Brooklyn Neighborhood at the Center of Redistricting Battle
The state’s Independent Redistricting Commission has been told to go back to the drawing board after failing to agree on how to divide districts including, Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, in its proposed electoral maps.
“A bipartisan committee tasked with establishing one new set of electoral maps for New York State has failed to do so, instead presenting two sets of opposing maps — one supported by the Republican committee members and the other by the Democratic members — that were both rejected by the state legislature this week…”
“The redistricting process will have huge implications on New York and the country’s political landscape, as the state’s allotment of congressional seats will decline this year from 27 to 26. That could impact the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives, and, once decided, those lines will be in place until 2032…”
CLSJ Executive Director Lurie Daniel Favors said at the press conference that the Unity Maps avoided all the flaws the IRC’s inevitably partisan maps included, and the groups that drew the Unity Maps did so respecting community lines and needs, while also complying with the Voting Rights Act — something she said neither of the IRC’s sets of maps did.
“We have the only set of maps that adhere to the spirit of the Voting Rights Act, preserving and maintaining communities of interest and with lower deviation in every metric.
She, along with representatives from the other racial justice groups, urged the IRC to adopt the Unity Maps in their entirety.
“They represent the floor,” she said.
“If you can do better do it, but if you can’t, we’ve set the floor. Our communities have borne the brunt of unfair redistricting — we need equity.”
[To read this article in full, click here.]
