Redistricting Approved, But Pols Fume
State lawmakers approved the revised, yet controversial Assembly and State Senate redistricting plans early last Thursday morning, Mar. 15, during a marathon legislative session- and despite earlier promises that such a plan would be vetoed, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the proposal into law.
The governor approved the redistricting plan through a compromise with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who agreed to support a state constitutional amendment to mandate the creation of an independent redistricting panel following each census count of New York, beginning in 2020.
Both houses of the state legislature approved the proposed amendment last Thursday morning, beginning the process toward ratification. Under the state constitution, any amendment must be approved by the Assembly and State Senate in two consecutive sessions, then by the public through a ballot referendum, in order to be ratified. The redistricting amendment is scheduled to be voted on again during the new session next year.
The state redistricting proposal and amendment easily passed both chambers, but 26 Democratic state senators refused to cast a vote on the measure and walked out of the chamber in protest of the closure of debate after two hours. All 32 Republican state senators and the four members of the “Independent Democratic Conference” supported the plans.
State Senators Joseph Addabbo, Michael Gianaris and Tony Avella, who were among those who walked out of the chamber, condemned both the redistricting plan and the deliberation process in press releases and statements on the floor.
‘Shove it’
“It has been talked about a new era in Albany, how well things are functioning,” Gianaris said in his speech on the Senate floor prior to walking out. “Well, so much for change coming to Albany as we sit here today in the middle of the night, in the middle of Sunshine Week, talking about a blatantly illegal plan that disenfranchises millions of New Yorkers.”
Sunshine Week, as referred by Gianaris, is an annual week of programs held by the legislature which is designed to promote greater transparency between the government and the people it serves.
Gianaris blasted the revised redistricting plan as being “more than 98 percent exactly the same” as the original plan, telling the sponsors of the revised plan “as far as I’m concerned, you take the second plan, put it together with the first plan and shove it. Both of ’em.”
In a statement, Addabbo stated that “the voice of the people across the state were silenced” through the closed-door negotiations and stunted debates on redistricting and a number of other legislative issues last Wednesday and Thursday.
“Once again, the legislative leaders of our state government showed that as much as we want to change the way Albany conducts its business, the more it will stay the same,” Addabbo said. “It did not have to be that way. This year, our legislative leaders had the opportunity to provide real reform and honor a pledge to remove legislators from the process of determining their own district lines. They failed.”
“Dean Skelos, Sheldon Silver and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have shunned representative democracy in favor of the backroom self-serving deals that have plagued state government for decades,” Avella said in his statement. “During the last election cycle, the governor and nearly every member of the legislature signed a pledge promising independent redistricting. Unfortunately, the governor failed to lead us to that end and has capitulated to desires of the enemies of reform, who are doing everything they can to choose their own voters in order to stay in power.”
Inside the plan
While there was little outcry over the redistricting of Assembly seats, the plans for the realignment of State Senate district boundaries proved to be the most controversial. When the State Senate plans were unveiled, there was outcry from good government groups over the gerrymandering of districts across the state that would force incumbent Democratic state senators to run against each other.
Democrats also blasted plans for the creation of a 63rd State Senate seat based in upstate areas, charging that it would further cement the Republican majority in the State Senate while taking away the power of the lieutenant governor-Democrat Robert Duffy-to break a tie on a legislative vote. Defenders of the plan claimed that the redistricting of the State Senate met all federal election guidelines, and that the additional seat was necessary due to population growth.
Locally, the revised State Senate redistricting lines approved last Thursday morning included changes to the 12th and 13th Senatorial Districts that prevented a forced primary between two incumbents, Gianaris and Jose Peralta. However, changes were made to the 11th State Senate District which would force incumbent Avella to run against his colleague, Toby Ann Stavisky, who currently holds the 16th Senate District seat. Avella previously served as her chiefof staff.
On Monday afternoon, Mar. 19, Avella announced that he would run for the 11th District seat.
As a result, the newly-designed 16th State Senate District-which is shaped like a lobster lacking an upper claw and stretches as far west as Woodside and as far east as Oakland Gardens-will be up for grabs. The district includes portions of Elmhurst, Rego Park, Forest Hills and a small area of Middle Village.
Parts of Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale, Woodhaven and Ozone Park which are currently part of Addabbo’s 15th State Senate District will be shifted over to Gianaris’ 12th District, which is based in Astoria. Addabbo also lost areas of eastern Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, Ozone Park and South Ozone Park to the 10th Senate District seat, currently held by Shirley Huntley.
Some neighborhoods in the Times Newsweekly coverage area will be represented by three different senators, including Woodside (divided among Addabbo, Gianaris and Peralta), Woodhaven (Addabbo, Gianaris and Huntley), Forest Hills (Addabbo, Smith and the new representative of the 16th District) and Elmhurst (Gianaris, Peralta and the 16th District senator).
Only a handful of neighborhoods are located entirely in one State Senate district, including Long Island City and Sunnyside (Gianaris), East Elmhurst (Peralta), Howard Beach and Lindenwood (Addabbo), and Bushwick and Cypress Hills (the new 18th District, currently the 17th District represented by Martin Malavé Dilan).
As for local Assembly seats, many neighborhoods in the Times Newsweekly’s coverage area were split among two, even three different Assembly districts. Some portions of the district include only a small number of blocks in a given neighborhood. They include Middle Village (28th District, Andrew Hevesi; 30th District, Margaret Markey and 37th District, Catherine Nolan), Forest Hills (Hevesi and 29th District, Michael Simanowitz), Woodside (Markey; Nolan; 34th District, Michael DenDekker; 39th District, Francisco Moya; and 24th District, Aravella Simotas), and Richmond Hill (Hevesi; 38th District, Mike Miller and 31st District, Michelle Titus).
Most local neighborhoods were split in half. Areas of Middle Village south of Metropolitan Avenue, the CSX rail line, Juniper Boulevard South, 75th Place and Furmanville Avenue will be represented by Hevesi, while areas north of that line and east of Mount Olivet Crescent were shifted into Markey’s district. Nolan’s Middle Village section includes an area bounded on the north by Eliot and 62nd avenues, on the east by Mount Olivet Crescent and on the south by Metropolitan Avenue.
Nolan’s Ridgewood area includes blocks north and east of Greene Avenue, Onderdonk Avenue and Myrtle Avenue, while areas to the south and west were shifted into Miller’s district.
In Glendale, Hevesi gained a large portion of the neighborhood east of 73rd Place and north of Myrtle Avenue, while Miller’s district includes the rest of the neighborhood. Miller’s district also includes all of Woodhaven.
All of the redistricting maps for each Assembly and State Senate district are available for download from LATFOR’s website, www.latfor. state.ny.us/maps.
