Guyanese Americans rally for state seat for Richmond Hill at Redistricting hearings on Tuesday
At a hearing on Tuesday for the redistricting of Queens for seats to the New York State Senate and Assembly, Guyanese civic leaders appealed to the Redistricting Committee (known by its acronym LATFOR) to keep the greater Richmond Hill community united instead of dividing it into two or three Assembly seats.
Currently Richmond Hill is gerrymandered into six Ads and three Senate Districts. Civic leaders want the area to be united into one AD and one CD to make it possible to elect one of their own to the state legislature. Civic leaders chartered a bus to shuttle residents to the hearing to make a case to keep Richmond Hill united. Albert Baldeo, Vishnu Mahadeo and others organised the rally and brought dozens of supporters to pack the hearing room.
After each census carried out, legislative boundaries must be redrawn to account for the shift in population in all political units (city, state, and federal). The last redistricting was done in 2002 and the next redistricting must be completed in time to allow for elections to be held in September. Lawmakers are currently working on state redistricting.
The redrawing of boundaries for New York City Council and the US Congress will take place in a few months. The law requires that before the state legislature approves new boundaries of electoral districts there must be public hearings to consider the views of ethnic communities.
LATFOR held its final hearing on Queens redistricting on Tuesday evening at the office of the President of the Borough of Queens who herself is a Guyanese American. The committee got an earful of complaints from everyone including Guyanese Americans who are making demands for at least one seat to represent the Richmond Hill-based Guyanese communities.
The Guyanese population in Queens along with the South Asian communities have almost doubled in size over the past twenty years. Currently, there are no Guyanese or Indian American or South Asian Districts in Queens. Indo-Guyanese are labeled as Indian Americans or South Asians for census and representation purposes. There is one Asian (oriental) district in the Assembly.
Guyanese are making a case for at least one AD covering the greater Richmond Hill area. Some of the community leaders are also making a case for another seat in the adjoining Jamaica and Queens Village area and one SD.
In her opening commentary, President Helen Marshall appealed to LATFOR to give consideration to increasing the representation of minorities who she noted had grown the most in numbers since the last census. Asians (Orientals), South Asians (including Indo-Guyanese) and Latinos recorded the highest growth. The law requires that ethnic communities be given fair representation when districts are redrawn. LATFOR is proposing three Asian ADs and one SD and one South Asian AD (greater Richmond Hill) and no SD.
The Guyanese civic leaders praised LATFOR for the Richmond Hill proposal but are of the opinion that greater numbers of Guyanese and South Asians can be included into the district. They want LATFOR to expand the boundaries to include more Guyanese communities.
The views of Garth Marchant, a Jamaican American of African descent and President of the Civil Rights Organisation, rang aloud in the hearing room. He assailed the drafters of the proposed electoral boundaries describing their map as racial gerrymandering of the worst kind. He appealed to LAFTOR to keep communities together and urged the body to give Indo-Caribbeans and South Asians in Richmond Hill an AD. He told the redistricting committee: “What you have done to Indo-Caribbean people is wrong. Why are you dividing the people? That is racial gerrymandering? Why are you doing this to the people?”
Vishnu Mahdeo was very dramatic in making a case for a AD. He brought a huge card map showing how Richmond Hill was gerrymandered into six districts. He urged that the community be in one district and a AD be created for Indo-Caribbean and South Asians.
District Leader Albert Baldeo, who led the fight from Richmond Hill to Queens Borough Hall, thanked those who rally for the community. Baldeo was featured on TV and the newspapers calling for a AD for Richmond Hill. “Our community really pulled together and made a tremendous impact, but the fight is far from over. We have to keep the message going”, he said.
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