Document April 7, 2022
Fair and Open Elections Fair Redistricting

2022 City Council Redistricting

Following the decennial nationwide census, the New York City Charter mandates that the City Council and the Mayor appoint a Districting Commission to redraw council district boundaries to reflect population and demographic changes. In the coming year, the Districting Commission will have to draw new borders in a city that has undergone significant demographic shifts in the past 10 years.

 

*** Citizens Union offers free trainings and informative materials on Council Redistricting for community groups across the city – click here to contact us ***

 

Overview of the redistricting process 

In New York City, City Council districts are not drawn by lawmakers themselves but by a special commission called the Districting Commission. The members of the Commission are appointed by the mayor and by the Democrats and Republicans serving on the City Council, but once appointed, the commissioners act independently of the political figures who appointed them. Commissioners must follow specific legal criteria that guide how boundaries are drawn, and they have to ask for feedback on every proposed map. The City Council can object to the first plan the Commission submits and send it back for a revision. Once the Commission approves a revised, final plan, neither Council Members nor the mayor can legally change the maps. The process takes about ten months, but the new districts remain in place for ten years.

Click here to read Citizens Union Foundation’s report on the 2022 Council Redistricting Process 

If you would like to be informed on the Council redistricting process as it unfolds, sign up for email updates here. 

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NEW: PUBLIC HEARING SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED – SIGN UP TO TESTIFY

The NYC Districting Commission announced hearing dates for city residents to testify on the Preliminary Plan of 51 City Council districts published at the beginning of July. Five borough-based hearings will be held from August 16 to August 22. Click here for exact dates and times.

This round of hearings will be critical in determining the ultimate council lines. If you are unhappy with the maps, we encourage you to testify; similarly if you like the new lines in your district, that is also very important to tell the commission. You can sign up to testify in person or online by completing this form. To submit written testimony to the Districting Commission, email: PublicTestimony@redistricting.nyc.gov 

You can see the proposed Council lines here. Redistricting and You has uploaded this map to its website, to make it easy to compare the new proposed lines with the current districts.

Make your voice heard

Citizens Union Trainings

With the support of the New York Community Trust, Citizens Union Foundation is offering free trainings and resources to community groups all over the city to help New Yorkers engage in the Council redistricting process. The training includes information on:

  1. The basics of Council redistricting.
  2. Why engaging in the Council redistricting process is important.
  3. An overview of the process and the criteria used to draw the maps.
  4. How to look at and create your own maps.
  5. How to testify before the Council’s Districting Commission.
  6. The essential elements of an effective testimony.

We would be more than happy to tailor the content of our training to meet the needs your group. We can offer a short presentation (i.e. a ten minute basic overview), a full length 75 minute presentation, or anything in between.

The Districting Commission has released the first draft of maps on July 15th, and public hearings to comment on those maps will be held in August. Preliminary public hearings were held in late June and early July. We are holding trainings in April to August, and will continue throughout the entirety of 2022, as necessary. We can hold trainings in person or on zoom, and can be flexible in regards to time and day to best accommodate your needs.

If you would like to schedule a free training, please contact dkaminsky@citizensunion.org

Trainings Calendar (Not all trainings are open to the public. Contact us if you’d like to join a training) 

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Recorded full length trainings 

Resources

NYC demographic data: Use NYC Population FactFinder, a tool by the Department of Planning that allows you to create study areas and examine associated population data showing the latest demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics, and how these characteristics have changed over time. 

Find your Council District: Use this City Council page to find your current council member, district number, and district boundaries. Simply type in your address in the search bar. Once your council member pops up, you can click their name to see your district boundaries and learn more about your Council Member.

See how your Council District changed: The Center for Urban Research at CUNY has created Redistricting & You: New York City to help members compare and analyze City Council district maps in New York City. In addition, this summary of Council District profiles (pdf) by the NYC Department of Planning shows basic demographic and housing characteristics for every Council District, based on the results of the 2020 Census, and how it has changed since the 2010 Census. More Census-based analysis can be found here.

Create your own maps: If you want to propose maps to the NYC Districting Commission, you can use this customized New York City-version of DistrictR, an online mapping tool, created by the Districting Commission; or use a version of Dave’s Redistricting App created by the CUNY Graduate Center. Representable is another common tool to create maps of communities of interest.

Go to the Districting Commission’s website: The website can be found here.

Learn how the current districts were drawn: You can read the summary memorandum (pdf) of the 2012-2013 Districting Commission, with an explanation for every district. The different maps and considered by that Commission, and the old lines, are found in this map archive.

 

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