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Asian groups, voters in Queens challenge new City Council district maps
By
Arun Venugopal
Published Feb 24, 2023
Modified Feb 25, 2023
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By
Arun Venugopal
Published Feb 24, 2023
Modified Feb 25, 2023
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Asian American organizations and community members sued the New York City Districting Commission on Friday, claiming that new City Council district maps will deprive South Asian Americans in Richmond Hill and Ozone Park of political representation.
The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court, also names the New York City Board of Elections and the New York State Board of Elections as defendants. It asks the court to **“**hold off on petitioning” by candidates vying in the upcoming 2023 council races until new district lines can be drawn.
“Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park, Queens is home to a vibrant, growing Asian community, but districting plans have repeatedly carved up the area and diluted the community’s voting strength,” the lawsuit alleges. “The Asian community in Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park has consequently long been denied fair and effective representation in local, state and federal legislative bodies."
The community basically was split in half and that ensures that they would never have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.
Jerry Vatamala, the director of the Democracy Program at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Jerry Vattamala, the director of the Democracy Program at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which brought the lawsuit, said city and state officials failed to heed warnings brought by community members that a South Asian voting bloc was fragmented due to district lines that ran down Liberty Avenue, straight through the center of the Punjabi and Indo-Caribbean population.
“The community basically was split in half and that ensures that they would never have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice,” he told Gothamist.
According to Vattamala, the Districting Commission had not fulfilled the New York City Charter’s mandate to ensure “the fair and effective representation of racial and language minority groups.”
Neither the commission nor the city’s Board of Elections responded to questions about the lawsuit. AALDEF and other voting rights groups representing communities of color have pushed for a separate "unity map."
Felicia Singh, who was a Democratic candidate for the 32nd Council District in 2021, said that while she won a majority of Asian and Latino votes in the district, “that just could not match the amount of white voters outnumbering and washing out our communities of color.”
Although Singh won the Democratic nomination, she lost the general election to Republican Joann Ariola.
“Keeping these communities of interest whole is about investment in communities that have been continuously disinvested from and has never been able to elect representation,” said Singh in an email. “Voter intimidation happens in areas where there is long-term dominance of one racial group over another.”
Tagged
asian americans
queens
City Council
redistricting reform
Arun Venugopal
Arun Venugopal is a senior reporter for the WNYC and Gothamist Race & Justice Unit who focuses on issues of race and bias in our region. His reporting also tackles the topics of immigration, faith, and inequality. Arun serves as the regular fill-in host of the station's "U.S. of Anxiety" program. Arun was the creator and host of Micropolis, a series about race and identity. He is a contributor to NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He has appeared on PBS Newshour, On the Media and Studio 360, and has been published in The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and Salon. He also frequently serves as an emcee and moderator of panel discussions on race, religion, and identity issues and has been a guest host of NPR's "Fresh Air." He lives with his family in Queens.
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