Public Comments Return to Archived Submissions Page
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Abu
February 14, 2023
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My Name is Abu Khaliquzzaman and my testimony is attached. Please keep Kensington together with Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, and Prospect Park South in the 44th AD.
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Michelle
February 14, 2023
I live in current district 50, and as a Greenpoint Brookjlyn resident - it would be insulting to be be divded from our community for the current re-districting plan. I absolutely oppose cutting "east" Greenpoint out from its current shared district with the rest of Greenpoint and Williamsburg. In North WIlliamsburg, we work as community to overcome oil spill issues, contamination of our land from illegal factory pollution, and the continued traffic issues along McGuinnes Blvd. Drawing new lines along McGuinness and cutting our community would leave us with representatives unfamiliar with our troubles - and divide our community for no reason. My kids after school is on the other side of McGuinness, my bank, our doctors, the ONLY MTA train station we use - it is absolutely absurd. I am a Brooklyn resident and want Brooklyn representation. Figure this out! Michelle Peguero
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Jose
February 14, 2023
I have a family of 4 that lives in the neighborhood of Greenpoint in North Brooklyn. It's a neighborhood that will be split in half by this redistricting. It's an absurdity that just a block away from where we live and my kids go to school they will be crossing a different district with different representation in government. So now we will live in west Greenpoint, cross East Greenpoint to go to school, then cross it again to go to after school. We are talking literal blocks instead of the current natural borders that this neighborhood has had for decades. This will make funding and work on neighborhood projects a nightmare. Instead of having one elected representative for the whole neighborhood we will have two. This will only add to the red tape and general dissatisfaction citizens have to our current political climate. This means that we, in "West Greenpoint" in Brooklyn will now have to also deal with neighborhoods in a whole different county, zipcode, natural border, etc. It makes no sense. I believe this is being done as a way to weaken the strong, progressive voters that we have in the WHOLE neighborhood of Greenpoint, by diluting with the more conservative voters of Queens. This is a political maneuver orchestrated by a committee whose alliances lie on disgraced governor. Greenpoint will not be cut up and divided quietly. This is not the New York City of Robert Moses anymore.
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Anne Marie
February 14, 2023
We need to keep Greenpoint whole, and squarely in one district with Williamsburg, as it's always been. There's a reason we're called Greenpointers—not Eastern Greenpointers or Western Greenpointers. We're one community and our political districts have always reflected that.
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Lidia
February 14, 2023
You cannot rezone our neighborhood of Greenpoint Brooklyn. We are one community and will always be one!
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Lidia
February 14, 2023
You can't possibly even think of rezoning our neighborhood and splitting it up into 2 parts! There's a reason we're called Greenpointers—not Eastern Greenpointers or Western Greenpointers. We're one community and our political districts have always reflected that!
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Stefan
February 14, 2023
Keep Greenpoint whole!! Don't split us apart, please!
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Melissa
February 14, 2023
Hi; Re: the proposed Assembly District 44 redistricting map, cutting Windsor Terrace in half by using the line of the Prospect Expressway is not best practice in drawing districts. The lines should be drawn around COMMUNITIES, not along roads. Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect Park are the boundaries of the Windsor Terrace COMMUNITY, NOT the Expressway. It's a regressive practice to use Robert Moses-era infrastructure to justify district lines. Splitting off sections of Kensington and Windsor Terrace will negatively impact it's residents. I live next to the cemetery, in a portion of Windsor Terrace that is proposed to be cut off of District 44. I've lived here 12 years and am raising my kids here. Our community is Windsor Terrace, South Slope and Kensington and Park Slope. Bobby Carroll and before him, Jim Brennan were our go-to people because they know the issues of these neighborhoods. Windsor Terrace, Kensington, and South Slope have shared issues, defined in large part by the natural boundaries of our communities-- Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery. It's only right that our shared needs share representation as well. I can only imagine how hard it is to redistrict, particularly NYC. But, the proposed map for District 44 represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the communities here and the role of the Prospect Expressway, which doesn't remotely define the Windsor Terrace communities. Thank you for your consideration and your time and for doing this very difficult job.
