Submissions

Public Comments Return to Archived Submissions Page

• Nancy
  April 1, 2023
  Dear Redistricting Commission, First, thank you for giving me the opportunity to comment. I am a long time resident of Kew Gardens Hills and have witnessed the growth of the Asian community in Kew Gadens Hills, Electchester, Hillcrest, and Pomonok. I am aware that a few of my neighbors are urging the commission to not dilute the Jewish representation. Well, I am urging you to give the Asian members of Kew Gardens Hills, Pomonok, Electchester, and Hillcrest a voice and their fair share of the community services they fund with their tax dollars. As I stated in my previous submission, the Asian population are in need of these services, such as mental health, ambulance services and representatives that at least acknowledge our existence and needs. Yes, I mentioned ambulance services, Kew Gardens Hills, if I understand, is being served by the Jewish private service, Hazolah, which is funded by my tax dollars. Do you think this is fair? If I need an ambulance on a Friday, Saturday, Jewish holiday, what does this mean? Will FDNY come and help me? That is just one concern, what about recruitment? Is it representative of the entire community? Then the worst of indifference, during the height of the pandemic when it is the Asian community that fared the worse, not even mental services or a food bank stock with Asian specific foods. When Jim Gennaro, Dan Rosenthal stump for votes during election, that's when they suddenly see us Asians, yet when they are asked to name any accomplishment they achieved on behalf of their Asian constituent, radio silence. Grace Meng at least can say what she has done for ALL her constituents. Jim Gennaro had the audacity to say he is aware of all the violent attacks against the Asian community yet, he has done nothing to protect us. Now, we may be quiet but that doesn't mean you can treat us as if we don't deserve the social services we fund with our tax dollars or that we even exist. After all, per the last Census, the Asian community in these named neighborhoods have grown and continues to grow. I am asking the redistricting commission to align Kew Gardens Hills, Electchester,Pomonok, and Hillcrest with Fresh Meadows, Flushing to help give the Asians a bigger voice and finally a piece of the social services we fund with our tax dollars. The Asian community needs representatives that will actually help them and not take their tax dollars without giving them what these tax dollars support. Sincerely, Nancy Linn
  
• John
  April 1, 2023
  The Town of Lysander is entirely within Onondaga County. Lysander contains part of the Village of Baldwinsville. Lysander is entirely within the Baldwinsville School District which includes parts of the Onondaga County towns of Clay and Van Buren, but no parts of Oswego County. Please do not the Town of Lysander into an assembly district that cuts it off from similar communities of interest as this will serve to confuse voters, disengage voters, and by cutting the Baldwinsville community into two assembly districts, you are hampering Baldwinsville's ability to elect the Assembly member of its choice and make its voice heard in Albany.
  
• Raul
  April 1, 2023
  https://districtr.org/plan/178889
  
• Raul
  April 1, 2023
  View File
  Thank you for reading my testimony. You can find my Districtr map here: https://districtr.org/plan/178889 Please contact me at rrothblatt@gmail.com if you have trouble reading my document or if you have any questions. I am working closely with Assembly Member Brian Cunningham, and I fully support his submission. Regards, Raul
  
• Raul
  April 1, 2023
  View File
  
  
• Lisa
  April 1, 2023
  I am writing to voice my opposition to the redistricting that would affect my neighborhood in Windsor Terrace. The issue affect the 44th Assembly District. The proposed changes by the commission would cut Windsor Terrace into two Assembly Districts which would lessen our representation as we would be divided and folded into two other large districts. By making the Prospect Expressway the dividing line, rather than the natural boundary of Green-Wood Cemetery. Additionally, the commission draws a dividing line at Dahill Road instead of Fort Hamilton Parkway, cutting out several blocks in Kensington, which have been in the 44th AD for decades. I support asking the commission to restore Green-Wood Cemetery along 20th Street to be the western border of the 44th AD, not the Prospect Expressway as in the draft plan, and Green-Wood Cemetery along McDonald Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway out to 39th Street as the northern boundary between the 44th and 51st ADs. This is a shift of only a few blocks but it makes complete sense geographically. Without this change, the portions of Kensington and Windsor Terrace cut out of the 44th AD will be a small afterthought in the 51st AD, divided from that district by the hundreds of acres of Green-Wood Cemetery. Please consider this request. I know that a lot of other citizens in this neighborhood are concerned as well Thank you Lisa Marie Lyou Prospect Park West Brooklyn
  
• Brenda
  April 1, 2023
  Columbia County is largely a Hudson Valley Community and to a lesser extent, a Capital Region county. As such, we are a popular tourist destination and agricultural community with a predominantly rural feel. We are interested in keeping our county intact, represented by an Assemblymember who will understand our unique attributes. We want to be whole and we do not want small towns disenfranchised from representation. We have been in political flux leaving community members confused and unhappy with changing designations. We would like to see our County as one assembly district. Thank you.
  
• Nicole
  April 1, 2023
  I am in complete support of separating Crown Heights from the 56AD entirely. BedStuy's education district is growing increasingly pro-charter, including the language and rhetoric of the assembly person currently serving in the role, and it jeopardizes and threatens what Crown Heights and its school district is building to have to share representation on matters related to this. BedStuy should have its own representation to help steer it in its own direction, and Crown Heights should be rejoined with its southern half.
  
