Long Island City: meet your District 26 City Council candidates
Map of Queens’ District 26, including Long Island City – Photo
For those who desire to become more involved in local politics, liQcity is sponsoring a panel discussion with the current City Council candidates on Tuesday, July 21st at 7pm, at Manducatis Rustica on Vernon Blvd.
The intention of the panel discussion is to encourage community participation with the political process, and introduce the candidates to the concerns of the members of our very special historic mixed-use district of Hunters Point. It will be held in a casual Town Meeting style format, and will close with a short meet and greet with light refreshment provided by Rustica. You can post your questions to the candidates in the comments of this post, which will be compiled and asked by liQcity at the panel discussion. Then we’ll put the video online afterwards, for those who are unable to attend the event, which is free and open to the public but with limited seating. Please RSVP to info@liqcity.com.
Queens’ District 26 covers Woodside, Sunnyside, Long Island City, and Maspeth, and the four candidates running for City Councilperson for District 26 are:
Deirdre Feerick, Democrat: Raised in Long Island City & Sunnyside and currently residing in Woodside, Feerick is an investigative lawyer and Democratic district leader. She is also Deputy Director of the Administrative Services Division of the NYC Council & active member of several local civic organizations.
Jimmy Van Bramer, Democrat: A lifelong Western Queens resident, Van Bramer currently lives in Sunnyside and is the Chief External Affairs Officer of the Queens Public Library. He is an activist for gay & lesbian rights and worked on the Clean Money, Clean Elections campaign. Van Bramer also represents his neighborhood on the New York State Democratic Committee and is a member of Community Board 2 & its Land Use Committee.
Brent O’Leary, Democrat: Born in Jackson Heights & later settling in Long Island City, O’Leary is a business lawyer who worked in NY law firm White & Case’s Tokyo office, where he was elected Chair of Democrats Abroad, Japan Chapter, which helps Americans overseas to vote. He is currently a legal council for Bloomberg LP and a former official of the Democratic National Committee.
David Rosasco, Conservative Democrat: Born and raised in Woodside, where he still resides, Rosasco launched Nichibei Translations, LLC, a foreign language service provider, with locations in Woodside and Saitama City, Japan. He is a member of the Woodside Civic Association, Neighborhood Housing Association & board member of Community Board 2.
What does a City Councilperson do? [website]
Register to vote in NYC [website]
Where to vote in NYC [website]
Contending for Gioia’s Council seat [Queens Chronicle]
Split Race, Split Support for Gioia Seat [City Hall News]
RSVP to liQcity [email]
Yes. IF you click through to his website, it’s the first thing he says about himself.
Ugh. Any other choices? No Republicans on the ticket?
What, no Republicans? But isn’t that the party that supported our last “president?”
:-(
Feerick was endorsed by our favorite Dem party machinists Helen Marshall and Joe Crowley, so that obviously eliminates her from any further consideration.
As far as Rosasco goes, I’m immediately suspicious of anyone who has the sartorial audacity to wear an enormous red rose and baby’s breath in his lapel.
Looks like a tossup between Van Bremer and O’Leary. O’Leary lives in LIC, so I’m leaning toward supporting him.
I think Van Bramer does live in LIC. If I’m not mistaken, in Hunters Point?
Have other parties abandoned the disctict, because they have no shot to win?
As long as I can remember, western Queens has been owned by the Democrats. Clearly, we need more viable competition to get some fresh air blowing through their party halls. I doubt I could ever support a values Republican, but nonetheless we have Democratic office holders representing our area who are long past their sell-by date. Change is sorely needed.
Girl Power. I am voting for Deirdre.
Imagine if I said “Man Power. I’m voting for Van Bramer.” How silly is that? I really don’t care what someone’s sex, race, or religion is. I want someone who is going to fight for things that are important to us in Hunters Point. For far too long, we’ve been ignored by the party hacks, who have treated LIC like the forgotten stepchild and have typically emerged from the union halls of Woodside/Sunnyside. Times are evolving, and we need one of our own in there.
