according to data from City University of New York’s Center for Urban Research.

Many uptown representatives have been pushing for a third-party plan sponsored by CUNY Medgar Evers College’s Center for Law and Social Justice, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and Latino Justice PRLDEF. Proponents say that proposal emphasizes keeping neighborhoods intact. Based on a presentation by John Flateau, the Redistricting Commission’s executive director, it seems that some of the Unity Map’s solutions were adopted in the revised map. The extent of this will not be clear, though, until the commission releases a new proposal.

Flateau announced today that, under the revised plan that was rejected, District 9 would retain Schomburg Plaza, Lakeview Apartments, and Polo Grounds, District 10’s boundaries would be extended south and District 7 would regain some territory in the blocks north of West 160th Street. Redistricting Commissioner Michael Schnall said that District 8, straddling Manhattan and the Bronx, would have favored Manhattan.

“What I don’t want is another huge round of public hearings,” said commissioner Lisa Sorin. “We’ve listened to the testimony but there’s still a lot to be heard. There’s still conversations among the commission and I need to hear more from the Hispanic community, so for that reason, I vote no.”

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