New York City maps go back to the drawing board

Looks like we’re not going to get a drama-free redistricting process at any level of government this year.

The New York City Districting Commissionvoted to reject its own maps, sending the process back to the drawing board amid complaints from pols, immigrant communities and others.

The rejected were already the second drawn up, after the first set drew criticism for splitting up Latino populations in Red Hook and Sunset Park, and in the process pitting Council Members Justin Brannan and Alexa Avilés against each other. Those changes and a host of other contentious carve-ups around the city were made to meet a key demand of Republican City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli: keeping three districts entirely contained on Staten Island.

The latest version reversed those moves, instead carving up the district of Council Member Ari Kagan to make way for a new majority-Asian seat nearby. But it also infringed on Staten Island, adding parts of Brooklyn to a Staten Island-based district. Borelli’s appointees, along with some of Mayor Eric Adams’ picks, voted to reject the proposal Thursday. It went down by a vote of 8-7.

So what now? The commission will start over and come up with a new set of maps, which, if approved, would go to the City Council to pass or reject. New districts must be in place by Dec. 7. Brannan, whose district was on the carving block, floated one way to avoid all these fights: adding more seats to the 51-member Council. “Right now, we’ve got @DistrictingNYC trying to shove 20 pounds of democracy in a 10 pound bag,” he said.

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