New York City will soon embark on its own redistricting plan for the 51 City Council seats representing 8 million people across the Five Boroughs — and good government advocates hope gerrymandering won’t be a part of it.
On the heels of New York state approving a partisan redrawing of state legislative and Congressional lines earlier this month, Citizens Union is calling on Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council to avoid a similar fate later this year when the city’s independent Districting Commission re-examines Council district boundary lines.
Under the City Charter, the 15-person panel includes seven mayoral appointees and eight from the City Council. The New York Post reported that Dennis Walcott, Queens Library president and former NYC schools chancellor, is rumored to be among Adams’ picks for the panel, and could be a frontrunner to be the commission chair, as elected by the members.
Jonah Allon, a spokesperson for Mayor Adams, told amNewYork Metro, “We do not comment on pending appointments, and no appointment is confirmed until it is formally announced.”
Once the commission is named and sworn in, they’ll be tasked with redrawing the 51 City Council districts according to population growth and demographics. But for the first time, the Citizens Union noted, the panel will not be bound to have their plan reviewed by the U.S. Justice Department, thanks to the Supreme Court overruling parts of the Voting Rights Act in 2013.
The lack of review sparked a wave of partisan gerrymandering across the country in the wake of the 2020 Census, as Republican- and Democratic-led governments sought to carve up their states to their own electoral advantage. New York’s plan, passed earlier this month, was no different; after the evenly-divided state Independent Redistricting Commission failed to adopt new maps, the Democratic-led state legislature passed their own plan over the Republican minority’s objections.
Ironically, the GOP took the state to court over the plan — just as Democrats have done in other states to oppose Republican gerrymandering.
The Democratic plan received great criticism for its Congressional redrawing that, on paper, gives Democrats a sizable advantage over Republicans in the state’s 26 Congressional districts. One such example is the 11th District in New York City, held by Republican Nicole Malliotakis, which shifted more progressive parts of Brooklyn into her district — and may potentially cancel out heavy Republican votes from Staten Island in the upcoming election.
Betsy Gotbaum, executive director of Citizens Union and a former NYC public advocate, hopes the city’s Districting Commission will avoid the temptation of partisan gerrymandering in this heavily Democratic city, and will instead set a higher standard for itself, and New Yorkers.
“It is imperative that the Districting Commission be held to guidelines and expectations that will ensure this decennial redistricting is conducted with New York City residents’ best interests at heart,” Gotbaum said in a Feb. 22 statement. “Often there is too close a connection between those who draw the district lines and those who appoint them.”
The current New York City Council is heavily Democratic — all but six of the 51 legislators are in the blue party. The 2021 election actually saw the Republican caucus double in size, from three to six, as the GOP flipped Democratic seats in southern Brooklyn and northeast Queens.
Because of that breakdown, as the Post reported, five of the City Council’s eight appointees to the Districting Commission will be appointed by the Democratic leadership; the remainder will be chosen by the Republicans. The remaining seven seats will be filled by Adams, a moderate Democrat who won more than 60% of the vote last November.
With the Districting Commission likely to tilt blue, the Citizens Union wants the panel to adopt its “Fair and Open City Council Redistricting Plan,” which calls upon the panel to do the following:
- Adopt expansive anti-gerrymandering criteria for drawing district lines;
- Release underlying population data used to prepare the maps;
- Prioritize transparency and public participation by providing increased language and disability access at hearings, have all proceedings open to the public, release all materials related to operations and meetings, and hold hearings in every borough, including some on nights and weekends;
- Provide the public with online mapping software so they can provide their own ideas about potential districts;
- Require the commissioner and all members to disclose any meetings with elected officials or their representatives; and
- Publish a Conflicts of Interest policy with guidance from the city’s Conflicts of Interests Board to disclose any relationships between incumbents or potential City Council candidates.
Citizens Union also wants Mayor Adams and the City Council to appoint the most diverse panel possible, and avoid naming appointees who served in an elected office over the past five years.
The mayor has yet to announce his choices, but earlier this month, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the City Council — Democrat Keith Powers and Republican Joe Borelli, respectively — announced the eight council appointees:
- Democrats: Gregory W. Kirschenbaum of Manhattan, Maf Misbah Uddin of Queens, Michael P. Schnall of Staten Island, Kristen Johnson of Brooklyn and Yovan Samuel Collado of the Bronx.
- Republicans: Kevin Hanratty of Queens, Darrin Porcher of the Bronx and Marc Wurzel of Manhattan.
“Although the current redistricting system used by the city is slightly more independent and fairer than the one used to draw state legislative and congressional lines, the Districting Commission remains vulnerable to politicization because all its members are directly chosen by elected officials,” Gotbaum said. “This report’s recommendations would create stronger safeguards against politicization, and help create an open, fair and independent redistricting process.”
The commission will likely establish a redistricting plan by the end of the year, with all 51 City Council members — elected just last year — having to run again for their seats in 2023.
An Adams administration spokesperson said it would review the Citizens United report. amNewYork Metro is awaiting further comment from the City Council.
