Our City Action Buffalo and Buffalo Residents Ready to Override the Council’s Vote By Any Means Necessary
The community continues to rally against the Common Council’s bid to unjustly and unfairly redistrict the city of Buffalo.
A recent emergency press conference was held at the corner of 17th Street and Richmond Avenue, which is a location where three council districts converge under the proposed redrawing of councilmanic districts – between 17th Street, Connecticut, Norwood, and Richmond. The site is meant to demonstrate just how much these districts are haphazardly broken up, by design and intention, to benefit the council members, not the people that they represent. The attempt of redistricting and reapportionment flies in the face of good urban planning and geography, according to Our City Action Buffalo. The group noted that the proposal splits more neighborhoods and creates greater population deviation between districts.
“Over the long weekend, Our City Action Buffalo and Buffalo residents listened to feedback generated by its redistricting proposal, including responses from Council members, then it revised the proposal accordingly.
“Rather than heeding the calls of residents, the Council rushed a late file addition to their upcoming meeting, attempting to railroad residents into accepting a map that is custom made for each Council Member to retain their individual seats.
In a matter of a couple of hours, Our City Action Buffalo will be hosting a webinar, to discuss the Common Council’s newly amended map, which “performs even worse than their initial proposal (that still has never been formally presented to the public) on all relevant legal redistricting criteria,” according to Our City Action Buffalo.
“We’re hosting a webinar (6:30 PM – 8 PM) to update everyone on those changes and to hear from community members what questions they still have, what they value, and what more needs to be done to get the newly revised map across the finish line by July 31st.
“A letter to all Councilmembers has been drafted by attorneys challenging the legality of the process they are following to pass these maps, and a challenge to the maps themselves is soon coming. If the Common Council insists on moving forward with this blatant attempt to protect their own jobs instead of the people of Buffalo, we stand ready to proceed by any means necessary to override their actions.
“The only thing the Council will accomplish by rushing this new map through their approval process is to waste a ton of taxpayer dollars when the map ultimately gets struck down in a court of law.”
See Our City Action Buffalo’s alternative proposal for redistricting Buffalo.
To learn more, visit Our City Action Buffalo.
An Open Analysis of Common Council Redistricting Plans for Buffalo, NY
Also, be sure to take a few seconds and sign this petition.
The Buffalo Common Council will be holding a regularly scheduled Common Council Meeting at the following time and place:
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
2:00 PM
Council Chambers Buffalo City Hall, 13th floor
An amended version of the reapportionment map (see below) has been filed for Tuesday’s meeting, and added to the Council’s reapportionment website.
Lead image courtesy Our City Action Buffalo