Draft Of New City Council Districts Could Cause Fireworks

A new map of City Council districts in draft form is heading to the Ordinance Committee with two potentially controversial changes that could heat up discussions.

One involves the boundary of the 138th and 139th Districts. The new map incorporates a carve-out of the new Harding High School that sits north of Boston Avenue at the request of East End City Councilman Ernie Newton whose constituency has voted there and at the old location south of Boston Avenue for decades.

The modern Harding currently sits in the 138th District of Councilwoman Maria Pereira who opposes the circuitous route in the proposed map in favor of a clean boundary. Boston Avenue has served as a traditional boundary between the districts.

Under the proposed map, the home of City Clerk Lydia Martinez is shifted from the 137th District to the 139th. The new map will not impair her future as a citywide office holder but does impact her political machinations in the 137th albeit it losing a lot of ground in recent years to City Council President Aidee Nieves whose influence has grown substantially on the East Side.

The redistricting review follows the decennial Census tract. The council is being guided in part by consultant Kimball Brace of Election Data Services.

A public hearing on the proposed map is planned for June 28.

Screen shot of new Harding High School, top left in green, north of Boston Avenue. Under the proposed map the school geographically shifts from the 138th to 139th District.

Full City Council agenda here.

0
Share

23 comments

  1. Can we say Gerrymander
    This stinks as much as the state moving Marcus Brown’s house into Jack Hennessey’s district,

    There is no reason. To cross Boston Ave, a natural demarcation point so Ernie Newton’s people can still vote at Harding. Until recently they voted south of Boston Ave, realignment can send them back south of the Avenue where they voted for years

    4+
    1. We could say Gerrymandering, but I don’t think so in this case, considering Brown got the endorsement to run against Hennessey because of their redistricting. Fro that reasoning, in Brown’s case, we can most definitely say gerrymandering.

      There is a big reason to cross Boston. To secure a close vote place (Harding) that has traditionally been in Ernie’s district. Not many votes are being poached from what I can see. However, I am sure it would weaken the voting block of the 129, via, inconvenient. Generally, It seems like a push, of what was and still will be. JS

      0
      1. Robert T
        It is classic Gerrymandering when the boundary is being drawn at the request of the incumbent.
        Ernie’s voters have only been voting north Boston Ave for a very short time, they voted south of Boston Ave for many years.
        There are available locations that can be used for voting south of Boston Ave.
        Here we see part of a district being carved away from another incumbent who does not march to Ganim/Testa orders.

        Usually, Redistricting does not cross state roads when possible to construct equal population sistricts without doing so. It also does not split US Census Tracts.

        2+
        1. I don’t want to parse words. I know how that ends. 🙂

          I don’t want to get too involved in matters I barely understand, but there are always pros and cons for one party or another in some way in redistricting, or why bother.

          I am sure one of the Port’s polling places, a high school, that was relocated across the street that ended up in another district will have a negative for that district (129)

          As I said, I don’t think this redistricting is more about voters than the polling place itself, Harding, I don’t see a whole lot of voter shift., but then again I don’t even know what I am looking as 🙂 But let’s not forget, the entire area is a minority and democrat and long with their elected officials. At the end of the day, the elected officials is going to a minority and Democrat. That’s a Charlie Sheen fro both. 🙂

          https://www.facebook.com/100001716415573/videos/696200024954859

          0
          1. @Robert T

            Just one thing to mention about your last comment:
            ” At the end of the day, the elected officials is going to a minority and Democrat.”
            Ernie Newton is a Black (African American) Male, a Democrat and a Minority
            Maria Pereira, who is having this land north of Boston Ave carved from her existing Council District is a Democrat and a Female, BUT she is NOT a minority.
            Both Wanda R Simmons (Ernie’s Council team mate) and Michele L. Small (Maria’s Council team mate) are Female Black (African American) Democrats and Minority.

            2+
  2. I see we are now parsing ethnicity and gender. Maria is pretty liberal. She might identify as non-binary. 🤣

    America’s identification of male and female genders has gone the way of political redistricting and gerrymandered. 🙂 Although she’s is a democrat who lives in the Port as are Joe and Mario. Gerrymander and redistrict that, people? 🙂

    To be honest, I do find it interesting that Spanish people and their ancestry are considered to be a minority, yet Portuguese people and their ancestry are considered white in America, considering they come from the same geographical location, a peninsula at that, and speak a similar language. Come to think about Mario, Italians were considered practical black when they got off the boat in America.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DZNDEqcSi0

    I guess we can parse the Portuguese colonization nations as minorities like the Spanish colonization nations in the New World. but I saw categories of labels like non-white Latino and white Latino. I wonder who they are referring to as white Latinos, Puerto Ricans, Communist Cuban, Irish indentured servants Barbadians?

