POLITICAL ARENA

Task force proposes one, not three, senators for Riverdale

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Riverdale and Kingsbridge are in for some major changes if the Legislative Task Force on Democratic Research and Reapportionment gets its way. The group — made up of two Republican legislators, two Democratic legislators, and two non-legislators selected by each party — announced its proposal for new state Assembly and Senate lines on Jan. 26.

They would reduce the number of state Senators representing Riverdale from three to one and cut the Kingsbridge district in half.

Every decade after Census data is released, the state legislature redraws district lines. The process is tedious and drawn out and will most likely end in a fight in court.

Now that the public has the maps (some legislators got them first), LATFOR will hold public hearings beginning next week. The only public hearing in the Bronx will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 31, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, located at 1040 Grand Concourse, at 3 p.m.

Although it’s expected that Gov. Andrew Cuomo will veto the lines (he said he will veto any lines drawn politically), here’s a rundown of the locaat State Senate districts. To see an analysis of Assembly district 81, click here.

 

District 33 

State Senate district 33, represented by state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, currently looks like a large block, and  includes nearly the entire neighborhoods of Kingsbridge and Norwood. The proposed district looks like a piece in a very complicated gerrymandered jigsaw puzzle. While the district still includes part of Norwood, the connection between that neighborhood and the rest of the district is a single block at East 199th Street and Briggs Avenue. The small piece of Riverdale in the district is no more, and about half of Kingsbridge is off the map. The line through Kingsbridge, separating district 33 with district 34, currently represented by state Sen. Jeff Klein, looks like it was drawn by a blind man.

District 33 will still contain a large chunk of Kingsbridge Heights, as far north as where Heath Avenue meets Fort Independence Street.

To pick up people the district lost in Kingsbridge and Norwood, it extends into Claremont, completely engulfing Crotona Park.

Community Board 8, Redistricting, LATFOR, Van Cortlandt Village, jeff klein, adriano espaillat, gustavo rivera, district lines, voting, gerrymandering
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