Wednesday evening’s meeting of the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1 became the forum for a vehement discussion of the proposed legislative redistricting that will uproot Battery Park City and the western Financial District from Lower Manhattan, and instead relegate representation of these communities in the State Assembly to Staten Island. Downtown community leaders were first alerted to this impending change by Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou, prior to the official announcement of the proposed redistricting on Tuesday.
Committee member Jeff Galloway began by noting, “it is manifestly absurd to have an Assembly district shaped this way. The New York State Assembly is the legislative body that is meant to be most closely tied to the people it represents. That’s why there are many more Assembly members than State Senators, and why each Assembly seat represents a smaller district, with a smaller population,” than in the State Senate.
“Communities defined by commonalities of interest,” he continued. “That is why, for years and years, we have been tied with neighbors in Manhattan, who shared priorities like mass transit, affordable housing, and resiliency. We will now be only 20 to 25 percent of our own Assembly district, with roughly 80 percent of the population in Staten Island. I’m sure they are fine people, but they will have their own interests. And our interests are quite different. This is a bad idea.”
He also observed that, “the proposed lines make our Assembly district is the only Manhattan district that includes anything outside of Manhattan.”
Robin Forst, a public member of CB1 observed that, “Battery Park City and FiDi are intimately tied to Lower Manhattan. On resiliency projects, we are closely aligned with communities to north. We share schools with nearby neighborhoods. We rely on transit managed by two state agencies, the MTA and the Port Authority. That is not how people travel on Staten Island. And the distance between Lower Manhattan and Staten Island is quite large.
Indeed, much of the newly drawn 61st Assembly District, into which Lower Manhattan is now slated to fall, is closer to Newark Airport than it is to Battery Park City or the Financial District.
“To be represented by somebody so distant geographically, a community whose needs are so different, there is no good reason for this,” Ms. Forst continued. I’m not sure what political calculus went into this, but anything we can do to convey to people who are deciding this that this does not make sense for us, is important.”
Committee member Bob Schneck said, “in the nearly 40 years I’ve lived here, I never expected a voting rights problem. It is unbelievable that our communities could be paired with Staten Island. It is absurd to be separated from our surrounding communities by an externally imposed divorce.”
“We need to act as our own Minutemen,” he said, in a reference to the militia units in the American Revolution who were the vanguard of resistance against the British. “We need to take action, in the form of civil disobedience. We need to organize a massive tax strike, and make sure that the Governor hears us.”
Committee member Sarah Cassell observed, “this gerrymandering is pathetic.”
Battery Park City committee co-chair Kathy Gupta said, “it will pretty challenging to represent two such radically different segments of the same district.”
Eric Flores, also a member of the Battery Park City Committee, asked, “do we know the reason for this?”
Mr. Galloway replied, “none has been articulated.” He also recalled that the redrawing of legislative district lines (automatically triggered by the 2020n Census) was begun last year under a bi-partisan commission. That body deadlocked when its Democratic and Republican factions could not reach consensus, and instead published two rival proposals for modifying boundaries for all State Senate, State Assembly, and Congressional districts within New York. Yet neither of these proposals, Mr. Galloway noted, “changed Lower Manhattan’s Assembly lines in any significant way.”
When the bi-partisan commission failed to reach a unanimous plan, “the State legislature took over, worked in secret for weeks, and then released maps without any explanation,” he added, emphasizing that neither the Democratic nor Republican members of the original commission, “had sought anything like this.”
That seems to indicate that the leadership of the State Assembly, presided over by Speaker Carl Heastie, decided of its own volition to sever Lower Manhattan from its traditional domain, and instead graft the community onto an environment with which it has discernible connection.
There are several possible motives for such a change. Lower Manhattan residents have repeatedly stood up to Albany in recent years. Last summer, Battery Park City residents organized under the banner of Pause the Saws to prevent the destruction of Rockefeller Park, as part of then-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan for an Essential Workers Monument. This grassroots opposition successfully brought Mr. Cuomo to heel, and blocked the scheme. At the same time, Battery Park City residents have been pressing to renegotiate the ground lease, which contains ruinous financial provisions that will (if not changed) soon drive condominium owners from their homes, and eventually result in all residents being evicted from the community. Simultaneously, a group has formed opposing State plans to erect a mostly market-rate rental tower at Five World Trade Center. This organization has argued (with increasing success) that the building should consist entirely of affordable apartments.
For all of these reasons, Albany leaders may wish to disenfranchise and render mute the communities that are being exiled from their home base by the proposed redistricting. For Battery Park City residents, the harm may be two-fold, because the community is already governed by a State agency (the Battery Park City Authority, or BPCA) that is run by unelected officials, appointed by the Governor. Although the BPCA has made strides in recent years to increase consultation with the community, such outreach might wither when the neighborhood is deprived of representation.
After Tuesday’s announcement, Ms. Niou posted online that, “Battery Park City is a very unique community. The land is owned and managed by the Battery Park City Authority which is a public-benefit corporation created by New York State. This makes their State representation very important for residents.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, Battery Park City resident Maryanne Braverman observed, “it ridiculous to connect Lower Manhattan with Staten Island. Maybe our new Assembly member will open an office on the ferry?”
Resident Greg Sheindlin said, “there is no logic here other than politics. This does not weigh in our favor, and this will be our reality for the next decade.” (This was a reference to the fact that the next opportunity to redraw legislative district lines will be after the 2030 Census.)
Mr. Schneck added, “we need to dig our heels in on this. This tears apart the community, rips it in half, and destroys our relationships with government. To stop government from doing something that is flat-out wrong is very important. Unless we really stand together and make people realize that we care as much about this as we did about the trees in Rockefeller Park, we will lose.”
Committee member Betty Kay observed, “the worst-case scenario here is that our Staten Island representative probably won’t give a damn about us, because he can win election without any of our votes.”
Ms. Gupta added, “what strikes me as most outrageous is that we have 48 hours to say or do anything about something that is going to affect our community for the next ten years.” (This was a reference to the fact the State legislature is schedule to vote to approve the redrawn district lines in the next few days.)
Mr. Galloway suggested that all Lower Manhattan residents contact the offices of their two, current State Assembly members (Yuh-Line Niou and Deborah Glick), as well as their State Senator, Brian Kavanagh, along with the officers of Speaker Heastie and Governor Kathy Hochul. (Email addresses for all of these elected officials, each of whom is up for reelection this year, are appended below.) “We need to make clear that we will not be pleased if they vote to approve this,” he urged.
The elected officials cited by CB1’s Battery Park City as appropriate for outreach from the community can be contacted via email at the following websites or addresses:
Governor Kathy Hochul:
State Senator Brian Kavanagh:
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie:
Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou:
Assembly Member Deborah Glick:
Matthew Fenton