    I read an article where a guy who donated blood since he was 18 was denied to donate his blood because he refused to check a box that didn’t apply to him, as a male. It asked if he was pregnant or recently pregnant in the last six months. He refuse to answer it because it didn’t apply to his gender. But we live in a “gerrymander” world where women have penises and men can get pregnant. Forget about crossing the street line, shits getting so gerrymandered as if they were using an Etch A Sketch 🙂

    Ernie is black and American but there is not much African in him. Technically Elon Musk is more African American than Ernie. 🙂

    I guess we can parse the meaning of words like male, female, American, and African. However, Africa is a continent. A very large continent. To associate it solely with blackness might be misleading. Would anyone from Egypt, Lybia, and Morroco who comes to America be considered African American too? I get the Identify aspect of it, similar to the continent of Asia that’s associated with oriental, but as you can see identity can get sketchy at times, to say the least. 🙂 Similar to democrats, and minorities who live in the Ports and their redistricting. 🙂

    I say that because it seems only in America are black people identified as African before the nation they live in and are? Like African Americans. You never hear identification of African Brazilian, African Puerto Ricans, African Cubans, African Jamcaians or even African Canadians, and so forth, whose ancestry may share a similar history. Besides what about people who are black that come from, let’s say Jamaica or Haiti to America. Are they considered African Americans because of their blackness? Or Jamaican American and Haitian American? Similar to the Italian Americans. JS

    Maybe if America embraces soccer (football) like the rest of the world instead of it as a second-hand sport that it redefined. There would be more pride in this country, like Corleone had. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=435mkg6_eGQ

    If you asked an “African” Brazilian how do they identify/feel about their Football (Soccer). They would tell you like a Religion.

    I depart with the Prophet Emine and Brazilian “African” Football God Ronaldinho. Well, ok, maybe a Saint or something. 😂

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ZMiqDG-dg

    0
    1. @Robert T
      Immigrants to the USA from Spain are not considered minorities, they are considered White Europeans, just as those from Portugal.
      Immigrants to the USA from ‘Latin America’ are generally classified minority even if not from a former Spanish colony.

      As for your comment about Black Brazilians:
      “Afro-Brazilians (Portuguese: afro-brasileiros; Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈafɾu bɾɐziˈle(j)ɾuz]) are Brazilians who have predominantly or partial African ancestry (see “preto”). Most members of another group of people, multiracial Brazilians or pardos, may also have a range of degree of African ancestry.”

      the USA is not the only country that hyphenates a continent of ancestry
      In 1988 I had to occasion to visit Bahia (Salvador) Brazil for two weeks on business. It labeled itself as: The second blackest city ion the Americas. Do you know which is the first? Washington DC.

      0
      1. Please, Afro-Brazilians, cutting it short, no? That’s more racism in their homeland than the identification of Brazilians living in America. I see we have Afro-Brazilians (African Brazilians). Are there White Brazilians (White European Portuguese Brazilians)? I mean what’s outside of Afro -Brazillians?

        I said there isn’t a range. There’s a range in everything, Aske Brown and Hennessy.

        You got to admire the gerrymandering of the USA Immigrants on race. I’ll give you a point on the USA immigration’s classification of immigrants coming from Spain, Mazel tov. 🙂

        But to my overall point, which you actually strengthened. I find it interesting why Spaniards coming from Spain are considered white yet their ancestry is not? There white when they got on the boat and a minority when they got off the boat, right? Is that what we are saying?

        Please elaborate on Jamaicans, Haitians, or Dominicans who immigrate to America. Are they to
        be considered Afro or African Dominicans, Jamaicans or Haitians Americans, or just Dominican, Jamaican or Haitian American.

        To be the fair USA census covers black in America with ( black or African American), Well, let’s say fair-ish depending on the gerrymandering range on one census, 🙂

        https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html#:~:text=OMB%20requires%20five%20minimum%20categories,Hawaiian%20or%20Other%20Pacific%20Islander.

        Based on this, my Latinos and PRs brethren Y’all can come white and inherently racist.

        BTY Marcus where do the black Israelites (African Jews) fall in the Jewish/ethnicity/culture/religion of the Jewish people?

        I depart with the prophet Eminem.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0SohHsZtfg

        0
      2. Marshall Marcus, you make some interesting points. PBS is showing this right now on ch.10
        “Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II” is a book by American writer Douglas A. Blackmon, published by Anchor Books in 2008.. Slavery is a topic that’s which makes everyone uncomportable to talk about but it’s Amerca sin and there are those who don’t want it taught in our schools because theydon’t little white childern feelings hurt in talking abut the truth of America’s history.

