We thought that the draft maps published last Monday for New York’s congressional and state Senate districts drawn by Carnegie Mellon’s Jonathan Cervas for Acting Steuben County state Supreme Court Justice Patrick McAllister were excellent, but late Friday night the final maps became even better.
Cervas was paid $90,000. His services were well worth it.
Hyperbolic cries of Jim Crow and disenfranchisement were met with logic and the state Constitution. The 3,000 or so submissions commenting or complaining about the maps were all reviewed and changes were made. In Brooklyn, Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bensonhurst, having each been divided in the draft, were knit back together. Upstate, Kingston was reunified and Saratoga Springs was shifted, while Erie County will now cover two House districts instead of three and Long Island saw a number of improvements to the lines.
