For the Democrats who hold a supermajority in the state Senate, the new legislative maps released Monday are problematic. 

They create 15 competitive Senate districts, according to the court-appointed special master who drew them, compared to just six competitive districts in the legislatively drawn map that was struck down by the courts.

What You Need To Know

  • New state Senate map creates 15 competitive districts, compared to six in the legislatively drawn map

  • Because of population changes the new map also creates two new districts in the city, aiding Democrats

  • Incumbents drawn into the same district include Toby Ann Stavisky and Joseph Addabbo of Queens, and Robert Jackson of Manhattan and Gustavo Rivera of the Bronx
  • Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday the Congressional maps would break apart Black communities and “make Jim Crow blush”

But thanks to population changes, the map does create two new districts in deep-blue New York City — one reason Democrats are unlikely to lose their grip on power.

“I don’t think the Senate Democratic supermajority is threatened as much as people might think,” said Jeffrey Wice, an expert in redistricting and a professor at New York Law School.

The new map does dramatically reshape districts, in some cases fixing lines that had long ago been gerrymandered into contorted shapes. Senate district 20, represented by Zellnor Myrie, takes a tortured route from Sunset Park to Brownsville, but in the new map takes on a more rational shape.

Then there are senators like Toby Ann Stavisky and Joseph Addabbo of Queens, whose homes were drawn into the same district. 

The same sticky situation applies to Senators Robert Jackson of Manhattan and Gustavo Rivera of the Bronx. Jackson’s upper Manhattan-based district now captures a part of the Bronx that includes Rivera’s home, meaning Rivera would have to move in order to run in his old district.

Rivera didn’t want to answer NY1’s questions when approached at the state Capitol on Tuesday. If he did choose to move, he’d have until November 2023. 

“You’re going to have to start house shopping soon if you think you’re going to win,” Wice said, “and buy a new house or rent a new location sometime next year.”

On the Congressional level, Hakeem Jeffries was drawn out of his Brooklyn-based district, and has railed against the fact that the traditionally Black neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant is split into multiple districts in the new map. 

“This special master decides to take the Bedford-Stuyvesant community and shatter it into pieces. One of the most iconic Black communities in America,” Jeffries said Tuesday. “So yes, we have a problem with these maps. It would make Jim Crow blush.”