Submissions

Public Comments Return to Archived Submissions Page

• Zev
  February 15, 2023
  Hello! Please do not carve out me and my neighbors from Greenpoint-based representation. I live in the area that would switch. My neighbors and I want, or rather we need, to be represented by someone from our neighborhood, by someone who is legislating with us in mind centrally. If we are shifted to a Queens-dominant district, then we will constitute a peripheral concern for the representative, for the district. Nothing against the representative! It is just how it be as we would be few and new. Please stop moving us around legislatively. We like where we are now. Moving us again and moving us to a new district where we are not important would not be fair. Thank you for your consideration.
  
• Kris
  February 15, 2023
  I am a home owner in Kensington. Leave AD 44 AS IT IS. Do Not Cut Windsor Terrace and Kensington into parts. It is a small and cohesive neighborhood bounded for decades by Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect Park. Please do not dump that narrow strip into the giant Sunset Part and Red Hook. That makes NO SENSE! Those areas have different needs and populations. Leave Windsor Terrace AND Kensington INTACT as AD 44. We are small enough as it is. VOTE NO To carving AD 44 into AD 51!
  
• Katherine
  February 15, 2023
  Hello! I’m a part of the current Assembly district 50 in greenpoint and because of where I live the proposed redistricting map i will be removed from my community and it’s leaders and lumped in with a sprawling group of neighborhoods that have their own priorities. Greenpoint NEEDS to be kept whole. With this new map you are silencing my ability to shape my immediate community and make decisions for the neighborhood I love. Do not break up greenpoint in this new year.
  
• Peter
  February 15, 2023
  The redistricting of Greenpoint with several Queens neighborhoods doesn’t make any sense. It is a Brooklyn neighborhood that has its own priorities and objectives. We shouldn’t strive to fix things that aren’t broken.
  
• Charlotte
  February 15, 2023
  Dear NYIR Commission, As a Greenpoint resident for 9 years, and my husband for 11 years, we are very concerned of the proposed new district lines that would split Greenpoint in two different districts. There is a very strong Greenpoint community that identifies with North Brooklyn, along with Williamsburg, and it would create a very damaging divide. We urge the commission to hear the residents and consider this identity as a whole, and not Easter Greenpoint as part of a larger Queens district. Respectfully, Charlotte Raffi Lippai
  
• Nicole
  February 15, 2023
  I’ve been a Greenpoint resident for more than 10 years, and the proposed redistricting of the community of Greeenpoint, slinging half of it into Queens, makes no sense whatsoever. Whoever the forces are behind the idea of splitting half of Greenpoint off into another area have no understanding of the neighborhood. Greenpoint is my home, and it deserves to remain whole as it has for more than 100 years. I have no faith that partitioning the Eastern part of Greenpoint into what is mostly Queens will have any positive impact for my neighborhood, and dividing Greenpoint in this way would simply dilute our voice as a community. I am vehemently against this proposal, and I hope my concerns are taken into consideration.
  
• Heather
  February 15, 2023
  I am a home owner in Greenpoint and am strongly against any redistricting plan that would divide my Brooklyn community and annex my home and many others into a larger Queens district. Keep my Greenpoint community whole!
  
• Izabela
  February 14, 2023
  I’ve been living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY for over 11 years. I moved here because of my background (I’m half Polish). This neighborhood has its own identity, it’s own background, it is United. There is no other neighborhood like Greenpoint where all races and backgrounds are welcome, where people from the entire NYC come over the weekend and have true American experience. The fact that out of the sudden you want to split it in half, does not make any sense. I find this change unnecessary and potentially harmful for the neighborhood including all small businesses
  
• Queens Justice Alliance
  February 14, 2023
  View File
  The present AD 24, which has consisted of the Saul, David & Mark Weprin monarchy/dynasty since 1965, is a shame on democracy, and a most un-American outlier. It is Jim Crow/Apartheid District! SHAME ON US! Unite the divided, oppressed and suppressed communities of Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park & Ozone Park
  
• Lisa
  February 14, 2023
  I am writing in regard to the proposed redistricting of Windsor Terrace which deeply concerns me. I am a New York City worker, and I have lived in Brooklyn since 1992: first in the Park Slope neighborhood (7th and 13th Streets), and since 2007, in Windsor Terrace neighborhood. We have raised 2 kids in our 2-family home and have been extremely lucky to have had a series of stable long term tenants in our upstairs apartment. Nothing made us happier than when our tenant of 7 years moved out in order to buy only a block away for herself and her daughter. They loved the neighborhood and were able to remain in it. We're proud to have been part of that life path for them. We live between Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery: the area that is currently being considered for inclusion in the 51st District and exclusion from the 44th District - our current district. This division makes no sense. Despite the blunt insertion of the Robert Moses’ Prospect Expressway many years ago, the area continues to operate as a cohesive neighborhood. Even the raccoons understand this as they navigate between Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery. One look at a map tells you what the racoons know instinctively: Windsor Terrace is a cohesive whole. I am deeply concerned that neither the 44th nor the 51st districts will be well -served by the current proposal, and I don’t understand the thinking. Once again this portion of Windsor Terrace is being treated as a leftover space ready to be divvied up at whim, as opposed to a vibrant cohesive neighborhood. While I understand the need for fair and representative districting, I don't believe this solution represents the best possible resolution. I am 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. Thank you for your consideration.
  
