Each Thursday this month Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge will be a guest on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show to talk about shifts in new and old ethnic neighborhoods around the city. Listeners can join the project by contributing their own thoughts and neighborhood notes here.
This Week: The New Littles: Uzbeks, Liberians, and More
Each Thursday in June, the Brian Lehrer Show and Andrew Beveridge of Social Explorer will discuss New York’s diverse communities – areas of ethnic concentration that are changing quickly or that you may not know about.
Joining us this week is President of the Staten Island Liberian Community Association Telee Brown, PhD candidate in sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center Bernadette Ludwig, and President and co-founder of the Uzbek Initiative Farkhod Muradov.
You can hear last week’s “New Littles” feature on Chinatown and other enclaves by tuning in here.
Answering the public’s call for immediate action on redistricting reform, Senator Martin Dilan, Ranking Democrat on the Legislative Task Force on Redistricting, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Michael Gianaris, joined by Senate and Assembly Democrats led an interactive public forum on New York State redistricting reform on Tuesday, June 7th, 2011. With just one week left before the legislative session ends, there is a small but present window for reforms to pass.
Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge was an invited speaker at the event (links to his testimony and exhibits are below). Outside of his work as a professor and at Social Explorer, Beveridge is an experienced demographic consultant who has worked on a number of redistricting court cases and plans.
Video of Prof. Andrew Beveridge’s Testimony from the June 6, 2011, New York State Redistricting Forum
He discussed the 2002 redistricting battles and outcomes, population shifts, prisoner count changes, Voting Rights Act considerations and challenges, the musical chairs of losing two congressional seats, the importance of comparing plan proposals, and more about what is shaping up to be another messy round of redistricting.
“This is a hugely politically process and to step it back one step from being completely politicized is still possible.” With a reform bill, “it means someone who’s actually less enmeshed in the system at least did the plans,” making both the process and outcome better. He took questions from the legislators and the public, and shared maps on population shifts and data on how the change in the apportionment of the prisoner population will impact each district.
As Bill Mahoney of NYPIRG noted in his testimony, a Siena College poll found that New Yorkers ranked the admittedly policy wonky issue of redistricting in the top five priorities for the legislature.
Beveridge concluded that: “The complex and contentious process in New York State should this year be done using a commission. New York should avoid the chaos that could be caused once again by a short sighted redistricting process.”
Each Thursday this month Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge will be a guest on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show to talk about shifts in new and old ethnic neighborhoods around the city. Listeners can join the project by contributing their own thoughts and neighborhood notes here.
A lot of these “littles” were named a century ago when particular immigrant groups came through Ellis ISland and settled in strictly defined parts of the city. So it’s time to explore the new “littles.” Each Thursday this month, we’ll be looking at the shifting nature of New York’s immigrant populations and introduce you to some ethnic enclaves you might not know about.
For more on Little Italy, Chinatown, Little Lima, Little Senegal, Little Santiago and other unique neighborhood trends check out the first installment and tune back in every Thursday in June.
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Each Thursday this month Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge will be a guest on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show to talk about shifts in new and old ethnic neighborhoods around the city. Listeners can join the project by contributing their own thoughts and neighborhood notes here.
