This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated February 4, 2022
The state legislature released the new district lines this past week. The redistricting plan has many notable changes that will affect Southern Brooklyn and who represents its residents for the decade to come.
Congressional maps were released first and the district getting the most attention, both locally and nationally, is New York’s 11th. Currently spanning Staten Island, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, and parts of Bensonhurst and Gravesend, the new boundaries will no longer include Brooklyn neighborhoods south of Bay Ridge and instead go north through Sunset Park, to Park Slope and Gowanus.
With a greater percentage of Democrats, this will alter the complexion of NY-11 races for years to come. Current NY-11 Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis had responded to news of the new lines, alleging that Democrats were attempting “to tilt the scale to their advantage, just as they’ve attempted to pack the Supreme Court, change the filibuster, or pass radical new election law changes.”
While the redrawn district will give Democrats a better chance to compete, the new boundaries are not illogical. Sunset Park is adjoining to Bay Ridge, as are Park Slope and Gowanus to Sunset Park. They are all served by the R train and the shape of this new map looks totally reasonable.
“It is past time that Brooklyn’s Asian American communities have a district like this.”
Citation….
As far as Malliotakis’s contention that Democrats tried to change the filibuster, pack the Supreme Court, and pass radical new election law changes? The Democrats attempt to modify the filibuster to pass reasonable voting rights legislature was only necessary because not one Republican supports it now, when as recently as 2006, every GOP Senator voted to renew the Voting Right Act. HR-1, which Malliotakis voted against and supported Senate Republicans in blocking it, would specifically prohibit the gerrymandering she claims is taking place.
Rather than just attempts, Mitch McConnell and GOP Senators actually did change the filibuster in 2020 to pack the Supreme Court with another Trump-appointed justice, just eight days before the presidential election, after having stolen a Supreme Court pick from President Obama more than eight months before the 2016 election. Republicans have become so entitled after successfully changing rules to obtain things they should not have, that when a Democrat, like President Biden, is able to fill a Supreme Court seat for a retiring Justice, they feel the opposition party is stealing something from them.
In all the redistricting talk about how the Brooklyn side of NY-11 is changing, much was mentioned about how Park Slope would be joining Bay Ridge, but little to nothing was said of the neighborhood in between: Sunset Park. Many residents of Sunset Park are concerned about the new lines and that being overlooked in the discussion about who is in the new district may portend how the neighborhood will be represented.
Sunset Park is nearly 50 percent Hispanic and will move from NY-7, which was drawn as per the Voting Rights Act to unite communities of interest. NY-7 was a majority minority district and one-third Hispanic, with six in ten households’ primary language not being English. Sunset Park now joins a district with Bay Ridge and Park Slope, which are both about two-thirds white and only about 16 percent Hispanic.
The population of the portion of Sunset Park that will now be in NY-11 is about same as Bay Ridge and larger than Park Slope’s. Nobody, including candidates, should overlook Sunset Park, not only because that is the right thing to do but because Sunset Park has the numbers to make themselves heard.
Southern Brooklyn Assembly districts did not change significantly. On the Senate side, the addition of an entirely new district, the 27th, did create major changes. This new majority Asian American district will stretch from the 8th Avenue Chinatown area of Sunset Park, through Bensonhurst, and into Gravesend. It is past time that Brooklyn’s Asian American communities have a district like this.
The 22nd district, currently held by Andrew Gounardes, will no longer extend to Manhattan Beach, Marine Park, and Gerritsen Beach on its southern end, and instead extend north from Bay Ridge, through Sunset Park and Gowanus, to Downtown Brooklyn. With petitioning weeks away for June’s primary, Southern Brooklyn’s 2022 races have suddenly become much more interesting.
