A minor political party could make major waves this fall with its push for progressive legislation in support of working people

Championing bread-and-butter causes affecting low and middle-income earners, such as raising the minimum wage and taxing the wealthy, one independent political party headquartered in Brooklyn Heights is intent on a sweeping elimination of Democratic incumbents in the upcoming elections.

Formed in 1998 with a presence in 19 states, the Working Families Party claims to fight for an economy that “works for everyone, not just the wealthy and well-connected.” This election cycle, the party is crusading to vote out the “corporate Democrats” accused of consorting with Republicans in exchange for campaign money from real estate lobbyists.

Among them are Senator Jesse Hamilton of District 20 in Brooklyn and seven other Democratic state senators who are part of the Republican-aligned Independent Democratic Conference. The IDC purportedly blocked progressive initiatives, such as the Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s effort to give $4.2 billion in IOUs for underfunded public schools and also stalled efforts to pass criminal justice reform that would eliminate bail for misdemeanors. The WFP has endorsed Hamilton’s opponent, progressive lawyer and activist Zellnor Myrie.

Insurgency is an uncharacteristic move for a minor political party, but WFP has laid everything on the line by endorsing Governor Andrew Cuomo’s challenger, Sex and the City actress and activist Cynthia Nixon despite her lagging in recent polls, and launching the “No Trump Democrats” campaign in January this year to educate voters about the eight senators who defected and are running for re-election on the Democratic ticket.

While this radical overture has cost WFP the support of union leaders fearful of angering Cuomo, founder Bill Lipton says the trade-off is worth it:

“Our mission is to ensure that there is a party that represents working people,” he says. “The Democrats have to really change before they can be that party. And if not, they need to get out of the way so we can build a new party in this country that actually represents working people.”

Ava Benezra, a political organizer at WFP, came up with the idea for the ‘No Trump Democrats’ campaign to dispel the mystery of the IDC by sending 300,000 text messages and placing hundreds of thousands of calls to voters.

“I think before this campaign, the IDC was an intensely convoluted issue to explain; they just lied for years and years,” said Benezra. But those who felt jarred after the 2016 presidential election sprang into action, many as political activists. “When that shifted we really wanted to take advantage of that and we really wanted to put it to use on winning elections,” she said.

The WFP has also endorsed two candidates for attorney general: Constitutional rights lawyer Zephyr Teachout and public advocate Tish James, the first WFP member elected to office when she won a City Council seat in 1997. After the primaries in September, WFP will back the winning candidate for the general election. Meanwhile, Councilmember Jumaane Williams, running for lieutenant governor against incumbent Kathy Hochul, is also on the WFP ballot.

Lipton says the real reason Trump won the 2016 presidential election is that Democratic voters can’t trust their own party when elected officials are in the pocket of corporations. “There was a lot of concern about those Goldman Sachs speeches and the donors to her foundations,” he says of the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The New York State Democratic Party exemplifies this problem at the local level, Lipton says. “Here you have Andrew Cuomo who raises tens of millions of dollars from the same people, the Koch brothers. Donald Trump himself has given this guy money. And so many wealthy real estate industry leaders and hedge fund leaders.”

The result in New York, he says, is a rift between progressives and liberal Democrats, who seem fiscally and ideologically conservative in contrast. “The Democratic party is like a person without a country. They’re lost and they’re trying to find themselves.”

He cites survey data indicating that the majority of Americans when asked what the Democratic party stands for respond with “I don’t know.”

“That was a big problem for [the Democrats] in 2016 and we want to change that.”

The New York State primaries will take place on September 13, followed by the general elections on November 6. In New York State, to register to vote, go here.

Numerous seats are open in this year’s primaries for statewide positions such as governor and lieutenant governor, attorney general, the state’s chief legal officer, as well as local races for state assembly and senate districts.

Here’s a quick and handy rundown on who’s running, their platforms and the challenges they face, ahead of the primary election on Thursday, September 13, 2018. The general election will be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2018.

New York State Governor 

Andrew M. Cuomo versus Cynthia Nixon

Andrew M. Cuomo (incumbent)

Platform:

• Criminal justice reform
• Gun safety
• Educational opportunity for all
• LGBTQ rights
• Minimum wage

Running on a staunchly anti-Trump ticket, Governor Andrew Cuomo pitches his experience as vital in keeping New York a progressive state. But his opponent Cynthia Nixon has railed against him for condoning the recently disbanded Independent Democratic Conference in the State Senate, which allowed Republicans to seize control, despite the Democratic majority, in exchange for special interest money.

Cuomo’s achievements include raising the minimum wage to $15/hour, instituting 12 weeks of paid family leave and legalizing same-sex marriage in New York. While his third-term agenda remains shrouded in mystery, Cuomo has expressed plans to tackle major infrastructure projects such as the expansion of Penn Station and the renovation of LaGuardia Airport. 

