Queens lawmakers and civic leaders rail against proposed legislative districts

The New York Daily News covers the redistricting hearing where Queens residents and lawmakers gathered to rally against the Senate Republicans' redistricting proposal.

Queens residents and lawmakers packed into a public hearing Tuesday to rail against proposed legislative districts they claim fractures neighborhoods and dilutes their political voice.

 

“You have taken the 24th Assembly District and sliced and diced communities haphazardly along a narrow corridor that stretches across Queens,” Bob Friedrich of the civic group Eastern Queens United told members of the Legislative Task Force for Demographic Research and Reapportionment, which held the hearing at Queens Borough Hall.

 

“Communities that have a rich history of working together have been divided into disjointed clumps of territory that no longer share a common community board, police precinct or school district,” he told the panel.

 

The politically charged redistricting process — which creates new boundaries based on population shifts recorded in the 2010 Census — has put Queens Democrats on the defensive. They charge that Republicans, who hold the majority in the state Senate, have deliberately drawn lines to pit incumbents against each other.

 

“Gentlemen, your actions have embarrassed yourselves and brought shame to the state of New York,” said state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria), whose home was drawn into a neighboring district.

Read the full article here.