This three isn’t a crowd
Imagine Peter and Paul separated from Mary, or Larry and Curly without Moe. Imagine if there had been only two musketeers or merely a Kingston duo.
Clearly, some groups of three are meant to be, which is why a proposed congressional district that divides Schenectady from Troy and Albany feels plain wrong. Intertwined by geography, demography and many common interests, these three cities belong together, as they are in the current 20th Congressional District.
Yet that district’s borders are certain to change as part of the decennial redistricting process resulting from new census numbers. Indeed, New York’s slow population growth relative to other parts of the country means the state is losing a congressional seat, and the bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission is currently haggling over how new boundaries should be drawn.
A draft proposal from Republicans on the panel would keep Albany, Troy and Schenectady together in a hookshaped district that would also include Saugerties and Kingston but not Sarasomeone
toga Springs or Amsterdam.
The plan by the commission Democrats, meanwhile, sticks Schenectady in a quasi-central New York district that includes Monticello, Schoharie, and Cooperstown, with Amsterdam in a separate North Country district. Albany, Troy and Saratoga Springs would be in a district that reaches southward to include Saugerties.
Democrat Paul Tonko of Amsterdam, who currently represents the 20th Congressional District, is separated from his district either way, and he therefore has a self-interested case for objecting. But the congressman has focused his concerns on the potential split-up of Albany, Troy and Schenectady, saying such a move would defy a legal mandate to keep communities of shared interests together.
“I think it would be very hard for
to defend that kind of map before the courts,” Mr. Tonko told Times Union reporter Joshua Solomon, later adding, “It doesn’t seem to make sense.”
Nonsensical is right. Albany, Schenectady and Troy are in the same metropolitan statistical area and have a shared history and destiny. They often struggle with the same issues, including, in some neighborhoods, grinding poverty and disinvestment. Their futures are inextricably linked. They need a member of Congress looking out for their common interests.
Ideally, Saratoga Springs and the suburbs among and around the Capital Region’s four most prominent cities would also be included in the district. But given the complications involved in drawing new districts, which include making districts roughly equal in population and ensuring they meet federal Voting Rights Act requirements, perfect districts are probably not possible.
Saratoga Springs, a gateway to the North Country, arguably has as much in common with Glens Falls as it does Albany. Dividing it from the other cites, then, would not be as consequential. But Schenectady belongs with Albany and Troy. This trio is stronger together.