District lines are changing

By Steven Gnagni
Managing Editor

Someone Highbridge residents didn’t elect may soon represent half of Highbridge in the city council.

That’s because the New York City Districting Commission is redrawing the lines that determine the city’s 51 council districts. According to the current draft of the commission’s plan, Council Member Helen Foster will still represent Highbridge north of 167th Street, but Jose Serrano—the son of Congressman Jose Serrano, who also represents Highbridge, and currently the council member representing the 17th City Council District—will take on residents south of 167th Street.

The commission, which is supposed to redraw the districts to better reflect results of the 2000 census, has gone through two rounds of public comment—including a session on December 2, 2002, at Hostos Community College in the Bronx—and plans to finalize the new district map by March.

The council had until early January to offer comments on second revision of the plan. There will be a third round of public hearings in each borough, most likely in early February, according to Richard Wager, director of communications for the Districting Commission. The commission is also accepting and considering written comments on the plan.

The final plan, Mr. Wager said, will likely be submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice in late February or early March. Once the department of justice approves the plan, the new district lines will go into effect.

Before this process began, all of Highbridge was in the 16th City Council District, which is currently represented by Ms. Foster. But the commission, as part of its process, has tried to even out the population of each district while trying to keep fair representation of minority groups.

The 16th district population was about two percent above the average, so the commission needed to make the district smaller. The commission’s first try removed a small part of Highbridge—from West 162nd Street up to West 165th Street between Summit and Jerome avenues—and a piece in the southeast part of the district. Both parts were moved to Mr. Serrano’s 17th district. The commission also added a small area between 176th and 180th streets, just north of Highbridge, to the 16th district.

This effectively made the district more Latino.

“The districting commission has proposed a new 16th district with only a 42 percent black population,” Ms. Foster said at the hearing. “I’m not claiming defeat, but it would be more difficult to keep [this district],” she said later in an interview with the Horizon.

Ms. Foster’s father—former councilman Wendell Foster—also testified. “Give the people of color a right to be represented,” Mr. Foster told the commission. “Twenty four years ago, we struggled to get that seat. We’ve had to struggle since because each time that commission meets, it seems they have to nip a little of the black community out in order to enhance or accommodate other folks.

“As this plan exists now, you will go back almost to the drawing board,” Mr. Foster continued. “You will have one black elected in the Coop City area, you will have two whites in the upper Bronx, and no blacks in the South Bronx.”

According to Jim Fairbanks, chief of staff for Ms. Foster, that representation would not reflect the overall population of the Bronx; according to the 2000 census, the Bronx was 48 percent Latino, 31 percent African-American, and 14 percent white.

The commission seemed to agree with Ms. Foster’s arguments. The revision of the district lines, released December 18, 2002, transferred more of Highbridge—the area between 165th and 167th streets—to the 17th council district. Ms. Foster says that she doesn’t like giving up Highbridge, but would sacrifice it in order to keep the highly African-American southeast portion of District 16.

“I don’t want my district cut up,” Ms. Foster said in an interview. “In an ideal world, I wouldn’t give up anything.” Jose Serrano, at the same time, said he looks forward to the opportunity of representing southern Highbridge.

“It’s important that I make inroads in these communities,” Serrano said in an interview with the Horizon. “It will be a good opportunity to meet my new constituents.”

Serrano said Highbridge shares issues with the neighborhoods he represents—Hunts Point, Mott Haven, and pieces of other neighborhoods.

“Services and education are testament,” he said. “We rely so heavily on services. The fiscal crisis will affect more negatively the 17th [district] than other districts because it [the district] is so poor. The need is so great for a better understanding of our community. We’re headed in the right direction.”