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Respect neighborhood borders, North Side community tells Syracuse redistricting committee

Syracuse residents speak at the first redistricting commission meeting at ITC High School
Allie Hamblin
Syracuse residents speak at the first redistricting commission meeting at ITC High School

Residents of the Syracuse’s North Side want the Syracuse independent redistricting commission to consider existing neighborhood borders when drawing the new districts.

“As different as the many groups on the North Side may be, we all share a common identity as North Siders,” said John Meyer, a resident and member of the Washington Square Task Force.

Meyer said the group wants the neighborhood to become part of the First Ward, instead of its current Second District. Meyer said it’s important to keep neighborhoods together and his portion of the district is unable to have any voting power. Washington Square shares its district with Tipperary Hill, a community dense with college students.

“It separates the minority communities, the new Americans coming in. We literally have more in common with my neighbors two doors down than all the way across to Tipp Hill,” Meyer said.

Addressing issues like this is one of the goals of the commission. The 15-member group is made up of Syracuse residents who don’t hold political office. The meeting, which is the first in a number of community sessions the commission is holding, is an opportunity for local voices to carry weight.

Districts must be contiguous and walkable, but North Side's Meyer said this isn't possible under the existing plan.

Dustin Czarny, the Democratic Elections Commissioner for Onondaga County, said population imbalance is a problem across the board. Czarny, who displayed the current maps at the meeting, said the area around Syracuse University's South Campus is an extreme example.

“It’s a very transient district, where students only reside in their sophomore year, but you have several thousand. It’s very hard to figure out where to put it,” he said.

Czarny also pointed out there isn't a district with a Black majority, even though the city's population is nearly 30% African American, a concern echoed by many attendees.

Walter, a South Side resident, said that this is an important issue to address with this process.

“I think this is the opportunity in time to level the playing field so that everybody continues or will get equal representation,” he said.

He wants Syracuse to make redistricting a continuous process to adapt to changing situations, mentioning the growing minority population on the North Side. State and federal guidelines call to allow minority groups to have voting power.

A resident of the 15th Ward, the majority-Black district that was destroyed to make way for the I-81 viaduct, claimed the current district lines are in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“We need to address those issues and make sure that we’re very careful when we divide these districts up, in ways of taking away power structures from a people who, particularly in Syracuse, N.Y., is the most poverty-stricken city in the United States,” Charles said.

Commissioners said they would focus on keeping neighborhoods and minority groups together in districts.

The committee is hoping for strong turnout at the remaining community disussions after initially struggling to generate public interest. The next meeting will be held on Saturday, March 26 at Fowler High School at 7 p.m.