• Ameela
  February 14, 2023
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• Gabrielle
  February 14, 2023
  Keep Greenpoint whole! As someone who has lived on both sides of the proposed divide, it is nonsense to try to subdivide our very small and particular neighborhood. This proposed new division would greatly dilute the power of so-called “eastern Greenpoint”, which needs to be heard more than ever as we engage with cleaning up the polluted Superfund area. Additionally, the last thing we need is to further separate out “west Greenpoint”, which is already at the mercy of luxury developers.
  
• Ellen
  February 14, 2023
  Dear Sir or Madam, I am totally against Greenpoint being Redistricting. It is not for the benefit of Greeenpointers I feel it is a devise to help keep different party lines drawn. I am a third generation Greenpointer and I want my wishes brought to the table that I am AGAINST this Redistricting. Also there are more residents that do not have a clue that this is taking place. It is being done well under the table by not making this known to every resident. You should use some of our hard earned tax money to sent information about this proposed change to all residents. STOP THIS PREPOSTEROUS PROPOSAL NOW. Thank you, Ellen Buddenhagen
  
• Andrew
  February 14, 2023
  The Greenpoint area has a unique and intrinsic identity, and should not be split up and merged with Queens (nothing against that great borough). It seems like major infrastructure decisions that might effect Greenpoint could be hampered by such a decision, as well as a loss of character. Keep Greenpoint whole!
  
• Jacob
  February 14, 2023
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  TESTIMONY OF HAMILTON COOP BOARD OF DIRECTORS I’m writing on behalf of the Hamilton Coop Board of Directors. We represent two buildings along McDonald avenue consisting of more than 160 homes. The buildings were built in Windsor Terrace in the mid-1950’s and, to this day, house active members of the Windsor Terrace neighborhood. Our members have expressed a collective concern that the proposed change to the Assembly District would leave our community underrepresented and politically divided from their neighbors, schools and other community resources. As can be seen from the IRC map, Windsor Terrace and parts of Kensington have been broken in half in Assembly representation. One part of Windsor Terrace, between the Prospect Expressway and Prospect Park, is the 44 th district, and the other part is in the 51 st Assembly district, despite a large physical and geographic boundary, Greenwood Cemetery, separating the sliver of Windsor Terrace in the 51 st District, from the rest of the 51 st District, whose core is several miles away in the heart of Sunset Park. A part of Kensington south of the Cemetery that was in the 44 th District is similarly put into the 51 st District. This action will diminish meaningful Assembly representation by breaking up these areas. The current Assembly district offers a coherent community of interest that the IRC should retain, and this element of your new map should be changed and the current district restored. The Frequently Asked Questions on your website states that a community of interest is: A community of interest is a population which shares enough social and economic interests of importance that suggest said community should be included in a single district for effective and fair representation. These might include similar standards of living, shared methods and patterns of transportation, or similar economic and societal concerns. For example, the population of a rural area might have different shared interests from those living in an urban area, as might those living in an industrial area from the priorities shared by those living in a primarily agricultural area. Shared interests within a Community of Interest do not include relationships with political parties, incumbents, or political candidates. The Slope, Terrace, and Kensington areas have major shared transportation facilities, like the F and G train subway lines, the Prospect Expressway, with entrances and exits into the adjacent residential areas, and shared zoning and land use density. Local residents have worked for decades on common concerns about assuring the areas stay in medium density zoning districts. The zones of the local elementary and junior high schools would be split apart in terms of Assembly representation by the IRC plan. The Bishop Ford Educational Complex, a former parochial school now leased by the Board of Education as a huge pre-k complex, would be split off into the 51 st Assembly district, despite the boundary of Greenwood Cemetery. P.S. 154, in central Windsor Terrace, and P.S. 130 and P.S. 230 would also have their Assembly representation split in half. Parents and families have a community of interest in their schools having coherent, unified Assembly representation. We note that the IRC plan for the Assembly districts in Brooklyn has uniform district populations of 134-135,000 persons. By contrast, the current Brooklyn districts have populations ranging between 128,000 and 141,000. It is appropriate for the districts to be more balanced in population. It is our hope that the IRC will recognize the historical shared interests of the Assembly district and keep these areas of Park Slope,Windsor Terrace, and Kensington intact in their representation. Thank you. Hamilton Coop Board of Directors.