Bed-Stuy Would Be Split Under New Congressional Map: What To Know

BROOKLYN, NY — Roughly half of residents in Bed-Stuy could get a new representative in Congress if redistricting maps revealed Monday are approved, according to the draft proposal.

A draft map of New York congressional districts dropped online Monday would split the neighborhood between U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke's 9th District and its existing 8th District, which is represented by U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the map shows.

The new plan would extend Clarke's 9th District borders up from the edge of Crown Heights to cover most of the western portion of Bed-Stuy, extending as far as Lewis Avenue, the map shows. Under current borders, Jeffries' 8th District covers the entire neighborhood.

Previously scrapped Democrat-drawn maps had also changed the 8th and 9th district boundaries, though not as dramatically as this week's proposal.

The new proposal is drawn by Jonathan Cervas, a court-appointed "special master" who was tasked with redrawing the maps after judges threw out Democratic-drawn districts statewide. A final version of the map is set to be revealed on Friday pending approval from the New York State Court of Appeals.

If approved, the new district boundaries could make for a particularly interesting situation for Jeffries, who will no longer live in his congressional district — though he would still be able to represent the district given residency requirements, the New York Times notes. Residency requirements only mandate that representatives live somewhere in New York state.

Jeffries, who has been outspoken about the redistricting process, blasted the new proposal on Monday for splitting Black communities in Brooklyn in both the 8th and 9th districts.

"This draft map dilutes the Black population in the 8th and 9th congressional districts in a manner wildly inconsistent with the constitutional mandate that communities of color should be put into position to elect the candidate of their choice," he writes, referring to the court-appointed architects as "unelected, out-of-town Special Master, both of whom happen to be white men."

"The right-wing Court in Steuben County has released a map that is unacceptable, unconscionable and unconstitutional," he adds.

The new proposal also poses significant changes in other parts of Brooklyn, and the rest of the city.

Most notably, it scraps controversial District 11 boundaries that paired GOP stronghold Staten Island with Democratic stalwart Park Slope. The redrawn District 11 covers would cover Staten Island, along with Bay Ridge, Red Hook and Sunset Park.

In Manhattan, the new maps would merge the Upper West Side and Upper East Side into a single district.

Cervas' proposal comes a month after the state's top appeals court declared Democratic-drawn congressional and state Senate maps were unconstitutional and literally sent them back to the drawing board. Democrats — who faced accusations they gerrymandered districts — were shut out of this process.

Cervas had yet to release redrawn state Senate districts as of Monday afternoon.

The court decision doesn't extend to state Assembly districts, which were excluded from the original lawsuit on a technicality.

The situation has cast the state's upcoming primary into uncertainty. Congressional and state Senate primaries were moved back to Aug. 23 to give time for the new maps to be drawn, while state Assembly and other races remain at the original June 28 primary date.