Advocates sue city over redistricting lines in Queens
/
Advocates filed a lawsuit against the New York City Districting Commission on Friday claiming they violated the City Charter by dividing Richmond Hill and Ozone Park into several City Council districts. Photo via the Asian American Legal and Education Fund/Twitter
By Ryan Schwach
A lawsuit filed in New York City Supreme Court on Friday may have the potential to throw a wrench into this year’s City Council elections.
The lawsuit, which was announced by advocates on the stairs of City Hall, argues that newly approved district lines for the New York City Council go against the City Charter because they unfairly split the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities of South Ozone Park and Richmond Hill into several districts.
The neighborhoods, which residents argue are culturally, ethnically, racially, religiously and economically similar, have seen division throughout nearly all levels of government over the past several decades. As redistricting processes have taken place over the past two years, advocates and residents of the neighborhoods have come out in force to urge a unified district.
“The Asian community in Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park has consequently long been denied fair and effective representation in local, state, and federal legislative bodies,” the lawsuit alleges. “The most recent example of unlawfully separating the Asian community came with the New York City Districting Commission certification of its 2022 redistricting plan splitting Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park into three city council districts — despite immense community support for a unified district.”
The approved lines currently have those neighborhoods split mainly into three districts: Council Speaker Adrienne Admas’ 28th District, Councilmember Lynn Schulman’s 29th District and Councilmember Joann Ariola’s 32nd District.
Represented by Jerry Vattamala of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the petitioners cite Section 52, Subsection B of the City Charter, which says redistricting plans must ensure “the fair and effective representation of the racial and language minority groups in New York city which are protected by the United States voting rights act of nineteen hundred sixty-five.”
As far as Vattamala is aware, this is the first time a lawsuit has been brought up on that particular provision in the City Charter.
“It's supposed to have a prioritized list that the Districting Commission is supposed to follow, and unfortunately, they didn't follow the list in the order they were supposed to,” he told the Eagle. “Where they really failed to do this is Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park. This is an Asian American community, and they divided it basically in half and prevents that community from having any voice at all.”
Desis Rising Up and Moving, a South Asian and Indo-Caribbean rights organization, is among the parties listed as petitioners, and their members have been fighting against the split of their communities in district maps for years.
“The fact that they're being split apart just doesn't make sense to us like how one block is one district and another block is another district,” said Simran Phind, a community organizer with DRUM. “We have seen the impacts on the grassroots level. Because there's no district where we're really consolidated and have power. That is really hard for us to then go to our electeds and then ask for these things because we do not make up any majority.”
DRUM members argue that because the community is so split, and makes up such small portions of the districts they are a part of, electeds don’t give them as much resources and attention as they do other parts of the districts.
“What we've seen so far is that electeds have all their attention drawn elsewhere,” said Aaron Fernando, another advocate. “Adrienne Adams goes into Jamaica, Lynn Schulman now goes into Rego Park and Forest Hills, and Ariola goes into the Rockaways. It's always divided attention from politicians.”
The current lines that have the communities of Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park (Shown approximately in the black circle) split into three City Council districts. Map from Redistricting & You/Ryan Schwach
Among some of the advocates’ biggest frustrations is the fact that Districts 28 and 29 are split down Liberty Avenue, a major thoroughfare and community gathering point.
“Liberty Avenue is itself a community on both sides and honestly, it's frankly really ridiculous what they did where they drew a line straight down the middle [of it],” said Fernando.
DRUM supports a draft map called the Unity Map, which they argue stays within the commission's guidelines and better represents communities of interest along racial lines.
“I think it's about time that this kind of racial gerrymandering ends and we stop protecting incumbents and start actually giving communities of interest their own districts,” said Fernando.
In 2021, Democratic City Council candidate Felicia Singh, an educator with a South Asian and Indo-Caribbean background, ran to represent the 32nd District. She lost to now-Councilmember Joann Ariola. Singh’s strategy was to garner the bulk of the vote in the South Asian communities in the district but only secured 32 percent of the overall vote.
“She had a portion of the South Asian community who voted for her and turned out for her and Richmond Hill and Ozone Park but just because it was so split, the entire community is not in one district and didn't make it,” said Fernando.
Singh, who spoke on the phone with the Eagle, echoed the lack of unity in the community, one that may have contributed to her results in 2021.
“I think one thing we have to think about is there has never been a representative of the South Asian community in the area that is Guyanese or Punjabi ever,” Singh told the Eagle.
“What we saw was that no matter how many Asians came out to vote – and the majority did vote for me – and how many Latinx community members came out to vote and vote for me, it still wasn't enough in comparison to the white voting bloc to win the general election,” she said, specifically citing the heavily white, conservative voters in Broad Channel, Howard Beach and the Western portion of the Rockaway peninsula. “How are we supposed to elect someone that represents us if we're split between three?”
New draft lines for the State Assembly have a district that shows exactly what this community is looking for, drawing Richmond Hill and South Ozone into a mostly unified district.
“That's a home run for the community. That's what they're asking for, what they've been asking for at every legislative level,” said Vattamala.
The petitioners requested to be heard in court on Monday, Feb. 27, so that arguments could be made before the council petitioning process begins on Tuesday.
If the case is heard later on and ruled in the petitioners favor, it is possible that candidates would be ordered to re-petition and primaries would be delayed, as was the case last year with State Senate and congressional races, according to Vattamala.
The Eagle reached out to the New York City Redistricting Commission for comment, but they did not respond before press time.
