To the Editor,
New boundaries for the 3rd Congressional District is the most egregious case of gerrymandering. Up until the 1962 reapportionment, congressional boundaries usually attempted to keep villages, towns, cities and counties within the same district.
The 3rd CD is currently represented by Democrat Congressman Tom Suozzi. This district has been previously gerrymandered with the help of Democratic Assembly speakers under several reapportionments. Boundaries were extended beyond Nassau County west to Queens and east into Suffolk County.
Adding the Bronx and Westchester County to the district under the latest reapportionment represents the very worst in gerrymandering. Placing Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Pelham, Pelham Manor, Port Chester, New Rochelle and Rye, which could have been placed in Congressman Jamaal Bowman’s 16th district; the eastern most Bronx waterfront neighborhoods, which could have been within Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 14th district; the northeast corner of Queens, which could have been part of Grace Meng’s 6th district, with North Hempstead, Oyster Bay and Glen Cove in Nassau County, along with Suffolk County’s Huntington and Smithtown in the same congressional district makes no sense.
The next member of Congress will need a speed boat to travel across and around the Long Island Sound to visit all his or her new constituents. It illustrates the pitfalls of reapportionment, when you have a veto proof one party control of both the state Assembly and Senate. State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Gov. Kathy Hochul should be ashamed of this travesty.
Larry Penner