Girl Power.
Girl Power does not always work. Look at Sarah Palin. I am a woman and you couldn’t have paid me to vote for that sociopath. I’m sad to discover that people vote based on where the candidates live (#5) and what sex they are (#9).
Jimmy Van Bramer lives in Sunnyside but is always around LIC events. I saw him at the CB2 hearing about the liquor licenses. I like that. District 26 is very big and ideally LIC should not be lumped in with overwhelmingly residential neighborhoods like Sunnyside, Woodside & Maspeth. We are an overwhelmingly industrial neighborhood, with a base residential population that is now growing exponentially. We have totally different needs than the rest of our district. Let’s see if any of them know that.
12, I didn’t mean to be so simplistic in saying I’d vote only for someone from LIC. It’s part of my decision-making, I guess, I should have said. LIC has been dominated by other neighborhoods in western Queens, and our politicians don’t aggressively represent us.
I don’t agree that we are an overwhelmingly industrial neighborhood — that’s the old LIC that the politicians know and love. I don’t want to see our politicians continuing to lumber our area with crap uses they have kept out of Woodside and Sunnyside. We are a more diverse neighborhood, with a highly educated population and growing affluence. We need to be taking the lead.
No offense #13, but you are wrong. If you took a complete survey of the whole of LIC, you will find that the highest percentage of land use is indeed industrial. Hunters Point is just a section of LIC that has some residential population. But relative to the rest of the ENTIRE neighborhood, it’s a minority percentage. Why do you think LIC is still so dead at night? The majority of the population (especially in Court Sq) is daytime commercial.
I agree the res pop is growing, but who are we to say that we are more affluent than Sunnyside or Woodside? Because Rockrose tried to charge $1200/SF (highest ever in Queens) that’s now selling for $700/SF and/or available for rent? Don’t know anything about Maspeth, but SSide and WSide are established neighborhoods with VERY strong real estate markets. Not just poor dirty immigrants living there, like what most people outside think of Queens. Diverse, vibrant neighborhoods, with way more residential density that LIC will have in 10 years, so if we want to have our voice heard, we have to start getting involved now. Affluent or not.
The only one who actually lives here is Brent. Jimmy’s strength lies in his support of the library. He resides in Sunnyside. Eric Gioia is from Sunnyside/Woodside. He moved here after he was elected, and he seemed to have our best interests at heart until he moved back home. Now it seems he only gets involved in our needs when its a topic that might help him in his quest for the office of Public Advocate.
Of the 4 candidates, I feel that Brent and Jimmy come closest to understanding the special needs of Hunters Point. I am a woman, but I would never vote for a woman based only on the fact that “she is a woman”. And who is this high schooler yelling out “girl power”? Doesn’t she know that “girls” are those things she uses to fill out her bra?
“We are a more diverse neighborhood, with a highly educated population and growing affluence. We need to be taking the lead.”
Really? Realllllly? Or maybe the far more heavily populated neighborhoods full of regular middle and working class people should actually have more pull, because there are far more of them? Self-important much? LIC is indeed mostly industrial and has a pretty small population. Maspeth is also very industrial, of course, too.
Take it easy 14& 16 you are reading way too deep into things. Perhasp wounds are still raw from this week, but I think that all that is beings said is that LIC residention population has exploded in recent years, so while there are still a lot of industrial uses there generally is less industry than there has been in the past and more residential and commercial. Politicians should understand that. The demographics have also changed. To what I’m not sure, but it has changed to be certain. the other day there was a news article about dumping a waste transfer station in LIC. That may have been fine 20 years ago, but is that the direction that we are going?
