Bronxites Speak Out Against Council Redistricting — Again
After Bronxites spoke out against current City Council lines in August, they hoped to see a change for the better in the redrawn lines. Upon the release of the first draft of proposed redistricting lines in September, however, Bronxites remain frustrated.
They had a chance to vent their anger at Bronx Community College, which hosted the hearing Oct 2.
One hot-button issue discussed at the hearing was the proposed 8th Council District, which now starts in Central Park in Manhattan and moves north into East Harlem, before crossing the East River into the Bronx, to pick up Mott Haven and High Bridge. Bronxites say this district could violate a redistricting principle. “You guys [the districting commission] said that districts cannot be twice as long as they are wide,” Mott Haven resident Mychal Johnson said. “Having a district stretch 100 blocks is a monstrosity, whose design is it?”
Eddie LaGuerre offered one possible explanation. “With all of the new housing built in East Harlem, most of the population moving there is white,” LaGuerre said. “It is important to have a Latino representative for East Harlem and the south Bronx.”
Another issue was the removal of Concourse Village, a working-class housing development that is 81 percent black, from 16th Council District to the 17th. Since 1977, the 16th has been represented by an African-American candidate. Residents fear that the development’s move to a more Hispanic district could dilute their vote.
“It is a working-class poor in the middle of the poorest Congressional district in the United States,” Concourse Village resident Walter Newsome said. “If it’s removed from us, we don’t have much.”
That “we” Newsome refers to are African-Americans, whose numbers have been decreasing in the south Bronx for the past few decades. But, while their numbers have shrunk, they have a higher turnout of voters, says resident and perennial candidate Anthony Curry. “It’s not the population that has allowed the 16th to elect a black, it is the blacks’ high voting rate,” Curry said. “Many blacks died for the rules that seem to benefit everyone else,” he said, referring to the Voting Rights Act.
Despite the division over some redistricting, most at the hearing were united on one issue — the demand for a ninth Bronx Council district. “Over the last 10 years, the Bronx has grown by 100,000 new residents,” Councilwoman Annabel Palma (D-Soundview) said. “Seven of the eight council districts are overpopulated.” Palma is right, as some of the proposed districts have as many as 166,000 people, far more than the average district number of approximately 160,000.
In general, attendees felt redistricting could use less politicking and more community input. “By the time these hearings take place, politicians have already made up their minds,” Cheryl Pahaham, a potential candidate for Manhattan’s 7th District, said. “There needs to be a charter revision to allow for more transparency in redistricting.”