The Independent View: NY Redistricting Update

Karim Camara, the Chair of New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus and Member of the Assembly-43rd District, wrote to T. Christian Herren, Jr. Chief, Voting Section, Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice, the following, explaining why they should reject New York's redistricting lines.

As Chair of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, which consists of 48 minority members of the New York State Senate and Assembly; I write to urge the Attorney General to object to the pending Section 5 submission of the New York State Senate for S.6696 which provides for a new redistrict plan for the New York State Senate.

The Attorney General should object to S.6696 because the New York State Senate has failed to meet its burden of showing that S.6696 “neither has the purpose or will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or membership in a language minority group. 42 U.S.C. Section 1973c(a). In addition, S. 6696 contains 63 New York Senate seats, a change from the existing plan that has 62 seats. Upon information and belief, the New York State Legislature also used a different methodology to calculate the number of districts in S.6696 than was used in the existing plan. Both of these changes constitute a change in “standard, procedure with respect to voting that must be precleared.

Problems With Certain Individual Senate Districts

In addition, the New York State Senate plan, S.6696, splits or cracks certain long established and emerging communities of interest. These districts include the following:

 10SD(South Queens) -- Splits off the area west of the Van Wyck Expressway which forms a community of interest with the area east of the Van Wyck.

 14SD(South-East Queens) – Cracks the Jamaica Estates community by cutting in and out of the area. Not compact.

 19SD(Central Brooklyn and East Brooklyn ) – Splits Flatlands area. The appendage of Marine Park should be eliminated.

 20SD(Central Brooklyn) – Cracks both Crown Heights and Prospect Heights. To prevent this, the northern boundary of SD20 should be placed at St. Marks Place. Also the two cultural icons contiguous to SD20, the Brooklyn Museum and the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, should be placed in the district. The hammer-shaped appendage which places a portion of Boro Park of West Brooklyn into SD20 should be eliminated.

 21SD(Central Brooklyn and South Brooklyn) – Cracks both the communities of Flatbush and Flatlands. All of Flatbush should be united in SD21. Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery should be part of SD20.

 25SD(Central Brooklyn) – Cracks both traditional Black communities of Crown Heights and Prospect Heights. The North-East area of Bedford Stuyvesant and all of Prospect Heights should be included in SD25.

 30SD(Harlem) – Cracks Harlem into three pieces by cutting out West Harlem to Hudson River from Martin Luther King Blvd to 147 Street and by cutting out East Harlem. Harlem should be kept whole from the Hudson River to East River.

 36SD(Lower Westchester and Northern Bronx) – Splits off East Yonkers and Fleetwood, whose residents form a community of interest with the Blacks in the Lower Westchester District. This district should have gone north to the city boundary to capture the entire community of interest in Lower Westchester.

For the foregoing reasons, I strongly urge the Attorney General the Attorney General to object to the pending Section 5 submission of the New York State Senate for S.6696.