New York State Independent Redistricting Commission

Alison
March 10, 2023
I live in the current Community Board 6 on East 49th Street in Manhattan. I strongly object to the redistricting plan that would place me in a combined Queens/Manhattan district. The issues between those 2 boroughs are very often different, sometimes the interests are at odds. With things like driving penalties below 60th Street in Manhattan, we need to be grouped with residents of Manhattan facing similar situations.

Matthew
March 10, 2023
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Hello, Attached is a letter to the editor that was published in the Schwangunk Journal in September of 2022, shortly before the 2022 Elections regarding the Assembly maps that were in place for 2022. I encourage the committee to pay special attention to district 101, as how the lines are drawn now are egregious and detrimental to the communities that live here. The submitted proposal for the 2024 maps, addresses some of these issues. I would like to state for the record Keeping the districts as evenly matched as possible between parties creates a representational map that allows for the discussion of ideas and allows candidates to run based on policies and not a predetermined result based on Math that favors one party over the other. This strengthens are democracy and ensures that the voices of the people are truly heard in our legislature. Thank you for your time.

David
March 9, 2023
Dear Peop[e: Today I received an email about your proposed State Assembly redistricting plan. What was described to me seems like an outrage. Please leave my Assembly District 146 and my Assembly person Karen McMahon alone! Please redistrict fairly and leave off the gerrymandering! --yours, David Gaeddert in Town of Amherst--

Daniel
March 8, 2023
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Natalia
March 8, 2023
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Caroline
March 8, 2023
Windsor Terrace/Kensington Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. My name is Caroline Hiteshew. I reside in Windsor Terrace/Kensington and am speaking on behalf of myself and my community. My comments will focus on your plan for the 44th Assembly District and specifically your decision to place portions of the neighborhoods of Windsor Terrace and Kensington in two different Assembly Districts, the 44th and the 51st. We believe both neighborhoods should be wholly within the 44th AD as they have been historically. Your decision 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. Simply stated it is contrary to many of the bedrock principles which should guide fair redistricting and good government. Specifically, we ask that you make Greenwood Cemetery along 20th Street the western border of the 44th AD not the Prospect Expressway as in the draft plan, and Greenwood Cemetery along McDonald Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway out to 39th Street 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 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. Historically the entirety of the two discrete, cohesive and well-defined neighborhoods of Kensington and Windsor Terrace have been in the same Assembly district. This is true since at least the reapportionment following the 1970 census. Indeed the phone number for the local Assembly District Office has remained unchanged since 1974 and many of my friends and neighbors have told me that they have it memorized or on their speed dial. This is not just an interesting but irrelevant tidbit, it is testimony to the fact that at least in Brooklyn the Assembly District is the smallest unit of government and traditionally the most responsive to local needs. In the 1950s Robert Moses built the Prospect Expressway and inflicted a still obvious scar on Windsor Terrace and Kensington. The people of Windsor Terrace and Kensington banded together and protested Moses’ plan but unlike more affluent neighborhoods such as Brooklyn Heights and Greenwich Village they lost and the Prospect Expressway was built. Moses’ wound, however, drew the Windsor Terrace and Kensington communities closer together, and over the following decades they jointly fought and defeated repeated ill-advised rezoning proposals to first permit large-scale manufacturing and then residential over-development in these thriving working class neighborhoods. We ask that you not reopen the wound Robert Moses inflicted. Please make Greenwood Cemetery, not the Prospect Expressway the boundary between the 44th AD and the 51st AD. Please keep Windsor Terrace and Kensington intact. I take 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. Thank you, Caroline Hiteshew