17 articulated what I was trying to say clumsily in No. 13. All I really wanted to get across is that LIC is a much different place than our old-boy Dem network pols from Woodside and Sunnyside might think. There’s clearly a disconnect in how they handle Hunters Pt/LIC issues, as evidenced by their tone deafness on the liquor license issues. Also, many of you newer residents don’t understand the legacy problems residents in LIC have had with the entrenched crowd from S-/W-side. They just haven’t been there for us when we were getting lumbered with all the shitty uses, like filthy industries, homeless shelters, and the like. As an industrial area, we were a convenient dumping ground they could ignore. But no longer! It would be a refreshing change to have LIC’s issues — for residents and small business — move up to the top of the agenda. Why would anyone on this board complain about that?
I don’t think anyone is complaining about that.
I’m no republican, but I wish one was on the ticket. I would vote for him/her just to send a message. I think the last guy has it right some change would be good. Go to their website their issues statements look like they each copied off of each other. No fresh ideas or views at all.
This would be another event where it would be good to have a nice turnout from a representative slice of the community to pepper these guys with questions. For example this was on David Rosasco website:
“this phrase is merely an euphemism for developers and their allies in government to overdevelop, placing skyscrapers in Long Island City that have forever damaged the character of the community, leaving nothing but condominiums in their wake. ”
Hey buddy I live in one of those condominiums which is in your district. Nice to know that you think that my home has forever damaged the community. Are you *trying* to get my vote?
I don’t care where you fall in the development debate (and this is not about that, so don’t turn it into it). You may agree with him or not, but shouldn’t politician represent all the constituants? That statement is basically a big FU to a 30%-50% (?) of the residential popualtion of LIC.
I’m not saying I’m going to vote for him for this reason, but I’m glad to see an openly gay candidate. Just a reminder that for all we complain, there has definitely been some serious social progress in the US in the last few decades…nice to see it trickling up to the gov’t level more and more.
Sorry in case it was not clear, I meant Jimmy Van Bramer. -#22
“You may agree with him or not, but shouldn’t politician represent all the constituants? That statement is basically a big FU to a 30%-50% (?) of the residential popualtion of LIC.”
So? That’s <1% of the population of the district. It’s a smart move on his part, politically.
“They just haven’t been there for us when we were getting lumbered with all the shitty uses, like filthy industries, homeless shelters, and the like. As an industrial area, we were a convenient dumping ground they could ignore. But no longer! ”
Uh, false. Look at a map, and except for a few little pockets LIC is very industrially zoned, and makes sense as a place to put industry, homeless shelters, and the like. Much of LIC has few to zero residents, and thus lacks many people to oppose such things (and in fact such things are what the zoning says may go there). They aren’t going to build a waste transfer station in the middle of a residential neighborhood like Sunnyside, and while unfair, an some place next to the L.I.E. in LIC is going to face a lot less opposition to a homeless shelter than the middle of Woodside. These things need to go somewhere; they are going to go in industrial parts of LIC and Maspeth. Don’t worry, they probably won’t put them next to your condo on the waterfront. How much do you even interact with the vast swath of LIC outside your corner of Hunters Point? You probably won’t notice…
I’m not so sure. There are 5 occupied towers in QW. 6 if you count the View and dozens of smaller condos throughout LIC. Let just say for arguments sake say that there are 10 high-rises worth of people living in LIC. Assume that there are 500 units in each tower and 2 people on average living in each unit. That’s 10,000 people easy. What is total population of LIC – 25K? Seems like a risky strategy is you ask me.
21, the statement was not that the high rise buildings “damaged the community” it was that they “damaged the **character** of the community. That’s not an attack on your home. It’s a statement that’s a little difficult to deny.
Do you think the towers preserve the character of the community. In fact there are some here who think there should not even be preservation of the original community.
I’m not saying you have to agree with the guy but at least get the quote right.
I’m not sure if I follow. If there is a difference between damaging the community and damaging the character of the community it is a very nuanced difference. Anyway that’s not the point. My point is that it is important to get out and let these people know who they supposedly represent.
