Upper West Side Invaded By Upper East Side In New Voting Lines

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Upper West Siders who live off Central Park West could become Upper East Siders if state Democrats get their way.

Newly proposed congressional maps drawn by Democrats released Sunday night would have neighborhood residents living between West 59th and 84th Street east of Columbus Avenue voting with the Upper East Side's District 10.

State lawmakers drew their own lines after an independent commission failed to agree on any maps.

The new maps, which are almost guaranteed to pass due to the Democrats' control of the legislature, make some very noticeable changes to the congressional district areas.

The proposed new map for the Upper West Side's District 10 no longer spans the entirety of the neighborhood, instead, it stops on Columbus Avenue from around West 59th Street to West 84th Street.

For comparison, here is the current District 10 map, which extends all the way to Central Park:

On the other hand, the Upper East Side's proposed District 12 map now jumps west of Central Park to include the stretch of blocks east of Columbus Avenue from West 59th Street to West 85th Street.

The Upper East Side is taking over!

It means that a person living on West 83rd Street between Columbus and Central Park West would no longer vote in Rep. Jerry Nadler's District 10 election, but instead in Rep. Carolyn Maloney's District 12 election.

Here are the state's official proposed maps for the Upper West Side and Upper East Side's new voting districts.

Outside of the Upper West Side portion of District 10, Nadler's district would take quite the path through downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The proposed new 10th District, currently held by ⁦@JerryNadler⁩

Extends from Manhattan’s West Side down into Borough Park in Brooklyn, and takes a pretty windy path to get there pic.twitter.com/xvo9rbHAQR
— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) January 30, 2022

In the new proposed map, District 10 more or less skips through Brooklyn until arriving in Borough Park.

Other notable changes in the proposed new maps would put liberal strongholds Park Slope and Sunset Park in the same voting district as Staten Island's NY-11 - which would be a major challenge to incumbent Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis.

New maps are also expected soon for the State Assembly and Senate, which will be in place for the June 2022 primary.

Calls Of Gerrymandering

In the lead-up to the 2022 elections, the newly proposed congressional lines could help the Democrats flip several seats.

"The new maps add blue areas to Republican-held districts on Long Island, New York City and upstate while cramming as many GOP voters as possible into a few solid red areas among the 26 districts that remain out of the current 27," reported City & State.

The New York Times reported that the redrawing of the lines offers Democratic candidates an advantage in 22 of the state's 26 House districts.

Democratic elected officials in Albany have nonetheless insisted the new lines are not politically motivated.

"With the stroke of a pen they can gain three seats and eliminate four Republican seats," Dave Wasserman, a national elections analyst and the creator of a map tool that lets you compare the proposed districts to the former, told the New York Times. "That’s a pretty big shift,” he added. “In fact, it’s probably the biggest shift in the country.”

Read More: N.Y. Democrats Could Gain 3 House Seats Under Proposed District Lines