NYC-CC: Race for New 'Asian Opportunity' Brooklyn City Council District Set to Take Off
The decennial redistricting process in New York created a new “Asian opportunity” City Council district in Brooklyn, and three candidates have declared their intentions to run for the seat in the fast-approaching June primary.
Asian Americans were the fastest growing population in New York City between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Census, accounting for more than half of the increase in the city’s population. South Brooklyn is home to one of the largest concentrations of Asian Americans in the city in neighborhoods including Bensonhurst, Gravesend, and Sunset Park. That led the New York City Districting Commission to redraw Council District 43 into a new district with a majority Asian American population – combining Bensonhurst, New Utrecht, and parts of Dyker Heights and Sunset Park – giving the growing community a prime opportunity to elect one of their own to the City Council. There has never been an Asian City Council member from Brooklyn.
Because of the redistricting process, the entire 51-seat City Council is heading into another election this year, just two years after the most recent citywide election. And the new District 43 is expected to be among the competitive races since there is no incumbent expected to run. (Council Member Justin Brannan, who represents the current, outgoing District 43 is running in the new District 47. And Council Member Ari Kagan, who represents the outgoing District 47, recently switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, and will likely face Brannan in the general election.)
The population of the new 43rd City Council district is almost 54% Asian, 27.3% white, and 15.3% Hispanic, according to the CUNY Mapping Service’s Redistricting & You project. Though more than half of voters in the district are registered Democrats, it overwhelmingly went for Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, in the 2021 mayoral election, over Democrat Eric Adams by a margin of 60.1% to 35.2%.
There are already three candidates running in the Democratic primary for the new 43rd district: Susan Zhuang, chief of staff to Assemblymember William Colton; Wai Yee Chan, executive director of Homecrest Community Services; and Stanley Ng, a retired computer programmer. Other candidates could enter the fray any time, and it could be a district where a Republican has a chance to win given recent voting trends in the communities that make up the new district.
https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11776-race-election-asian-opportunity-brooklyn-city-council-district-43
