Midtown's Congressional Lines Are Redrawn: What To Know

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — After weeks of suspense, New York lawmakers have released their plans to redraw the state's congressional districts following the 2020 Census — and some notable changes are coming to Hell's Kitchen's and Midtown's maps.

Released late Sunday, the maps were drawn by Democrats in the State Senate and Assembly after New York's independent redistricting commission failed to agree on any of its own proposed maps. The new proposals are expected to easily pass the state legislature this week, and will be in effect for June's primary elections.

One big takeaway: a swath of Hell's Kitchen will soon get new representation, as Carolyn Maloney's East Side district jumps west of Eighth Avenue, eating up part of the area formerly covered by Jerry Nadler's 10th District.

Use the slider on the map below, courtesy of CUNY's Center for Urban Research, to switch between the district's current and proposed lines:

In the existing maps, Nadler's West Side district mostly runs south along Eighth Avenue below Central Park, then runs eastward in Lower Manhattan to include Greenwich Village and Soho. It continues across the East River into Brooklyn, encompassing the predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park.

Now, Maloney's 12th District is expanding west, running along Ninth Avenue below Central Park and Columbus Avenue alongside the park, uniting the Upper West and East sides. Some notable Midtown locales like Port Authority Bus Terminal and Moynihan Train Hall are switching hands from Nadler to Maloney, while much of central Midtown and the Theater District are unchanged, remaining in Maloney's district.

Meanwhile, Nadler's already snakelike district has grown even snakier as it winds down Manhattan and into Brooklyn. Demographically, it will grow slightly less white under the new plans — 57.7 percent to 51.3 percent, according to census data compiled by CUNY. But its partisan leanings are roughly unchanged: both areas voted 77 percent for Joe Biden in 2020.

Of course, neither Nadler nor Maloney is guaranteed to represent their districts come next year: both face progressive challengers in the June Democratic primary. But some of the changes are likely to help the incumbents: for example, Maloney's 12th District is shedding neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens that were seen as unfavorable to her.

Indeed, New York's new maps are widely seen as an effort to protect Democratic incumbents while pushing out the state's Republican congress members. Nicole Malliotakis, the sole GOP member from New York City, now faces a much steeper road in November: with her Staten Island district now including liberal areas like Park Slope, Brooklyn.