Court releases maps that Democrats support

Good morning. Today is Thursday. Today we’ll take a look at a decision many New York political watchers didn’t expect: The state’s highest court has released new maps for the state’s congressional and Senate districts. We’ll also look at opposition to the city’s plan for a homeless shelter in Chinatown.

New York’s highest court says Democrats violated state Constitution as they pulled themselves out into new state congressional and Senate districts that were widely seen as likely to favor Democratic candidates. The judges ordered a court-appointed expert to prepare the new maps.

The ruling is expected to delay the June 28 primaries for Congressional and State Senate districts until August, to allow time to prepare new maps and for candidates. collect petitions to qualify to vote in the counties on those maps.

But there could still be primaries in June for governor and state Assembly because those districts are no problem. The high court assigned this to a trial court judge and the state Elections Commission to work out the details with “all proper haste.”

My colleague Nicholas Fandos writes that Democratic leaders have trusted the Court of Appeals, with all seven judges appointed by Democratic governors, to overturn previous decisions on the map. of the National Assembly and the State Senate from a Republican judge in Steuben County and a bipartisan appeals court in Rochester. Instead, the high court delivered a more accursed ruling that was not appealed.

National Democrats looked to New York to pick up three new seats this fall and offset the benefits of a nationwide Republican redistricting. Now, with the ruling likely to eliminate the prospect of winning Democrats in New York, the Republicans’ chances of regaining control of the House of Representatives appear to have increased.

With Chief Justice Janet DiFiore writing the majority opinion, the court concluded that the Democrats, who control Congress and the State Senate, and through the maps mentioned in February – omitted a constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2014 banning gerrymandering parties. The judges said Democrats designed the counties “with unacceptable partisan purposes.”

Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said she was reviewing the decision. Michael Murphy, a spokesman for Democrats in the state senate, said they remained “confident in the constitutionality” of their maps and would repeat that with the court-appointed expert to draw the maps. that map.

Republicans and some nonpartisan public interest groups welcomed the ruling. “The will of the people defeated the Corruption Albany Machine in a huge victory for democracy, fair elections and the Constitution!” Representative Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican under threat, wrote on Twitter. Her Staten Island-based county is among a number of areas where the Democratic congressional map will become significantly greener by more liberal voters from Park Slope in Brooklyn.

Weather

Enjoy a sunny day in the 50s with breezes that will last until clear evenings, when temperatures will drop to the 40s.

Parking next door

Valid until Monday (Eid al-Fitr).

Latest New York News

Manhattan’s Chinatown is about to have two new homeless shelters, one of which is proposing to allow drug use. Residents are fighting city ​​plan. I asked my colleague Andy Newman, who is in charge of homelessness and related issues, to explain.

The fight for new shelters has sparked protests that aren’t usually in my backyard. What drives residents’ growing urgency?

Almost no neighborhood in the city welcomes homeless shelters. But hate crimes against Asians have increased by more than 300% between 2020 and 2021, and a lot of those attacks are related to the homeless – and a lot of people in Chinatown feel that the right Their lives are under attack. “We do a lot for this country and this city, and our human rights, the human rights of our sons,” said a man whose children attend school in Chinatown. and my daughter, being taken away.”

You mentioned the community board, which just voted against one of the new shelters. Will that vote make a difference or will it just put more pressure on Mayor Eric Adams?

Community council votes are not binding – the city doesn’t need community council support to open that shelter, on Grand Street. But the community council’s resolution against it, introduced in response to complaints from the community, is a measure of the level of opposition.

Optics was complicated for Adams. He’s gone all out to open more shelters as part of his plan to convince people living on the streets and subways into their homes. He is also a strong advocate of the “harm reduction” approach to the opioid crisis that the planned shelter is taking.

But he’s also under pressure to stop hate crimes against Asian New Yorkers, and many residents of Chinatown believe the haven will lead to more of those crimes – though advocates say shelter and the city’s homeless service officials, argued that shelters would actually make neighborhoods safer by taking in homeless people in the neighborhood and connecting them with mental health and substance abuse services.

Jacky Wong, founder of East Broadway Concerned Citizens, which opposes another shelter in Chinatown, questioned the city’s approach to opening shelters in those neighborhoods. There are many homeless people on the street. “People might come here just to buy drugs, and so they would be considered ‘from’ this neighborhood,” he told me. “Why not give them housing in a neighborhood where they have more positive relationships?”

How has Chinatown responded to what residents say is the rise in incidental violence and thefts that have come with the pandemic?

Every Chinese speaker we interviewed has witnessed or been a victim of some kind of violence, crime, or disorder that they attribute to the homeless. Elderly people are taking self-defense courses. Doctors say they send staff home early so they don’t have to face the streets and subways after dark.

The city says the new shelters are in part a response to the murder of a homeless Asian man in 2019. But the plan to name one of the shelters for him has attracted protest. Why?

Many in Chinatown feel that the city is exploiting the 2019 murder of Chuen Kwok, an 83-year-old Hong Kong man who slept on the streets of Chinatown, as a justification for being forced to shelter a community that doesn’t want to. it. These planned shelters are for the homeless on the streets, and there is a widespread belief in Chinatown that street homelessness is primarily a problem for non-Chinese people. , except for Kwok.

Dear Diary:

When polite encounters take place, it’s a disaster. Then I staggered through the streets feeling as if everything was going against me.

After making numerous suggestions over the years, I think, the city is making it clear to me once and for all to get out. Maybe it’s finally time to listen.

At some point, I wandered to the basketball courts on West Fourth Street. As I was watching the game, a well-dressed man with a crossbody bag approached me.

“People take you for granted,” he said uneasily. “You give and you give, and you get nothing in return. But you are a good person and…”

I don’t remember exactly what the rest of him said because I was trying so hard not to cry.

He pulled out a pad of paper and asked me to come up with – but not tell him – answers to several questions: my favorite number, my wife’s name, her age, favorite color mine, the first name of my enemy.

Then he gave me a neat list of all my responses. I have no interest when it comes to magic tricks, but this guy is a reliable fighter.

He reassured me that my life would be fine and that I would get my dream job by the end of that month. Then he wrote down three numbers: the suggested donation.

I told him I didn’t have that kind of cash.

“There is an ATM near here,” he said.

– Mark Hsu

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and Read more Metropolitan Diary here.

So glad we can get together here. See you tomorrow. – JB

PS This is for today Small crosswords and Spell Bee. You can find all our quizzes here.

Melissa Guerrero, Jeff Boda and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can contact the team at [email protected].

Sign up here to receive this newsletter in your inbox.