Guyanese to sue on NY redistricting plan

At a meeting last week in Richmond Hill, several community leaders requested a team of lawyers to prepare a case to sue New York State on redistricting of seats to the state assembly. Every 10 years, after the census, boundaries of legislative districts to the State Senate, Assembly, U. S. House of Representatives and the City Council have to be redrawn to reflect the new count in the population.

The census was concluded in 2010 and the State Legislature is looking at proposals to redraw the legislative districts. There are 62 Senate Seats and 150 Assembly Districts and their redrawing must be completed by summer in order to prepare for elections in November.

The 27 U.S. Congressional seats for New York State must also be redrawn by the summer for November elections. The 51 seats in the City Council must also be redrawn for elections due November 2013.

The Guyanese community leaders of Richmond Hill, dubbed Little Guyana, which has the largest concentration of Guyanese and people of South Asian descent in New York State, feel the greater Richmond Hill area should be considered as a legislative district, all by itself, so that the community can elect a legislator to provide them with fair representation. Right now, greater Richmond Hill is divided into six Assembly districts, two Senate districts, two Congressional districts, and four City Council districts, effectively watering down representation of the large South Asian, Guyanese and other Caribbean population that make up about 35 per cent of the people living in the neighborhood. Other communities and ethnic groups are also jockeying for seats, and influential politicians are engaged in horse trading in order to gain more seats for their ethnic groups at the expense of weak and underrepresented communities like Guyanese.

Community advocate, Vishnu Bisram argued that the Guyanese and Caribbean community should fall under one district each in Congress, the State Senate, State Assembly and New York City Council. Bisram suggested that the community leaders demand that the greater Richmond Hill area fall in one legislative district of each body to get effective representation.

The community leaders agreed to file a lawsuit or join an existing class lawsuit filed by the Asian Legal Defence Fund as a plaintiff so that the greater Richmond Hill area can get fair representation and resources from elected governments. They say they support a lawsuit which urges a federal district court judge in Manhattan to appoint a “special master” to redraw New York’s lines for all electoral districts.

Community leaders in Richmond Hill complain the area hardly gets any representation in the City Council, Congress and the State government. They have expressed frustration with political representatives who come to area seeking funds for their election campaign, but don’t deliver resources after their election victories. The State Legislature and the governor argue over how best to draw a new political map for New York State. A group of community leaders has filed a law suit asking a federal judge to take control of the contentious redistricting process.

Currently, most people have no idea who represents them in Congress, let alone in the state Senate or Assembly or City Council. Even those who pay attention cannot say for sure who might take office in Albany or Washington after the coming election, because the districts have no borders. The old borders were drawn following the 2000 census. The new ones, using figures from the 2010 census, should now have been in place and people should be getting to know those who want to run for office. New York does not have the necessary new district maps, nor any clear idea of when those fundamental documents will show up or how fair they will be. Hence, the need for the court’s intervention, community leaders argue.