Here We Go Again, Draft NY State Assembly Redistricting Map Proposal Moves Roosevelt Island From Manhattan To Queens - You're Invited To Join January 19 Meeting At Senior Center To Keep Roosevelt Island In Manhattan Assembly District

As reported last December 6:

According to the NY State Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) draft Assembly map released Thursday December 1, Roosevelt Island and portions of the Upper East Side will be moved from Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright's Manhattan 76 Assembly District to the mostly Queens 36th Assembly District currently represented by Zohran Mamdani....

Here we go again. Looks like @NYS_IRC moved Roosevelt Island into a Queens Assembly District in draft map. @SeawrightForNY https://t.co/3EhDSfSxh3

— Roosevelt Islander (@Rooseveltisland) December 1, 2022

Roosevelt Island resident and Main Street Dems founder Joyce Short was a leader in the successful organizing efforts last year to keep Roosevelt Island in the traditional Manhattan  NYC City Council District which had been moved to Queens in the Draft redistricting proposal.

Ms Short reports:

Just as Roosevelt Islanders felt comfortably secure in Manhattan, the State of NY has thrown us a curveball!

The redistricting map which was approved for the recent Assembly election was vetoed by NY State’s appellate court. While, for now, Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright remains our representative, if the new map prevails, we will have a Queens Assembly Member, not a Manhattan Assembly Member from the 2024 election.

Important steps for Roosevelt Islanders….. 

The next meeting to plan the community’s presentation at the NYIRC hearing (at 4 PM on February 7th) will take place Thursday, January 19th at the Senior Center at 546 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, at 7 PM. You do not need to be affiliated with any party or be a registered voter to participate in our resistance to change.

Redistricting our community to Queens spells disaster for several reasons. By NY State’s own redistricting rules: 

1. Districts must consist of contiguous territory and shall be as compact in form as possible. 
2. The commission must take into account the maintenance of existing districts, pre-existing political subdivisions, including counties, cities, towns, and communities of interest. 

Here’s more...

Assembly Member Seawright adds: 

Commissioners on New York's redistricting panel recently voted to advance a new proposed map for state Assembly legislative boundaries. I am very disappointed to see that the proposal for our AD76 would eliminate Roosevelt Island and redistrict it to a Queens Assembly District. I am committed to fighting alongside constituents to keep Roosevelt Island where it belongs.

Roosevelt Islanders were so powerful in their testimony during the New York City Council districting process, I believe together we can make an unequivocally strong argument to keep Manhattan's Roosevelt Island with our Manhattan Assembly District 76. The process for state redistricting requires rigorous scrutiny, consistent with a process that ensures fairness, provides a platform for all voices, and carefully reviews all options.

The next steps are a series of public hearings around the State. The hearing in Manhattan will be on February 7, 2023 at the Hunter College Kaye Playhouse. I urge all concerned to share their views by testifying in person or submitting comments to the Commission directly at www.nyirc.gov/participate.

Here is January 12 Main Street Dems Zoom meeting on the NY State Assembly redistricting issue.

More info here.

Roosevelt Island NY Public Library Branch Celebration Of Life In Memory Of Beloved Colleague Yolonda Fay Boggan Thursday January 19 - Come Share Your Memories, Poems & Prose

Roosevelt Island NY Public Library branch manager Carlos Chavez reports:

Join us on Thursday, January 19, at 6:30 PM for a special event to celebrate the life of our beloved colleague, Yolanda Fay Boggan, She was a valued member of our Library community, serving in multiple roles, for 35 years and served the Roosevelt Island community since 2011.

Share your memories, poems and prose, be a part of creating vision boards, a weaving scroll, and a special jazz performance.  

No registration required. Open to all ages.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day Monday January 16, Take A Moment To Remember, Reflect And Honor His True Legacy - I've Been To The Mountaintop Speech, Letter From A Birmingham Jail, Poor People's Campaign

The third Monday in January is a Federal holiday in honor of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  that was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.

Dr King was born on January 15, 1929 and assassinated April 4, 1968.

According to Politico:

... Almost 50 years after his death, we remember MLK as the transcendent figure who helped lift the South out of Jim Crow. We also remember him as almost preternaturally calm in the face of great pressure and danger. He was indeed all of these things. But the passage of time has obscured his dimensionality. In the last years of his life, King expanded his vision beyond the former Confederacy and took on a broader struggle to dismantle America’s jigsaw edifice of racial and economic discrimination—a struggle that took him deep into northern states and cities, where onetime allies became bitter enemies. He did so even as he strained to keep a fractious civil rights movement unified, and in the face of unremitting sabotage from federal authorities.

He was a young man, still in his 30s—foisted onto the national stage with actors many years or decades his senior, suspect in the eyes of both younger and older civil rights leaders—and the burdens of leadership took their toll on him.... 

Here's an excerpt of Dr. King's last speech, I've Been To The Mountain Top, on the night before his assassination.

Dr. King is remembered and honored for his civil rights leadership including his 1963 "Letter from a Birmingham Jail".

Retains its power year after year, decade after decade: https://t.co/iNCjtUaSJ8

— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) January 16, 2022

An original copy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" has a home at Samford University. In honor of #MLKDay2022, learn about the significance of this piece of history.

Read more: https://t.co/UgjH5aJsRx@SamfordDiverse @SamfordULibrary #MLKDay #MLK pic.twitter.com/rHs19xpjgK

— Samford University (@SamfordU) January 17, 2022

Mehdi Hasan adds:

"For most Republicans, Dr King is just the guy who said to forget about skin color; they basically just know one quote of his, out of context, & they repeat it ad nauseam."

My commentary, for #MLKDay, on the real MLK vs the 'Santa Clausification' of him:pic.twitter.com/8C2SQVwZaH

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 16, 2023

You can learn more about Dr. King from the Ezra Klein Show podcast with Harvard Professor of Social Sciences Brandon Terry.

Martin Luther King Jr was only 39 years old when he was killed.

I love this photo of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his daughter, Yolanda, playing baseball in the yard.

Thank you, Dr. King.#MLKDay pic.twitter.com/bQQtUoiAsP

— Mathew Brownstein (@MBrownstein89) January 16, 2023

For Those Missing NYC Snow This Winter, A Reminder Of Fun Times Sledding On Roosevelt Island Winter Wonderland Hills

We're in the middle of January and NYC has not seen any snow yet.

WHERE IS THE SNOW? ❄️👀#NYC is approaching the longest SNOWLESS streak...just 22 days to go.

READ MORE: https://t.co/fiFupQHfuN pic.twitter.com/Stvl9wxgVp

— Allan Nosoff (@AWxNYC) January 14, 2023

For those who miss the winter snow, here's a reminder of fun times the young and slightly older have sledding on the Roosevelt Island winter wonderland at the Cornell Tech campus hills.

Before the Cornell Tech campus became the go to spot for Roosevelt Island sledding, the Southtown Riverwalk Hill, now occupied by 460 Main, was a favorite spot for Roosevelt Island sledding.

According to the latest weather reports,

 

 it it does not look like snow is coming to NYC anytime this month.