Want a Republican candidate move to Suffolk County. Plenty of them there because Republican policies/thoughts are more rural and less civilized and urban than Democrats.
Why do you think every major city usually leans heavily Democratic and most of the ‘red’ states are so Republican?
Country bumpkins (Republican) vs. educated city folk (Democrat)? Simple as that.
“These things need to go somewhere; ”
Yeah let’s put them in Jamaica or East New York or Bushwick. Not 4 minutes outside of Manhattan.
Or at the very least in Williamsburg…plenty of empty condos sitting in that area and Brooklyn, in general. Maybe displace some of the Michigan hipsters. Homeless people are less smelly than most Midwesterners.
28, I don’t want to beat it to a pulp but I think there is a difference. 21’s comments were expressing offense at the idea that the towers damaged the community. If that had been the statement I would be offended too. But the idea that high rise towers damages the pre-existing low rise character of the community is hard to refute.
Some people don’t mind that change to the landscape. Some even want the low rise community to disappear. And some are unhappy with the change.
My personal view is that the change along the waterfront has not been a bad thing. But there are some instances where out of scale buildings are plopped into the low rise community and that has been a detriment.
31, don’t want to get drawn into another thread that goes haywire, so lets agree to disagree. The word damage implies that things are worse not there was a change in general. That is not a statement of fact, but a subjective opinion. The only point that I want to make is that any politican that wants to ignore the changing demographic does so at his or her own risk. Even now, but especially long term with another 5000 units on the drawing board the residents in these high rises and new condos constitute a powerful voting block. I think we are only in the early stages of finding our political legs.
Ok let’s tame the numbers to reality a bit. Average number of units/building is closer to 50 units, not 500. My gut feel is that in the last 5 years about 3-5000 new people have moved into Hunters Point, including the Court Sq area.
No way #33. I guess we will see when the new census data comes out, but according to the QWDC Stage 1 Queens West has 1,600 housing units. Stage 2 has approximately 2,800 units of housing. That’s 4,440 units just in Queens West.
A quick list of new or in progress condos off the top of my head : The Powerhouse, The Gantry, Solarium Condos, The Foundry, Ten Sixty-Three, The Crescent Club, L Haus, One Hunters Point, Hunters View Condos, Galaxy Condos, The Prestige, 10-50 Jackson, 5th Street Lofts, Echelon Condos, 10-17 Jackson, Casa Vizcaya, Badge Building, Star Tower, Vere 26, Arris Lofts, View 59, 44-27 Purves St, Murano Condo, Fusion…
Now be fair some of these are still being constructed and other are not fully occupied yet, I’m sure I left out several buildings and some have 100’s of units and others only have a few dozen. Conservatively I don’t think that its a stretch to say that there are probably another 2,000 units in the 20+ buildings I just mentioned.
Hunters Point South will add another 5,000 units. If we are not there now, we will be there soon. More than 50% of LIC will be residents in these new buidlings. Eventually that will command respect from local politicians. The first person that can figure that out and develop a strong voting bloc that consistenly turns out to vote will do well. I can’t imaginine that there were more than 10-15k votes cast in the last district elections.
I am shocked. . .shocked by the level-headed and grown-up debate going on in this post.
It isn’t just the population growth shifting in LIC’s direction, it’s other aspects too. LIC is the most dynamic, energized neighborhood undergoing dramatic changes in western Queens, certainly more, I would argue, than Sunnyside and Woodside. This must be reflected in policy initiatives and political thinking in city and state legislative bodies.
Republicans tend to be more business (esp. small business) friendly. As a general statement I think we need more of that here.
37, What do you think would be some things Republicans could do for small businesses? I assume you mean independent people operating storefront businesses and not just day traders sitting at home hunched over their laptops.
Granted, there are thousands of units planned or under construction, but I wouldn’t consider 4.5% growth since 2000 a population explosion.
http://www.bestplaces.net/zip-code/Long_Island_City-New_York-11101.aspx
Unless someone has some better data?