Dawn
March 7, 2023
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Lucian
March 7, 2023
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Jeremy
March 6, 2023
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Alexandra
March 6, 2023
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Please see my attached testimony. I am also pasting it below in case the file doesn't come through. Thank you for the opportunity to voice my concerns in this process. To Whom It May Concern: I am writing on behalf of my neighbors and myself about the proposed NY Assembly Redistricting Plan for the 44th Assembly District and specifically the committee’s decision to place portions of the neighborhoods of Windsor Terrace and Kensington in two different Assembly Districts, the 44th and the 51st. We believe both neighborhoods should be wholly within the 44th AD as they have been for over 30 years. I recognize the challenges of laying new district lines and that the committee is focusing on balancing the constituents in the districts for more even representation and I acknowledge your hard work. I was unable to attend the in person meeting with the districting committee but I watched it in its entirety online and I appreciate how well the commissioners listened to the folks giving testimony and your invitation to submit further comment online. As someone who is making these changes from outside the neighborhood, I want to give you the perspective of a 20 year resident of Windsor Terrace and hope that you’ll take the take the time to read to my concerns and reconsider these changes. The new boundaries of the map have split the neighborhood of Windsor Terrace into two separate assembly districts. My side of Windsor Terrace is being rolled into District 51 the bulk of which is comprised of Sunset Park and Red Hook two areas, which are geographically removed from Windsor Terrace due to our neighborhood’s border with the 478-acre Greenwood Cemetery. This will undoubtedly result in poorer representation for the folks who live in the small section of Windsor Terrace that is bounded by Prospect Park West, McDonald Avenue, Fort Hamilton Parkway and the Prospect Expressway. According to the New York State Independent Redistricting Commission Website "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. The commission shall consider the maintenance of cores of existing districts, of pre-existing political subdivisions, including counties, cities, and towns, and of communities of interest." The decision to put portions of both Windsor Terrace and Kensington into different Assembly Districts divides two long established and discrete communities with common interests, demographics and a history of positive civic activism. This is contrary to your stated goals of keeping a population that shares social and economic interests united for fair representation. Windsor Terrace is a small, primarily residential neighborhood bounded by Prospect Park on the east and northeast, Park Slope at Prospect Park West, Green-Wood Cemetery, and Borough Park at McDonald Avenue on the northwest, west, and southwest, and Kensington at Caton Avenue on the south. Sandwiched between Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery this isolation gives it a unique character and small town feel. It is an old Brooklyn neighborhood that was first developed in the 1800s. Many residents are from working class families that have lived here for generations. In the 1950s Robert Moses’ Prospect Expressway cut through Windsor Terrace, and while the expressway remains a wound running through the heart of the neighborhood, geographically the two sides are united by bike and footbridges that residents traverse multiple times a day to get to schools, the subway and the grocery store. The majority of District 51, where the new map proposes to redistrict this section of Windsor Terrace, is located in Red Hook and Sunset Park. Neither of those neighborhoods is contiguous to Windsor Terrace with the 478-acre Greenwood Cemetery separating Windsor Terrace from Sunset Park. In addition to being geographically removed from Windsor Terrace, neither Sunset Park nor Red Hook is easily accessible by transit to Windsor Terrace residents. Unless you own a private car, getting to Sunset Park from Windsor Terrace requires taking the train 4 stops towards Manhattan and switching lines to the R and riding multiple stops back into Brooklyn. Consequently if you live in Windsor Terrace you are more likely to shop and socialize in Windsor Terrace or the nearby neighborhoods of Kensington or Park Slope areas that are easily accessible by foot, the 67/69 bus or the F/G train that unite the neighborhood. Our children are zoned to go to nearby schools in the other side of Windsor Terrace that will now be in a new assembly district. Our local fire station and the many parks, businesses and amenities we enjoy will soon be in another district. I mapped out the new district using the https://districtr.org/plan linked on the NY redistricting site and discovered that our portion of Windsor Terrace bounded by Prospect Park West, McDonald Avenue, Fort Hamilton Parkway and the Prospect Expressway has an estimated 4,475 residents based on the previous census data vs. the over 105,000 residents of Sunset Park and Red Hook. By necessity the assemblyperson representing District 51 will be more focused on the needs of the bulk of their constituents in two neighborhoods that meet the definition of other communities of interest. We are hardworking New Yorkers who pay our taxes and deserve to have our community’s needs represented in Albany. Our current representative, Robert Carroll was born in District 44 and understands the area and the needs of the people. Our needs are aligned with the rest of Windsor Terrace and the greater Kensington area, which remains in District 44. In terms of city council representation our portion of Windsor Terrace remains in Council 39. The city council lines recognize that we are a united community. I hope you will consider redrawing the lines so we can be united with the rest of our neighborhood and community and don’t lose our voice in Albany. As you look to balance district sizes and preserve communities of interest, my suggestion would be to restore more of the Sunset Park district to Assembly District 51. The new district lines shift the avenue block that borders Sunset Park between 6th and 7th avenue into a new district. Restoring those few blocks that all clearly have an interest in the needs and challenges of the park itself would allow you to reunite our section of Windsor Terrace with the rest of the neighborhood in District 44 and to ensure that District 44 remained the correct size, some of the new blocks added in the more northern region of the district could be removed and reunited with their previous district. I also created a map of how I see Assembly District 44 could be drawn: https://districtr.org/plan/175056. The district that I drew is just under 134k constituents, but within the allowed variance. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Rosemary
March 3, 2023
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Thank you for reading my testimony!

Karrie
March 3, 2023
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Wai
March 2, 2023
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Please find attached comments regarding some Queens and Brooklyn districts. A map proposal with more compact downstate districts is also referenced.

Jason
March 1, 2023
Please leave the 52nd AD as is because redistricting affected the district in the 2021 state elections

Garrett
March 1, 2023
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