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Ellen
February 14, 2023
I am reaching out to express my dismay with the proposed redistricting that will remove portions of the Kensington and Windsor Terrace neighborhoods now in the 44th Assembly District to the 51st Assembly District. I am retired. I was born and raised in Windsor Terrace. I am a Kensington homeowner since 1986 on Chester Avenue. My grandparents were displaced by the building of the Prospect Expressway. Family, neighbors and community were, no doubt, turned upside down. I ask that you not reopen the wound Robert Moses inflicted. I believe both neighborhoods should be wholly within the 44th AD as they have been historically. The proposed plan to put portions of both Windsor Terrace and Kensington into different Assembly Districts makes both impacted ADs less compact and contiguous and also divides two long established and discrete communities with common interests, demographics and a history of positive civic activism. Without this change 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 Greenwood Cemetery. The 51st AD contains the entirety of the thriving neighborhood of Sunset Park and that neighborhood historically dominates that district. The inevitable result of the draft plan is that the few blocks of Windsor Terrace and Kensington attached to the vast bulk of Sunset Park will be underserved. The proposed plan also dilutes the ability of vital neighborhood institutions to advocate on behalf of their respective constituents. Multiple local Elementary Schools including PS 154, PS 130, PS 179 and PS 230, several local places of worship such as Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, The Flatbush Jewish Center, which despite its name is in Kensington, and the Darul Jannah Masjid and Masjid Nur Al-Islam will all see their catchment areas, now wholly within the 44th AD, divided between the 44th and the 51st AD. This is especially troublesome with respect to the Mosque’s which serve the growing South Asian community in Kensington and will now have to petition two different Assembly Members rather than having a single point of contact. I am respectfully 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. Ellen Coletto
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Emma
February 14, 2023
The redistricting of Brooklyn District 44 to push residents living between Caton Avenue and 8th Avenue, from McDonald Avenue to the Prospect Expressway, and residents living between Fort Hamilton Parkway and 15th Avenue, from Dahill Road to 39th Street, into district 51 is ill-advised and reinforces the arbitrary man-made boundary of the Prospect Expressway rather than using Greenwood Cemetery. In fact, it takes those residents into District 51 with no logical continuous connection. That boundary broke up a cohesive community, and residents to this day are focused on bringing us back together. This plan furthers the division. Windsor Terrace residents on both sides of the expressway have common institutions and common interests, such as schools, religious institutions, playgrounds, a library, and retail businesses. (For example PS 130 would be split half in District 44 and half in district 51). Advocating for our interests will be difficult if we have to address two different Assemblymembers. Pushing those residents into District 51 will take away voice and the ability to meaningfully participate as their interests will be subsumed by Sunset Park and Red Hook. Allow this small subset of residents to remain in District 44 and continue to be a part of their long-time community.
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joshua
February 14, 2023
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Marian
February 14, 2023
Good Day I have a problem with the IRC dividing the 44th Assembly District (Kensington/Windsor Terrace) into two Assembly Districts, by making the Prospect Expressway the dividing line, rather than the natural boundary of Green-Wood Cemetery. Our neighborhood has already been divided by Robert Moses' Prospect Expressway. With only foots bridges keeping our neighborhood connect for decades, we have survived and are connect still by schools, neighborhood shops, history and places of worship. We are united now and IRC wants to divide us again and place us in a district that has no connection to our history and has a completely different history from us in Kensington/Windsor Terrence. Please 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 makes complete sense geographically. Without this change the portions of Kensington and Windsor Terrace cut out of the 44th AD will be a small after thought in the 51st AD divided from that district by the hundreds of acres of Green-Wood Cemetery. The inevitable result of the draft plan is that the few blocks of Windsor Terrace and Kensington attached to the vast bulk of Sunset Park and Red Hook will be undeserved and our needs which are different from our neighbors in the 51st AD, will go unheard.
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Emily
February 14, 2023
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Peggy
February 14, 2023
My name is Peggy Shorr and I am an elderly resident in Windsor Terrace/Kensington. I strongly oppose the plan for the 44th AD to be combined with the 51st A.D. these are two strong neighborhoods, with a culture and history of positive civic responsibility. Furthermore, these districts are not contiguous. I see no sound reason to invest time and money into this change, and I see only negative results coming out of it.
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Katherine
February 14, 2023
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Today I am submitting testimony in opposition of the proposed redrawing of Assembly District 50.