Actually Queens West has its own zip code – 11109 which has had close to a 20% increase in poulation according to that site. Also I seriously doubt the accuracy/currency of the information on that site. According to them 11109 has a population of 1100. The Citylights building alone has 522 apartments. Conservatively assuming 1.5 persons per unit that would account for close to 800 people in that one bulding. I don’t see how that is could possibly be correct data.
Wow, I had no idea about 11109! I don’t know why I find this fascinating, but I found a few zip code maps that seem to only include Citylights in 11109. Here are two::
http://www.cyberhomes.com/neighborhoods-longislandcity-ny-11109/673405.aspx
http://www.zipmap.net/New_York/Queens_County.htm (enter zip for this one)
This may explain the low population number? Weirdness.
“LIC is the most dynamic, energized neighborhood undergoing dramatic changes in western Queens, certainly more, I would argue, than Sunnyside and Woodside. ”
“dramatic changes” don’t vote.
Also, someone really suggested industrial/social service uses be put in poor, minority mainly residential neighborhoods as opposed to in an industrial one? Really? In 2009? In public?
I can’t understand why people would be so nonchalant about accepting waste transfer stations and homeless shelters. Yes, these things need to go somewhere, but when everyone is fighting for them not to be in their backyard, why should we be running to accept them with open arms? This attitude in part is responsible for the legacy of LIC that we are dealing with today. You can’t dig into the soil without getting the DEP and hazmat teams involved. The bar needs to be set higher than that.
Right on # 42. Right on… FYI to all of you LICers, 65% of the local voting population is in Woodside/ Sunnyside. LIC makes up about 10%. The population is growing, but that population is NOT voting. If you want to be represented by your new city council member in Dist 26 (unlike what Eric Goia has done), then encourage your neighbors to vote. If you don’t vote, you won’t be represented.
I can’t believe people don’t see the obvious – Republicans are anti-small-business. In case someone wants to refute this, name one Republican initiative that is pro small business.
Easy #45 – lowering taxes.
46, you mean lowering capital gains taxes. That’s all they ever propose. Totally irresponsible. Unless I hear specific proposals they would adopt to help struggling restaurants and retails shops, I’ll vote for a grown-up.
Also cutting the red tape. Republicans generally understand that government does a poor job a managinging anything. There is way too much buracracy.
48, right. Because we know big business can run the financial system brilliantly and without any assistance from government, and Medicare is much poorly run than private HMOs. And let’s not forget the fantastic and cost-effective job Haliburton and private military contractors have done in Iraq. Please. It’s not 1986 anymore.
Again, local Republican officials in NYC have absolutely nothing to offer regular workers and small businesses like we have on Vernon Blvd. If they do, let’s hear specific proposals.
Who knows if his/her numbers are right, but I do like where #32 is going. Every new building has a co-op board or a condo association or some other similar organizations. Most also have sub-committees that focus on community issues. What would happen if each of those buildings nominated a representative and they joined forces to try to tackle some of these issues in the LIC ? They could be a force. When a group speaking for thousands of residents come together on quality of life issues in a concentrated area they would be very hard to ignore.
How about it? Any board members reading?
I agree entirely with 32 and 50. The sooner LIC starts shaking up the silver-haired patriarchal farts in Sunny/Woodside, the better. It’s a long overdue payback for their many years neglecting us around here.
This is a primary debate. Presumably there are republican candidates in their own primary. The focus is on the democratic primary, because the winner is nearly assured of winning the general election in November.
52, I wouldn’t be so sure the democratic winner is assured victory. People want a change and 48 of 51 council members are democrats. They don’t serve us at all. What would electing another one do for us?.
There is a republican this year – Angelo Maragos and he lives in long island city.
He is an engineer from the cooper union and is a business analyst at credit suisse. On small business he has proposed creating incentives for businesses to locate and hire in our district (as there are for lower manhattan) and help existing small business by offering rent-rebates and interest-free loans.
