Hempstead redistricting maps approved amid residents' objections

To a small chorus of boos, the Hempstead Town Board on Tuesday adopted redistricting maps residents have cautioned for months will continue to fracture communities of color.

The vote on the maps, which carve Baldwin, North Bellmore, Uniondale and West Hempstead into multiple districts, took place in the immediate aftermath of the final redistricting public hearing. Less than 10 minutes earlier, Town Supervisor Don Clavin told residents he did not know when the maps, which are redrawn every decade, might be adopted.

“That’s nice, ladies and gentlemen,” Clavin sarcastically told the booing crowd. “That’s very polite of you.” 

Hemptead Town has previously said that one goal of redistricting is to keep hamlets from being split into multiple districts.

Town Attorney John Maccarone, who took the lead in answering questions from the public during the contentious redistricting process, downplayed the significance of dividing communities. He said Tuesday that the town is made up of 60 hamlets and 56 will remain whole under the redrawn boundaries. 

Three of the hamlets split up by the new map have large minority populations, residents said at the meeting, and Hempstead Town as a whole now has a larger percentage of nonwhite residents than in the past. Several speakers said that in a town with a 47% nonwhite population, at least two of the districts should be made up of a majority of Black and Hispanic residents. The maps adopted Tuesday, other speakers said, maintain the status quo in a town that has only had one Black council member since the districts were formed in 2000.

“These maps, frankly, are gerrymandering,” said Terry Bain of Rockville Centre, a retired immigration judge. “Minority groups’ voting strength is weakened by these maps.”

Several residents said the new boundaries will likely be challenged in court, as they were in 2013.

Other residents expressed disappointment that the maps were adopted while one of the six council districts remains vacant following the election of former councilman Anthony D’Esposito to the House of Representatives in November. Clavin has declined to publicly state how that seat will be filled.

This is the second time the lines have been redrawn since the town’s six council districts were enacted through a class-action lawsuit arguing that an at-large voting system discriminated against minority community members. The town board is made up of five Republicans and Democrat Dorothy Goosby, who began the litigation to create the districts and has served the First District since its inception through a November 2000 special election.

The new maps were drawn by a three-member committee that met in November and December 2022 with the assistance of Skyline Consulting, a Schenectady-based political data firm.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.