In his bid for re-election, the governor has leaned heavily on past achievements, such as infrastructure projects including the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River, the opening of the Second Avenue Subway, as well as his Middle-Class Recovery Act which includes the Excelsior scholarship offering free tuition for qualifying CUNY and SUNY students and tax cuts for those making $40,000-$150,000 a year.

Cynthia Nixon

Platform:

• #SchoolsNotJails
• Fixing the subway
• Single-payer healthcare
• Universal rent control
• Legalization of marijuana
• Immigrant rights – all New Yorkers should be able to obtain a driver’s license regardless of immigration status

Challenging Cuomo’s bid, actress and activist Cynthia Nixon is pushing for a “millionaire’s tax” to overhaul New York’s deteriorating subway system — a misnomer considering the tax hike kicks in at $300,000 for a married couple. She is also an advocate for single-payer healthcare, which would cut the administrative costs of insurers as middlemen.

According to the 22-page #SchoolsNotJails plan on Nixon’s website, her agenda for the justice system is decidedly progressive: end arrests for low-level offenses, eliminate cash bail, release police misconduct records to the public and stop prosecuting minors under 18 as adults. Nixon wants money funneled towards schools instead of jails and is quick to point out the massive gap between what it costs to keep one person in an NYC prison for a year ($118,000) and the cost of tuition at a CUNY or SUNY ($6,500 and $21,000 respectively). 

Lieutenant Governor

Kathy Hochul versus Jumaane Williams

Kathy Hochul (incumbent)

Platform:

• Gun control
• Access to higher education
• Women’s rights
• Economic development
• Immigrant rights

Incumbent Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul has represented Cuomo since 2014 in meetings with local business owners, mayors and community leaders and visiting college campuses.

In 2017, Cuomo appointed Hochul to co-chair the Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Abuse and Addiction, in which she convened outreach sessions across the state with experts and community members to devise a comprehensive strategy to combat the heroin crisis. As chair of the Regional Economic Development Council, Hochul has secured a record increase of workforce development funding to help New Yorkers find well-paying jobs.

Jumaane D. Williams

Platform:

• Women’s reproductive rights
• Criminal justice reform
• Environmental protection
• Gun violence prevention
• Legalizing marijuana
• Affordable housing

City Councilman Jumaane Williams representing Brooklyn’s 45th Council District claims that blockage of progressive legislation in New York State is caused by “Democrats who are afraid to step up” and not the Republican opposition. Williams wants to impose a “billionaire’s tax” to fund public education and shift the tax brackets upwards to relieve the lower and middle class.

If elected, Williams believes his task first and foremost would be rectifying “Cuomo’s MTA” and “Cuomo’s educational crisis.” He has accused his incumbent challenger, Kathy Hochul, for being complicit in Cuomo’s conservative-leaning agenda and wants to revamp the role of lieutenant governor into one that holds the governor accountable.

Attorney General

Candidates: Letitia James, Zephyr Teachout, Sean Patrick Maloney and  Leecia Eve

After former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigned in May, following allegations of sexual assault, his position has been contested by four candidates: NYC Public Advocate Tish James, Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachout, lawyer and former Hillary Clinton advisor Leecia Eve and representative for New York’s 18th Congressional District Sean Patrick Maloney, who is simultaneously running for re-election.

The race for AG highlights the emerging rift between establishment Democrats and their insurgent challengers who are pushing further left. All four candidates claim intentions of protecting New Yorkers from the Trump administration’s conservative policies.

If elected, James, who sued NYCHA in 2015 for keeping tenants in dangerously cold apartments, wants to oust U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson as well as President Trump. Teachout has vowed to launch an investigation into the president’s business empire and prosecute or even dissolve it in the case of extreme illegality. Meanwhile, Eve has applauded Schneiderman’s push to change state law so that the AG has the power to prosecute Trump aides even if he pardoned them, while Maloney has expressed fighting corruption in the state government as a priority.

State Senate District 18 (Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Bushwick, Cypress Hills)

Martin Malave Dilan versus Julia Salazar 

Incumbent Senator Martin Dilan has championed causes such as tenant rights, public safety, voting rights and numerous transportation issues including a ban on texting while driving and Leandra’s Law, which makes it a felony to drive while intoxicated with a child in the car.

Democratic socialist and community activist Julia Salazar is challenging Dilan for the Senate seat he’s occupied since 2003. Part of a wave of Democrats who identify as socialists, Salazar has put affordable housing at the center of her campaign, vowing to end vacancy decontrol, preferential rent and permanent MCI-induced rent increases.

State Senate District 20 (Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, South Slope and Sunset Park)

Jesse Hamilton versus Zellnor Myrie

The tussle between incumbent State Senator Jesse Hamilton and progressive attorney Zellnor Myrie typifies the Who is a real Democrat? controversy weighing down this year’s election cycle. One of eight senators who caucused separately with Republicans through the Independent Democratic Conference, Hamilton has been accused of accepting contributions from real estate lobbyists and blocking progressive legislation in the Senate.

