Hon. Patrick F. McAllister

Steuben County Supreme & County Court

3 East Pulteney Square

Bath, NY 14810

Re: Proposed Congressional Maps Dividing Erie County

Dear Judge McAllister:

I am writing to express my concern and frustration over the separation of multiple historically linked Erie County communities in the proposed maps issued Monday by Special Master Jonathan Cervas. I apologize for the delay in sending my comments to you. As you may know, our community was visited by the most vile, racist attack this past Saturday when a white supremacist from Conklin, New York came to our community to kill as many African-Americans as he could, sadly taking the lives of 10 innocent persons, all African-American. My team and I have been intimately involved in the process to help our community grieve, heal, and recover from this terrible tragedy, hence my delay in commenting.

I am very disappointed by the proposed new congressional and senate districts that separate the City of Lackawanna, my hometown, from the City of Buffalo. Both cities closely share common minority populations and ethnicities, interests, and history, as well as municipal lines (Buffalo's southern border ends at Lackawanna's northern border, and one street, Dorrance Avenue, is the dividing line for much of the border).

Lackawanna is a diverse and dense urban area, and statistical data issued by the United States Census does not go into the true detail of the diversity of the city. For example, the 2020 Census found Lackawanna's population grew from 18,141 residents in 2010 to 19,949 residents in 2020, 78.1% of which is "White alone," and a significant proportion of which are minorities. The 2020 Census identifies that 13.1% of Lackawanna residents are "Black or African-American alone" and 7.0% are "Hispanic or Latino."

However, that does not go into the true diversity of Lackawanna. Of the 78.1% identified as white (15,580), more than 7,000 of those persons are of Yemeni descent, making up more than one-third of Lackawanna's population. In fact, this is one of the largest concentrations of Yemeni-Americans in the entire country. Many of these Yemeni residents of Lackawanna attend Mosques in Buffalo, own businesses in Buffalo, and have families and other ties with residents of Buffalo. They have very little in common with the other communities located in the proposed NY23 district, much of which is in the southern-tier of New York.

Lackawanna also is the home of one of the largest African-American and Hispanic populations in Erie County. Like the Yemeni population, they attend churches and other houses of worship in Buffalo, own businesses in Buffalo and have many common threads with their Buffalo neighbors. Since the City of Lackawanna was created in 1909, it has always been in a congressional district that included a part of the City of Buffalo.

The historically underrepresented minority communities of Lackawanna have much more in common with their neighbors in the City of Buffalo than they do with the communities located in either the new NY-23 congressional or senate district the City of Lackawanna has been placed in the Special Master's proposed maps.

In addition, the Towns of Cheektowaga and West Seneca, dense first ring suburbs bordering the City of Buffalo, have been included in the proposed new NY-23 district. Like Lackawanna, Cheektowaga and West Seneca have little in common with the rural and more sparsely populated southern tier region.

Of note, Cheektowaga is also an increasingly diverse community, 11.4% of which is identified as being "Black or African-American alone" in the 2020 Census, with its western border sharing significant communities of color with the eastern border of the City of Buffalo.

While past Supreme Court decisions have held that race cannot be the predominate factor in the drawing of lines, a key tenet of redistricting efforts is keeping minority and other ethnic communities together in order to not dilute their voting power.

Any change to the current proposed districts including the above described municipalities with the City of Buffalo would in no way create a majority district for any of the above-described minority or ethnic communities, but it would ensure that they are located in district with their minority or ethnic brethren, thereby not diluting or "cracking" their voting power.

In addition to cracking minority populations in Buffalo, the special master seems to be disregarding the minority residents of the boundaries of Senate districts he has created in urban areas, particularly Buffalo. No one discounts the importance of maintaining a relative equal number of persons in each district, in fact it is required under the concept of "one-person, onevote." But here, the special master has placed that concept above all other redistricting principles, including maintaining communities of interest in a single district. Because the New York State Constitution prohibits the dividing of towns when creating a Senate district, the special master's unnecessarily strict adherence to an arbitrarily low deviation necessarily results in the gerrymandering of city neighborhoods.

Thus, for example, on Buffalo's west side, rather than follow the natural border of West Ferry Street as a boundary between two districts, the special master zigs and zags through the neighborhood to achieve minimal deviation. To an academic not from Buffalo's west side, that may not seem like a big deal, but to the thousands of people who live along that boundary, the map is irrational. That same boundary then turns south, but rather than follow Main Street, another natural boundary, the line bounces from block to block, back and forth in a confusing, nonsensical manner.

As our democracy struggles to maintain its legitimacy, it is critically important that districts make sense to the people who live there, not to academics who have never visited the neighborhood. Moreover, there is not a single town in the state of New York that has a similar boundary. Not one. Thus, once again, the special master seems to be disregarding the electoral desires and needs of urban, minority communities.

By simply adjusting a few thousand residents, largely minority residents, along these boundaries, these arbitrary lines would become less so and make some sense to the people who live there. I encourage you to consider the impact these lines have on the people who live there and dispense with the hyper technical adherence to a single average number.

I must also point out that the Senate map for Erie County appears to favor current Republican incumbents. I cannot discern any other reason for combining the Town of Lancaster, swinging far south, around the towns of Cheektowaga and West Seneca and then looping into Lackawanna and dividing Buffalo's west side, other than ensuring the current Republican Senator from Lancaster is not drawn into a district with the current Republican Senator from Amherst. It seems entirely intentional and, even if it is not, the perception among the residents who have been gerrymandered, largely minority residents, will perceive it is as intentional. Again, restoring faith in our democracy, and respecting communities of interest based on race and ethnicity, requires more consideration for the residents these new maps directly impact.

Finally, I have enclosed two maps for the New York State Senate that follow the principles I have articulated. In my opinion, both of these maps do a far better job to adhering to all of the important goals of redistricting, as opposed to what the special master did which is closely adhere to one principle and disregard other, equally legitimate concerns. Moreover, because I used an open source mapping tool (Dave's Redistricting), I can confirm that no district I have proposed has more than a 1% deviation from the average.

At a time where communities of color are hurting and in extreme pain following Saturday's terrible terror attack, I believe it is more appropriate for the City of Lackawanna and the Town of Cheektowaga, and their culturally significant minority populations, to remain in the same Congressional district as the City of Buffalo. Moreover, the proposed Senate maps seem to disregard the urban, largely minority, populations of the cities of Buffalo and Lackawanna to placate the short-term political interests of current Republican incumbents.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely yours,

Mark C. Poloncarz, Esq.

Erie County Executive