I’ve heard him speak – sounds like he’s committed to shake things up.
Maragos makes an awful lot of promises for expensive goodies on his website, but doesn’t explain how he’d pay for any of it. Are you sure he isn’t a Democrat?
He does mention promoting efficiency by cutting waste, fraud, and redundant services. I believe our city has over 100 agencies – with many performing similar or related functions. Let’s reform already! We definitely need our government run more responsibly and there’s plenty of room to cut costs and save money. Not to mention all the fraud our council members committ with tax payer (our) money!
48 out of 51? Wow . . . it would probably take more Republicans to keep all the Democrats in check.
55, we’ve had Republican mayors in NYC for nearly 15 years, and neither of them seem to been able to “cut waste, fraud, and redundant services.” In fact, both Giuliani and Bloomberg have presided over significant increased spending, so each is partly to blame for lumbering the city with long-term fiscal problems, like exploding pension costs.
So what is a freshman Councilman going to do that our two last mayors haven’t been able to do? Be specific.
Congrats to Nancy for moderating. It was an interesting evening. High point I think was an attendee’s question regarding Eric Gioia’s accomplishments and disappointments. Two candidates in my opinion – Jimmy & Brent – had the clearest grasp on our local issues as well as the vision to act with an accessible and inclusive approach.
Regarding Republicans, they do not walk the neighborhood. They do not reach out to business or organizations. They have no proposals other than the usual claim they are for cutting waste and government while at the same time presiding over increased waste and decreased oversight. The economic mess we are in is the legacy of years of Republican fraud and abuse. I don’t know how they keep convincing the poor shlubs out there that this party has the average person’s well being in mind.
It would be great if someone can recap the highlights. I’m sorry I missed it.
I thought Jimmy, Brent and Deirdre were all good…I have mixed feelings about her being taken to task at the end for asking for a legal count of signatures gathered.
David needs help with his delivery, presentation, style, body language etc.
What? No way. David was a brilliant theater of the absurd artist. He’d make a lousy politician however as his basic tenet is: everything sucks, they are all against you, and don’t look to me to help you.
I know, in a way, it’s refreshing to hear such honesty from a candidate-
even if it may not have been the intended impression he was hoping to impart.
Where was overyone during the debate? Angelo Maragos is the Republican and Conservative Party candidate. Angelo brought creative ideas to solve the affordable housing issue affecting our communitywith his proposal to use TARP money for the city to buy foreclosed and confiscated properties and privatize them to to tenants. This will provide large quantities of affordable housing combined with private ownership and will generate property taxes for the city. It is a win-win proposal which changes the demand – suply formula. All the Democratic candidates did was to recugetate old promises to punish landlords. These propomises have not created a single afforadable house in the last 20 years even with millions of tax abatetments given developers.
As for the idea of smaller more efficient government, Angelo is the only cnadidate that advocates a smaller more efficent government. I guess all the Democrats what to continue growing government which increases taxes and is driving business and jobs away. Angelo is for keeping taxes down, creating good jobs and having an efficient government that is not forced to cut services and funding to senior centers, libraries and transportation.
David Rosasco I am sorry to say is just a sore loser, don’t get me wrong I believe people should be fair and honest as far as race’s are concerned. But it’s politics man and David should have known that and prevented himself to have been tossed from the ballot.
It’s noble to go down fighting but the board of elections themselves have a rule for a writing ballot and the last day to get their approval was on July 30, and he is parading on the streets harder than ever telling people to mark yes next to his name knowing the fact that his name will not be in any election booth since he missed the “official” deadline as per the NYC Board of Elections.
I agree with a lot of folks here, the race is between Jimmy and Brent, and after seeing Brent on nbcnewyork.com’s site I have picked him after hearing him.
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I’m curious why David Rosasco was listed as a “Conservative Democrat” but the others just “Democrat.” Is that a designation he chose?