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Who are You? Where do you live? Do you have any relevant organizational affiliations?
Good evening. My name is [YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME]. I live at [YOUR ADDRESS]. I am [a member of WHAT ORGANIZATION, longtime resident of Hell’s Kitchen, community activist, tenant activist, small business person, educator, social worker, etc.]
What is your central issue or concern?What is the main point you want the Commission to take away?
I am asking you to keep Hell’s Kitchen whole.
Everyone who lives in Hell’s Kitchen knows that our community runs west of Eighth Avenue to the Hudson River between West 34th Street and West 59th Street.
The old City Council map included most of the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood in City Council District 3, which allowed us to be represented by a single City Council member.
The Commission’s preliminary map divides our neighborhood into three major chunks so that we would be represented by three different City Council members.
This would be a disaster for our neighborhood.
Why is this an issue to you or to your community? How does this issue impact you and your community?
We will have to convince three different City Council members to work together and fight for our housing, our schools, our parks, our small businesses, our safety, LGBTQ+ rights and the Clinton Special District that preserves the Hell’s Kitchen’s neighborhood from greedy real estate developers.
(Pick two or three of the following examples and/or write your own)
Diversity. We are an incredibly diverse neighborhood. The 2020 Census shows that the Hispanic, Asian-American, Black and multi-racial communities now make up the majority of the population. But the preliminary map would split us up into three different majority white City Council districts, diluting our political voice in direct violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Hell’s Kitchen, with a population of 74,621 people, is the largest neighborhood in the current City Council District-3, followed by Chelsea, with 63,039 individuals. Together, these two neighborhoods make up more than two-thirds of the current CD-3. They are also the most diverse neighborhoods in CD-3.
The Districting Commission’s preliminary map keeps ALL of Chelsea in CD-3 but splits up Hell’s Kitchen into three large chunks with two of those parts attached to majority-white City Council districts.
As a result of splitting up Hell’s Kitchen in this way, the representation of Hispanic and Black populations in both Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea and of the larger Asian population in Hell’s Kitchen are significantly diluted, as one of the tables in the next section on evidence shows.
We believe this dilution of minority populations violates the spirit of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Click to send mail to the Districting Commission, based on the above diversity argument. Please remember to insert you first and last name and building address, or your testimony will not count.
Small Business. Ninth and Tenth Avenues from the West 30s to the West 50s are the main commercial thoroughfares of Hell’s Kitchen. A variety of small businesses thrive along these two broad avenues, including restaurants, bars, hardware stores and lots of mom-and-pop shops.
There are many issues that we have worked on together as small businesses. We are more effective because we can bring our concerns to a single City Council member and come up with effective solutions together.
The preliminary map would devastate our thriving small business community. Tenth Avenue would get split right up the middle. Businesses on the west side of Tenth Avenue above West 49th would be in CD-6. Those on the east side of Tenth Avenue would land in CD-4 and all businesses on Tenth Avenue south of West 49th would be in CD-3.
Meanwhile businesses on Ninth Avenue would be split between two City Council Districts.
The preliminary map would decimate the ability of our small businesses to work together with City Council.
Click here to send an email to the Districting Commission based on the above business argument.
Midtown Community Court. The preliminary map would take the Midtown Community Court out of Council District 3. As our recent experience with the pandemic has shown, it has taken the concerted effort of our elected officials and community to get it reopened for just one day a week.
And yet, as many of us living in Hell’s Kitchen have experienced, there are now more quality-of-life offenses in our area than before the pandemic.
It will be that much harder to have an effective diversion program for offenses committed in the Hell’s Kitchen area if our neighborhood is split between three different City Council districts and three different City Council members.
Special Clinton District. Splitting Hell’s Kitchen into three parts will make it easier for real estate developers to chip away at the Special Clinton District, which was created in 1973 and
“designed to promote and protect public health, safety, general welfare and amenity. Because of the unique geographical location of the Clinton community, situated between the waterfront on the west and a growing central business district on the east, it is necessary to provide specific programs and regulations which will assure realization of community and citywide goals.”
Chief among these goals, as stated in City Zoning laws:
a) “to preserve and strengthen the residential character of the community”
b) “to permit rehabilitation and new construction within the area in character with the existing scale of the community and at rental levels which will not substantially alter the mixture of income groups currently residing in the area”
c) ” to preserve the small-scale character and variety of existing stores and activities and to control new commercial uses in conformity with the existing character of the area”
What evidence can you provide to show that this is an issue? Researched, fact-based responses work best here.
Use information from the following tables to support the diversity argument.
Use the following map and cite Zoning Resolution Chapter 6 to support the Special Clinton District argument.
How should this issue be resolved? What do you want the Commission to do?
Fortunately there is already an alternative map that preserves the diversity of our neighborhood and keeps Hell’s Kitchen whole.
It’s called the Unity Map and it was put together by a coalition of leading legal voting rights advocacy organizations representing Hispanic, Black and Asian communities.
Thus, I ask you to adopt the Unity map for City Council District 3 to keep Hell’s Kitchen whole and preserve our diversity. I’ve enclosed a copy of the map with my written testimony.
Thank you.
