![]() ![]() We appreciate you all and want to accomadate you in the process. Please be patient with us as we transition into our new way of doing business. We will still be consigning: your designer or high end items, formal wear for ladies or girls as well as brand new with tag items from our accepted brands.ĪLL appointmens booked for the rest of 2023 will still be honoured and your items will be consigned. You will be able to drop off your items ANYTIME for any of our chosen local charities. “I really don’t care that it’s inconvenient,” Edwards said.We will be transitioning into a Local Charity Shop and Consignment Boutique! While she asked both attorneys pointed questions, she also made a point of interjecting during the city’s arguments to say that if she found that the commission made a mistake in how it applied the law to draw the maps, she would not hesitate to order a fix. She also said that a second primary could cost the city an additional $20 million-$30 million.Įdwards said she would reserve her decision on Thursday, but is expected to issue it soon. She noted that ballot petitioning for the upcoming election had been underway for more than a week. In response, Aimee Lulich, an attorney with the city's Law Department, said the challenge filed by plaintiffs was barred by “laches,” meaning that the complaint was filed too long after the maps were certified, which occurred in November of last year. Vattamala said the community was the last to have a COVID-19 testing site available in the neighborhood, and that the fractured representation left residents struggling to find support services and even bury loved ones who died during the pandemic. The split was acutely felt during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's literally life or death for this community," Vattamala argued as he described the multitude of challenges faced by the South Asian community in the neighborhoods of Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park, which were split into separate Council districts. Vattamala specifically said the Charter requires that districts be drawn to allow for “fair and effective representation” to the maximum extent possible, and that means the “reasonable opportunity to elect a candidate of the community’s choice.” He said local and state law can provide supplemental protections to the floor set by federal law, citing the new John Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York as another example. He said the city relied on the federal Voting Rights Act, and not the higher requirements dictated by the New York City Charter. In a court hearing last Thursday before Edwards, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, Jerry Vattamala of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, argued that the city’s districting commission failed to apply the correct legal standard when it drew new district lines. The Assembly district lines are currently being redrawn after a separate court challenge. ![]() That came after the statewide and Assembly primary election that was held in June. The dueling summer primary schedule would echo the experience of voters last year, when the courts threw out the new congressional and state Senate district lines for partisan gerrymandering, brought in a special master to redraw the lines, and ordered a second primary date for August. That additional work would make it unlikely that the Board of Elections could conduct a Council primary on June 27, along with the primary elections for state positions such as district attorney, civil court and local party posts. Additionally, in court papers submitted last week, the New York City Board of Elections said any revisions to the current map would require changes to election districts - the smallest units for organizing voters - and that those changes could have a ripple effect beyond the neighborhoods that are the focus of the lawsuit. If Edwards rules for the plaintiffs, the New York City Districting Commission could be ordered to revise the Council district maps, a process city officials say would take two months. The city disputes those claims and argues that the challenge to current maps was filed too long after the maps were certified and too close to the start of election activity. The suit was filed on behalf of a group of Indo-Caribbean and South Asian voters in Queens' Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park neighborhoods, who say the current lines dilute their political power and violate the legal requirements to protect racial and language minority communities set forth in the City Charter. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ericka Edwards is expected to rule soon in a dispute over the Council district lines certified last fall after the decennial redistricting process. There’s a chance voters could experience two primaries in New York for the second year in a row if a judge orders a change to the city’s newly drawn legislative lines this week.
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