• Glenn
  April 1, 2023
  My name is Glenn Kelly and I am a resident of the Carroll Gardens area of Brooklyn. I am currently in the 52nd AD and think that the plan weakens our neighborhood. The Brownstone belt should stop at Flatbush Avenue in order to retain the part of Carroll Gardens which has been cut out. These neighborhoods have been dealing with the Gowanus clean up/development and the BQE repairs/replacement. They should have some continuity in representation.
  
• Ann
  April 1, 2023
  I am writing to vehemently oppose the Draft Assembly Plan, which would divide a large portion of the 52nd Assembly District to add it to the 44th Assembly District. I am a resident of Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, which, together with the adjoining neighborhoods of Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill, create a whole known locally as BoCoCa. We share the same shops, the same issues, and the same infrastructure. I am also a home owner in the Carroll Gardens Historic District, one of the smallest landmarked districts in New York City. I am horrified to see that the proposed new district line would divide this already small historic district along President Street. Additionally, as a member of the EPA Community Advisory Group for the Gowanus Superfund, I am strongly opposed to bisecting this toxic corridor and the many State Brownfield sites along the canal into two Assembly districts. It took this community decades to get the State and EPA focused on remediating the polluted canal and its uplands. It is imperative that the entirety of the canal remain in the 52nd District so that the complex clean-up and upgrade to local infastructure, such as vitally important Combined Sewer Overflow retention tanks, can be addressed as one. Sincerely, A. Kelly
  
• James
  April 1, 2023
  The Assembly plan 120122 appears to be better than the existing district configuration, but could be even more objective by using only the natural geography of the watersheds. Boundary lines for watersheds and there subdrainages are available. I submitted maps a methods description when federal congressional districts were being considered. It could be done for the state districts.
  
• Barbara
  April 1, 2023
  Roosevelt Island was conceived and built as a Manhattan Utopian Community not Queens, particularly since the Queens district does not and cannot run our Island with no understanding of this community. Why would you want to change that? Our area code is 212 not 718. Assembly Member Seawright has worked diligently with this community for years. She knows the people, the problems and the community. This change would be devastating to our organizations, our schools and it’s residents. .They rely on the discretionary state and city funding for this district. Consider how you would feel if someone came into your home and told you we’re moving you to a different location with no care about your community. You wouldn’t like it. No amount of an explanation would or could justify this. My suggestion would be - It’s not broke, don’t try to fix it. Barbara Parker Roosevelt Island Resident for over 40 years.
  
• Beatrice
  April 1, 2023
  I am writing in opposition to the draft Assembly Plan. I am a lifelong resident of Windsor Terrace (grew up here and raising my young family in my childhood home), and for decades, most of Kensington and the entirety of Windsor Terrace have been in the same Assembly District (AD 44). Despite that, the IRC proposes to chop off several streets (including mine- Greenwood Avenue & East 3rd Street) in both neighborhoods and stick them in a different AD (51), where they'd be overwhelmed by the needs of the larger neighborhoods of Red Hook and Sunset Park. In addition, the portion of Windsor Terrace that remains in AD 44 will be negatively impacted as AD 44's Park Slope constituency grows and Windsor Terrace's shrinks. Park Slope will get even more of a voice than it already has as Windsor Terrace gets less, simply because of Park Slope's size. Therefore, by splitting up Windsor Terrace, our voice as a small community is further diluted when separated into two different Assembly Districts. The decision to separate the Windsor Terrace community using Prospect Expressway as the marker would further extend Robert Moses' legacy of not valuing community input, but rather separating communities that had long been united, simply by the development and/or recognition of man-made infrastructure. The residents of this community have never seen ourselves divided by Prospect Expressway, so we shouldn't be forced to do so now. Each section would be too small to be a heard by the respective representatives of AD 51 and AD 44 and our needs as a community would likely go unmet (as there truly is power in numbers). This is also further antithetical to American society's belief that our votes matter and community organizing is integral to propelling change, but how can Windsor Terrace do so, when our votes and voices are split up and drowned out by larger sets of constituencies in AD 51 and AD 44? As such, I implore you to reconsider the redistricting of Windsor Terrace and allow us to be united as a community within AD 44.
  
• Susan
  April 1, 2023
  My name is Susan Schwartz, and I have lived on the Upper West Side for 40 years. I am the founder and president of South Pierre Tenant Association at the South Pierre, a building with over 750 residents located in the 67 AD in the West 70s. The proposed draft plan of the 67 Assembly district must be rejected by the Commission. The draft 67 Assembly District fails to keep communities of interests intact. Hell's Kitchen and the Upper West Side are one community, and have been for as long as I've lived on the West Side of Manhattan. Both areas share the same public transportation routes, parks and social service agencies that aid both residents living on the Upper West Side and Hell's Kitchen. For example, Project Find, a senior services organization, is headquartered within my apartment building in the West 70s. In addition to providing senior services to senior residents on West 71st and 73rd Streets on the Upper West Side, they provide services and programming to NYCHA's Harborview Terrace and the Woodstock House Senior Center in Hell's Kitchen, building community among seniors throughout the district. This Commission must preserve like-minded constituencies by keeping the West Side community whole. The Commission must reject the proposed draft of the 67 Assembly district and return the district to its many decades-long configuration.
  
• Sarah
  April 1, 2023
  Separating Roosevelt Island from the Upper East Side of Manhattan and pasting it on to Long Island City is a disservice to both areas. Roosevelt Island has for many, many a year been united in concerns with the UESide. Long Island City's interests and, more importantly, needs are utterly different and deserve a particular, unique-to-the-area legislative focus.