The first drafts of new maps for the 51 City Council districts were unveiled by the City Districting Commission on Tuesday, with advocacy groups calling for more districts to represent minorities, says the New York Daily News.
Some of the most significant changes will take place in upper Manhattan, where the Washington Heights and Inwood district represented by Ydanis Rodriguez, D-Manhattan, must take on more territory because its current population is too small.
A new “Unity Map,” was released by advocacy groups, calling for more substantial changes – combining the lower East Side and Chinatown into a single district to give Asian voters more clout, having one district encompass all of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn and lumping Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park in Queens into one district.
The Unity Map also calls for the creation of an 11th Latino majority district, says the Daily News.
“This will ensure that Asian-Americans, Blacks and Latinos have fair representation in the New York City Council and can elect candidates of their choice,” Margaret Fung, executive director of the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, told the paper.
Earlier this year, , believing they were drawn for specific political advantages.
"The Senate GOP has once again abused the redistricting process to protect incumbents, punish the opposition and artificially maintain their power,” said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, D-Brooklyn, in January.
