By Jacob Kaye
(QUEENS EAGLE) A group of Central Queens residents are demanding that the New York Independent Redistricting Commission be more culturally and ethnically sensitive when it comes to planning and translating public hearings.
Last week, the commission hosted several hearings during a Muslim holiday.
The Central Queens Redistricting Coalition said the IRC, the independent body tasked with drawinging the new lines for electoral districts throughout New York State, has a “responsibility to respect one another’s holidays when we schedule events that demand public accessibility.”
“It is critical that as future hearings are scheduled that every effort is made to ensure that these conflicts don’t exist,” the coalition’s chairpersons Heather E. Beers-Dimitriadis and Raj Korpan wrote in the letter. “This type of barrier is just unnecessary.”
The public hearing in Queens was held on Thursday, July 22, as Muslims were observing Eid al-Adha, a major holiday which ended the following day.
“We are certainly going to use that when scheduling and refer to that when scheduling future meetings and future hearings,” Blatt said.
This is the first time in the state’s history that Congressional and State Legislature districts, which are redrawn every 10 years, will be drawn by the IRC. The commission was created in 2014 as a way to take the redrawing powers out of the hands of elected officials vying to get reelected.
