At its heart, redistricting is about representation.

State and federal laws lay out the criteria for the districts, but legislators have become masters at technical compliance of the law without meeting the intent. They're supposed to draw compact, evenly populated districts that preserve communities of interest - groupings of people who share common interests. (For a more detailed explanation of communities of interest, go here.)

Instead, we get sprawling districts that chop up cities and link disparate populations. We get districts shaped like earmuffs or like Abraham Lincoln riding a vacuum cleaner, drawn to protect incumbents or party interests.

In late January, a New York Legislature task force released Assembly and Senate redistricting proposals, and yesterday, the task force held a public hearing in Rochester on the plans. Speaker after speaker stressed deficiencies in the proposals, particularly the three Senate districts that would divide up the city. The Senate lines have been a focus of criticism upstate because they appear particularly partisan and illogical.

City Council member Adam McFadden said Rochester is a minority-majority city. But the Senate districts combine parts of the city with suburban and rural towns that are predominantly white.

"None of the three proposed districts come close to reflecting our community," McFadden said.

The most compelling part of the hearing came when Mayor Tom Richards took the podium. Richards picked apart the Senate districts and highlighted several serious flaws. After he spoke, he and Senator Mike Nozzolio, a Republican who co-chairs the task force, engaged in a back-and-forth. Here are some of the key points that came out of that exchange:

The mayor focused in on the proposed 61st District, which would stretch from the 19th Ward to several Buffalo suburbs.  The district isn't compact, it separates communities of interest, and it puts the area's largest employer, the University of Rochester, under the representation - potentially - of a senator from a different metro area. The district also includes part of the University at Buffalo, which is a state school.

The 61st and 59th districts also run contrary to the governor's regional economic development approach, Richards said. Rochester and Buffalo are represented by different regional economic development councils. That could pose a conflict for the districts' representatives.

"These districts compete," Richards said. "They're expected to compete for state aid."

Putting UR and UB in the same district could lead to a conflict, Richards said. The universities could have competing needs or priorities, he said.

Nozzolio, whose district includes Webster, pointed out that although they aren't in his district, he has advocated for UR and RIT. Nozzolio also asked Richards if Congress member Louise Slaughter, whose infamous earmuffs district stretches from Rochester to Buffalo, has been an effective representative for the city.

Richards said she has been. "And," he said, "I think she'd be an even more effective representative if she represented Rochester alone."

Nozzolio spent a little time explaining that at hearings across the state, elected officials and citizens have said they want their county to be in one district. That's tough to do under the laws, he said, and he's probably right. Geographically smaller districts in a dense county like Monroe can mean sprawling rural districts, he said. Without some degree of regional representation, districts can sprawl out and cover geographic areas that are difficult to represent.

But Nozzolio's argument seems to conflate speakers' points. The idea isn't to put all of Monroe County into a single district; that would be legally impossible in both the Senate and Assembly. The real issue is how the county gets divided among the multiple Senate and Assembly districts.

The needs of city neighborhoods and rural towns can differ drastically. I live in the Highland Park neighborhood on the cusp of the South Wedge, and my parents live in rural Orleans County. For years, they, their neighbors, and their town officials have tried to get public water lines run down their road. This is a big issue for them and something that their elected officials should be aware of and attentive to.

As a city resident, I don't worry about getting public water lines run to where I live. It wouldn't register as an issue for me if it didn't affect my parents, except maybe as it pertains to enabling sprawl. I'm more apt to pay attention to something like legislation to make roadways more bicycle and pedestrian friendly, public transportation funding, or the disparity in state aid between Rochester and other upstate cities.

The city could fit into one Senate district, though a couple of towns would have to be in that district, too. The rest of the county could fit into another two or three districts. Common Cause/NY mapped this all out. Drawing the districts in this fashion would preserve city minorities' voting power and would provide a representative who has more of a focus on the city.

The task force is holding its last hearing today in Buffalo. It'll take the testimony it received and make any revisions to the maps it thinks are necessary. At some point, the Legislature will probably vote on the proposals. Recent action by federal judges, however, has created some uncertainty about how redistricting will proceed. It's entirely possible that a court could intervene and end up drawing the lines. The court also end up drawing the lines if the Legislature passes the plan but Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoes the maps, which he has threatened to do.