        0
        1. Ron, slavery may be a topic that’s uncomfortable to talk about in America and a sin, but it was a sin that it inherited, that America corrected. Part of the uncomfortable to talk about slavery in America is that it is history and no longer exists. A history that goes back to civilization itself, even section is Bible (old testament) and Islam’s Quran. That is equally uncomfortable to talk about. Ask your, pastor, or an Iman to preach to their followers about the approval of slavery in their holy books. JS

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xeCBPRmF4Y

          0
          1. Sanctioned, Don’t worry I am sure religious leaders can be parsed and gerrymandered it. JS

            P.S Latinos, PRs you are technically considered white under the minimum requirement census definition of white in the USA

            To my Latino brethren, Y’all inherently racist, you Goya Trumpers 🤣

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RijB8wnJCN0

            0
        2. Ron
          I have no problem talking about or teaching about Danvers I. America.
          It ended before my ancestors escaped the Tsar and came to America.
          I would love to see a Constitutional change to eliminate legal servitude for incarcerated convicts.

          BTW, I have seen that documentary on PBS. Our channel lineup on Frontier us not the same as you mentioned

          0
          1. Is this legal servitude for incarcerated convicts involuntary or voluntary the inmates? Is it something inmates have called to end?

            0
  3. Marshall Marcus, I find it funny gto see how some people want to compare slavery in America to the slavery that goes back before Jesus. Slavery in America is not the slavery where one group defeated one group and the losers became slave. Amereica took the time to deliberately write down and put into law that blacks had no rights and that they were counted as 3/5th of a man only for tax purpose.

    0
    1. Perhaps a black person (Slave) was considered 3/5 of a man for population purposes, (more for representation I think in the newly formed government.) but it was only deliberate because of the new constitution and form of government, that is America. Initially, the first U.S. (United States) national government began under the Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781. This document said nothing about slavery. It left the power to regulate slavery, as well as most powers, to the individual states. Under the United States of America, a centralized government was formed and it ended Slavery in all the states in America.

      Perhaps that is part of American slavery that is also uncomfortable to talk about too. My comparison to slavery in America that goes back to Jesus is based on history, which is just that history, American history. Is it accurate to say slavery that was America’s sin was more a state in the US of America? Not all states have slavery. Most of the states in that time that did were Democrats. Is that uncomfortable for you, as a Democrat to talk about regarding slavery? JS

      0
      1. Marshall Marcus, I was being “sarcastic.” The issue of slavery has nothingto do with Democrats and Republicans, it has to do about power and both political parties have been involved. The South during slavery was Democrats and the north were Republicans but after LBJ paased and signed the the voting rights bill and the Civil Rights in 1965 and 1968 the south changed and became Republicans and the north became Democrats.

        0
  4. Ron, to say slavery had noting to do with the D’s and R’s is a deflection of the reality. You’ve been going on about Trump, R’s and their racism for four years he was in office. Please!

    You are right the D’s dominated slavery in America for hundreds of years, up until 1964. You know that PBS program you and Marcus watched, The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II” was do to the power of the Democrat Party power over black people in the south. It may have been a Re-Enslavement of Black Americans, but it was the same party at power. JS

    You are correct in the shift of power from D’s to R’s in the Southern and Northern states. However, I highly doubt a stroke of a pen can win the hearts and minds of embedded racial hatred that was the Democrat Party that existed within for the first two hundred years of America’s existence. I mean Rober Byrd was a grand master and founder of KKK chapert in West Virgina, supported racial segregatgion, and filabuster the Civil Rights Act. Yet still was elected to the US Senate for 45 years until his death. (by many blacks) I am sure though after his failed Filabuster of the Civil Rights Act and it was signed in to law his heart and mind changed and was a champion for black people for the next 45 year in the senate. (that’s being sarcastic) js

    But you are correct, in another way, it’s not about the D’s and R’s , it’s about power. You and Marcus can’t deny The Port is run by the D’s. Their isn’t an R in sight. Based on that logic, well, Happy Days are Here Again” It’s not like Joe Biden support segregation, Wait, What. 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx2mzukXY4Y

    0
    1. P, S Marcus, you might have been doing some deflection yourself, Billy Bong. 🤣

      While it may not apply to the Port, being dominated by D’s. Candice Owen has a point on the D’s using race and racism as an emotional means to garner votes against the Rs. JS

      Classic. We don’t have those numbers, we want those numbers, but to say the numbers (that we don’t have) don’t show something is simply not supported by the date, (we don’t have) 🤣
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cUQqPxw3hc

      0

Leave a Reply