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PoliticsNY: Coalition of Asian organizations demand representation in city redistricting
By Ethan Stark-Miller/PoliticsNY
As the fate of New York’s Congressional and state legislative districts is being litigated in the courts, a group of grassroots organizations is already focussing on the city’s redistricting.
A coalition of Asian American civic organizations rallied on the steps of City Hall Tuesday, calling on the city’s Districting Commission to draw new City Council districts that will give Asian communities an equal opportunity to elect candidates who represent their concerns in the upcoming redistricting cycle.
The coalition, billing itself the Asian Pacific American Voting and Organizing to Increase Civic Engagement (APA VOICE) Redistricting Task Force, will hold five town halls in areas with large Asian and Pacific Islander populations to engage community members in the city’s redistricting over the next two months. These areas include Brooklyn’s Chinatown in Sunset Park and Bensonhurst, Queen’s Chinatown in Flushing and Bayside and its South Asian and Indo-Caribbean community in Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park among others.
APA VOICE is made up of groups including OCA-NY Asian Pacific Advocates, Korean Community Services, Caribbean Equality Project and Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.