After Outcry, LIC & Astoria Kept Mostly Whole In Latest Council Maps

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — A City Council district in Northwest Queens will no longer spill over into Manhattan under a new set of maps released by the city's districting commission, which were revised after public outcry.

The latest maps were approved last week in a 13-1 vote by the city's districting commission, months after an initial proposal to redraw New York's Council districts sparked pushback in several neighborhoods.

Some of the most contentious changes would have affected District 26, currently centered on Long Island City and Sunnyside, which would have jumped across the East River to encompass dozens of blocks on Manhattan's Upper East Side, as well as Roosevelt Island.

That proposal has been scrapped in the new maps, which keep District 26 — now represented by Julie Won — entirely in Queens.

Under the latest plan, which must still be approved by the City Council, the district's lines would shift slightly to the southeast, losing ground in Astoria while gaining territory in Maspeth.

Meanwhile, Astoria-based District 22, now represented by Tiffany Cabán, would gain some ground to the south by adding a few blocks below 31st Avenue.

Explore the new districts in the interactive map below from the Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center, and use the slider at the top to compare them to the existing district lines.

The new maps would allay some of the concerns that had been directed at the previous proposal by some in Northwest Queens. Morry Gaolonoy, chair of Sunnyside-based Community Board 2, told Patch in August that the previous maps risked diluting residents' political power.

"If a councilperson is spread out among three different community boards, where are the resources, how are they going to be able to be a proactive representative of the community if they’re spread out?" he said at the time.

City Councilmember Julie Won, who had also criticized the previous maps, said in a statement last week that "many of the concerns" raised by District 26 residents had been addressed.

"The second draft gets rid of the oddly shaped crossover District 26 and leaves Woodside’s immigrant communities more intact," she said, also praising the new map for keeping three NYCHA developments in the same district and keeping the small Blissville neighborhood with its Long Island City neighbors.

Still, a Tibetan Community Center in Woodside would be "politically separated" in the new maps from many Tibetan residents of Woodside and Long Island City, Won noted.

After being inundated with thousands of public comments, the commission had dropped the borough-spanning District 26 idea by September, but a revised set of maps was unexpectedly rejected by commission members last month — reportedly amid meddling from Mayor Eric Adams's administration.

The latest maps, finally approved on Thursday, contained only minor changes from the September plan, which had faced opposition in part from Staten Island lawmakers who feared the borough's power might be diluted.

The City Council now has three weeks to approve the maps or reject them, which would send them back to the commission to create a final version by December, Gotham Gazette reported.

The Council redistricting happens every 10 years to reflect population changes in the recent census. It isn't to be confused with the other redistricting process covering state legislative and congressional districts, which wrapped up this summer after a chaotic few months of legal battles and a court-ordered redrawing.

The new districts will take effect in 2023, when elections will be held for all 51 City Council seats.