Not like the rest of The Rock: Staten Island’s redistricting fight centers on North Shore

A Congressional redistricting fight has residents of Staten Island’s North Shore wrestling with an existential debate over whether they have more in common with residents in Lower Manhattan than their neighbors south of the Expressway.

Last month, a state Supreme Court judge ruled Black and Latino voters are disenfranchised by the current boundaries of the 11th congressional district — which includes all of Staten Island and a portion of south Brooklyn. A majority of those residents of color live on the North Shore. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit have proposed changing the district lines to combine Staten Island with Lower Manhattan because of demographic shifts that make the populations more similar.

The case, which is currently under appeal, highlights just how different the North Shore is from the rest of Staten Island. Instead of the leafy, car-centric suburban streets and single-family dwellings, the densely populated North Shore is a mix of older homes, large apartment buildings and NYCHA complexes tightly packed on city streets where more residents walk or rely on buses to get around.

“I feel like the North Shore is culturally more connected to literally any other part of New York City,” said Janos Marton, 43, a resident of the St. George neighborhood.

Republicans have accused Democrats of trying to “steal this congressional seat” and are threatening to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis has represented the 11th Congressional District since 2021, and is the only Republican representing New York City in the U.S. House. Similar redistricting fights are playing out in other states.

As the case winds its way through the justice system, Gothamist asked residents there what defined the North Shore for them. While they offered many different answers, the one thing they all agreed on was it’s not like the rest of Staten Island.

“ It’s too quiet on the other side of the island. So much stuff going on underneath their noses,” Bao-chin Keen, 40, said on a frigid Sunday afternoon as a handful of her friends went into a liquor store across from Tompkinsville Park. She said the nearby ferry draws a lot of action and attention, especially from the NYPD, who police the North Shore but are likely to live in the South.

Just steps away, NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo choked Eric Garner to death in 2014 during an arrest over the sale of loose cigarettes. His death became an early flashpoint in Black Lives Matter protests.

Keen called herself a “NYCHA baby” who grew up in the neighborhood’s public housing. As an NYPD squad car’s lights flashed by the park, Keen said the North Shore needed a hero.

“ I just feel like I’m living in Gotham City and we need a Batman,” she said.

Staten Island has long felt cut off from its four fellow boroughs. Its nicknames include “The Rock” and the “Forgotten Borough.” The Wu-Tang Clan called it “Shaolin Land,” a reference to the isolated, monasterial vibe that helped inspire their sound.

A short walk away from Tompkinsville Park, there were signs of the type of development familiar to other parts of the city like Bedford-Stuyvesant or Harlem. A newly constructed apartment building had a French-themed cafe and wine bar with red toile wallpaper on the ground floor.

Marton noted one key difference between this section of the North Shore and other parts of the island.

“We wouldn’t live anywhere in New York City if you couldn’t walk around to a place like this, to a supermarket, a gym, the ferry back to Manhattan,” he said over coffee. “This is part of the walkable St. George.”

St. George is one of the better-known neighborhoods on the North Shore. Home to the Staten Island ferry, it serves as a gateway to the rest of the borough for residents and visitors.

Marton, an attorney, and his partner, Cristina González, 42, a political ad-maker, moved to the area five years ago. They were looking for a place to buy. Homes in Manhattan and Brooklyn, where they were living, felt out of reach.

Both active Democrats, González said they wanted to be in a place where they could build community with like-minded neighbors. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their St. George neighborhood with 60% of the vote. The rest of Staten Island went for independent candidate Andrew Cuomo.

“It’s as lefty as you can get in a place like Staten Island,” said González, who was there with Marton, their 14-month old niece, 5-year-old nephew and dog.

A Democratic city councilmember, assemblymember and state senator represent the area. The other two councilmembers, three assemblymembers and state senator are all Republicans. Donald Trump has won the borough all three times he was on the presidential ballot, but he didn’t win the North Shore.

“As somebody who used to live on the Lower East Side, the Lower East Side is obviously way denser than here, but culturally more similar to here than we are to the South Shore,” Marton said.

González described the North Shore as one of the few places on Staten Island with a flourishing community of people of color, with nearby African, Mexican and South Asian grocery stores.

In other parts of the borough, often referred to as the Mid-Island and South Shore, the population is whiter and less diverse.

Altogether, the North Shore saw higher population growth at 7.9%, than the rest of the borough, at 5.8%, according to analysis of the latest census figures from the New York State Comptroller’s office.

An expert who submitted a report in the redistricting case for the Democratic plaintiffs cited a history of racial segregation and the redlining of neighborhoods as some of the reasons why so many Black and Latino residents are concentrated on the North Shore.

There is also the Staten Island Expressway, which slices across the borough and serves as a barrier between the North Shore and the rest of the island. The New York Times once quoted residents referring to it as the “Mason-Dixon line.”

Assemblymember Charles Fall, who represents a district that stretches from Staten Island’s North Shore to a sliver of the Brooklyn waterfront and parts of Lower Manhattan, said voters in all three boroughs share similar concerns about public safety, transportation and economic development.

He criticized the city’s Economic Development Corporation for mismanaging a plan to revitalize the St. George waterfront with a huge Ferris wheel. The plan was scrapped in 2018 because of its $1 billion dollar price tag.

That fiasco, Fall said, led to a domino effect, dooming the nearby Empire Outlets shopping center and leaving nearby residents with little to show for the years of planning.

“It’s really been a failure. And people aren’t happy about it,” Fall said. The Economic Development Corporation announced a new plan for Staten Island’s North Shore last November, which includes homes, restaurants, entertainment and “neighborhood-serving retail.” But the proposal requires rezoning and has a timeline that extends into 2030.

In Stapleton, a predominantly Black community, the Rev. Dr. Demetrius Carolina said the North Shore was severely underdeveloped and chronically underserved.

Carolina encouraged his parishioners at First Central Baptist Church — a painted brick building that sits high on a hill with a view of the Verrazzano Bridge in the distance — to take action. During a recent service, he asked them to send postcards to Albany in support of legislation that would allow houses of worship to build affordable housing on their property.

“ I often say to the residents of the North Shore: Stand up, speak up, be heard and be seen because your voice and your life matter as much as anyone else’s,” Carolina said during an interview in his office. “And even if you don’t presently feel that you’re being represented, represent yourself.”

To him, the North Shore’s diverse communities are standing up through the court battle over representation, which he saw as one way to push back against a larger wave of challenges to democratic norms across the country.

“This whole experiment is really being challenged. And so I think that we have to take some unprecedented steps to address the very real need that we are experiencing and seeing nationally,” Carolina said. “Staten Island is a small microcosm of a very real macro-challenge we are going to face as a nation.”