Current Congressional district map for New York City. Image Credit: New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reappointment.

The Redistricting Schedule

On November 2, 2021, New York State voters will be asked to approve a constitutional amendment revising the redistricting process to be based on the 2020 census. If the constitutional amendment is approved, the changes will take effect on January 1, 2022. This amendment is necessary to address delays in the census created by the pandemic and to accommodate New York State’s change from a September primary to an earlier June primary for both federal and state elections. These changes compressed the time needed to complete the redistricting. Without these changes, it is possible that the new districts will not be ready in time for the political process to function. (more…)

HPD adopted amendments to the rules governing Mitchell-Lama housing, such as this building in Manhattan. Image credit: NYC.gov

New rules address transferability of applications, preferences for veterans, and more.  On November 25, 2014 the Department of Housing Preservation and Development formally adopted amendments to the rules governing city-aided limited-profit housing companies, commonly referred to as the Mitchell-Lama program.  A public hearing on the proposed changes was held on November 6, 2013 and public comments were received by HPD through November 30, 2013. (more…)

Ross Sandler

The procurement policy board, which makes the contracting rules for the City of New York, recently adopted rules that will make it easier for the City to manage how it purchases goods and services. The most important rule in terms of large purchases will allow the City to award competitively-bid contracts for goods and services based on price plus previously announced best value considerations. Before, contracts for goods and services had to be awarded solely on price. The second rule affects small purchases. The new rule ups the dollar limitation for micro purchases from $5,000 to $20,000, which will ease the City’s burdens when making small dollar purchases. The third change is actually a series of changes all designed to speed up the huge volume of human service contracts entered into by the City. (more…)

City seeks to promote use of car-share vehicles by increasing availability of off-street parking spaces. On July 14, 2010, the City Planning Commission heard testimony on the Department of City Planning’s zoning text amendment proposal intended to promote the use of car-share vehicles in the City. Companies like Zipcar, Connect by Hertz, and Mint provide car-share vehicles to registered members on an as-needed basis, 24 hours a day. Drivers reserve the vehicles by phone or the internet and are able to pick them up and drop them off at the same location. According to Planning, using carshare vehicles can reduce the total number of vehicles in the City, helping to alleviate traffic congestion and decrease air pollution.

The zoning resolution does not recognize car-share vehicles and contains no clear rules as to where companies are permitted to park or store the vehicles. If adopted, Planning’s amendment would formally define car-share vehicles and establish that car-share vehicles would be permitted to park in certain offstreet public and accessory garages. 7 CityLand 59 (May 15, 2010). (more…)

Prison gerrymandering manipulates the boundaries of electoral districts by inflating the districts with incarcerated individuals who have no real relationship to the districts where the prisons are located. Incarcerated individuals in New York are not allowed to vote. As a result, in districts with prisons and large prison populations the votes of the voters who can vote become more powerful compared to the vote of the voters in districts without a prison population. At the same time, the districts which include the actual residences and homes of the incarcerated individuals have less political representation. This dilutes their political influence as those districts become underrepresented compared with districts with incarcerated persons. (more…)