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The Syracuse Common Council passed the Syracuse City Redistricting Commission’s proposed redistricting map in a 5-4 vote Monday. The new districts will go into effect next year.

The at-large district councilors who represent the city as a whole – Rasheada Caldwell, Michael Greene, Amir Gethers and Rita Paniagua – collectively voted yes. District Councilors Latoya Allen, Patrick Hogan, Jennifer Schultz and Chol Majok all voted no. Jimmy Monto, who was recently sworn in, was the sole district councilor to vote yes.

The redistricting commission, which is made up of fifteen independent citizen volunteers, began working on the redistricting process in March of this year. The group’s commissioner, Jason Belge, said the Common Council’s division between district and at-large councilors in the vote reflected political differences.

“We truly did want to keep it bipartisan, but, of course, with politics, you tend to see self-interest go above the public interest,” Belge said.

Belge and the commission held 12 community meetings between the months of March and July to gather public feedback about the maps throughout the process. The commission also aimed to keep neighborhoods and communities together in the new map, Belge said.

Hogan said that the commission should have included nine districts instead of five to better represent the large number of distinct communities in Syracuse. He also felt that the redistricting process itself was unnecessary.

“(The) redistricting is probably one of the most inconsequential things I’ve ever voted for, basically, it doesn’t really change much,” Hogan said in an interview with The Daily Orange. “It really didn’t do much as far as the average constituent in the city, it doesn’t really change their lives one iota.”

Belge said each of the five new districts comprise around 29,900 people. In the new map, Syracuse University’s University Hill neighborhood will be in District 3, along with the neighborhoods of University Neighborhood, SU’s South Campus, Outer Comstock, Meadowbrook and Westcott. Previously, the SU area was in District 4.

The boundary between Districts 3 and 4, which divides the SU area from the Southside neighborhood, is aligned with the I-81 highway. Belge said that the commission used the highway as a “natural barrier” to divide the two.

District 4 is a majority-minority district with a majority of Black voters. The total Black voting age population in District 4 is approximately 54%, Belge said.

“When we went breaking it down to make sure these districts were proportional, that Southside district … almost created itself,” he added.

Schultz expressed concern about the majority-minority district in the council meeting. She mentioned repeated constituent concerns about the district, and suggested boundary changes in the fifth district.

“I feel like (the majority-minority district is) an unresolved issue that really needs more consideration,” Schultz said in the meeting.

District 1, which is on the northside of Syracuse, will include the Northside, Washington Square and Near Northeast neighborhoods. On the western side near Lake Onondaga and Destiny Mall, district 2 will encompass Downtown, Lakefront, Tipperary Hill, Skunk CIty, Strathmore, Elmwood and all Westside neighborhoods. The northeast area is designated as District 5, and includes Sedgwick, Lincoln Park, Salt Springs, Eastwood and Near Eastside.

The commission used the census data to draw the district in order to keep communities with similar demographics together and therefore amplify their voices through voting, Belge said.

Allen expressed concerns that district lines were not accurate to actual communities, and said that the vote should have been in the hands of the people of Syracuse, not the Common Council.

“We’re not going out of our way and having odd-ball shaped districts, but contiguous shapes and sizes created with natural boundaries,” Belge said. “If there is a predominantly Black neighborhood, let’s say on the South Side, we thought it was important not to break that up.”

Published on September 12, 2022 at 11:50 pm

Contact Stephanie: spwright@syr.edu