A former City Council staffer, Myrie helped write the first tenant’s bill of rights protecting tenants from unscrupulous landlords. If elected, Myrie wants to repeal the Urstadt law, which caps rent stabilization in NYC.

Both candidates want to eliminate preferential rent and vacancy decontrols and make MCIs, an increase in rent after a major capital improvement, temporary. Meanwhile, Hamilton wants to increase funding for public schools to hire more social workers rather than security guards as an antidote to violence in schools and pass the Liberty Act to establish New York as a sanctuary state.

State Assembly District 53  (Bushwick, East Williamsburg)

Maritza Davila versus Humberto Soto

Assemblywoman Maritza Davila has fought to expand affordable housing in Williamsburg and Bushwick, recently joining a host of lawmakers to contest a 27-story building slated for construction on the Ridgewood/Bushwick border.

Her opponent, Humberto Soto is listed on Ballotpedia.com, but does not appear to have a website nor any press coverage during the course of his campaign.

State Assembly District 60 (East New York)

Charles Barron versus Jaytee Spurgeon

Former City Councilman Charles Barron is a longtime community organizer who recently joined forces with Mayor de Blasio to introduce a bill that would eliminate the city’s Specialized High School Admissions Test in a bid to increase diversity at specialized high schools. A founding member of the East New York-based group People Organizing and Working for Empowerment and Respect, Barron has voiced his support for Nixon as governor, stating: “With a $168 billion budget there should be zero poverty in our community.”

Barron’s opponent, Jaytee Spurgeon does not appear to have a campaign website or any press coverage during his campaign, although he is listed as a candidate on Ballotpedia.com.

The New York Coalition to End Female Genital Mutilation hosted the inaugural V-March on Saturday to call on city agencies to organize a coordinated response to end female genital mutilation (FGM).

The V-March, a celebration of women’s “voices, victories and vitality,” began at City Hall with opening remarks by Councilwoman Alicka Ampry-Samuels, sponsor of the march. A procession of 15-20 volunteers then trekked to Prospect Park, brandishing anti-FGM signs and chanting, “Liberate her!” The group assembled at Prospect Park’s Concert Grove, where V-March co-organizer Kimberly Knox hosted a series of performances.

Although commonly considered non-prevalent in the US, half a million women and girls are at risk of experiencing FGM, 65,000 of whom reside in New York City, according to the coalition.

In NYC, most FGM adherents are from East-African, Sub-Saharan African or South Asian immigrant communities, where the practice is considered a rite of passage for girls entering womanhood. Others justify it as a religious tenet despite no supporting liturgy, said Natasha Johnson, the brains behind the V-March. Johnson is an attorney specializing in immigrant’s rights and domestic abuse cases, and founder of the nonprofit Globalizing Gender, which advocates against gender-based violence.

“FGM can seem like a really exclusive issue,” she said. “But the reality is that it’s an issue of women’s rights, mental health and public health.”

Johnson has collaborated with city agencies such as the New York City Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence and the office of District Attorney Eric Gonzalez to educate doctors, first responders and even schoolteachers to establish a referral pipeline so victims can get counseling, medical care or legal representation.

“We’re doing a lot of partnerships with schools because teachers are some of the people who see this firsthand,” Johnson explained. “They might see that their student was super happy right before the school break and they return completely changed.”

Known as “vacation cutting,” US-born girls, often without any forewarning, are sent away during the winter or summer breaks to their home countries to be cut. In other cases, communities will pool money to fly in a professional cutter from overseas to cut several girls at one time. 

In 2003, Johnson established the first legal services program for sub-Saharan Africans experiencing domestic violence under the nonprofit Sanctuary for Families.

“My clients shared their daughters were either being cut or threatened to be cut, mostly for working with me to get their domestic violence cases adjudicated,” Johnson said, referencing cases where a violent husband would retaliate against his spouse for bringing domestic abuse charges against him by threatening to subject their daughters to FGM..

“Most of my clients didn’t want their daughters to be cut, even if they had been cut,” she added

The turnout at Prospect Park was small on that unseasonably frigid morning, but Johnson understands that gathering momentum takes time.

“There were lots of curious faces. I could see people Googling to figure out what FGM was, and that is a start,” she said. “We had a police escort, so people paid attention, were reading our signs and cheering us on.”

Through her production company UBIQUITA Worldwide, Knox is working with UK-based filmmaker Maleena Pone on a documentary about Johnson’s activism and the issue of FGM worldwide.

“The movie is about Natasha since she’s spearheading the first march of this kind here in NYC, which is a great opening point to explore the issue,” she explained.

The FBI is investing leads on the illegal practice of female genital mutilation. Victims and community members with relevant information can submit tips anonymously by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI or online via  www.fbi.gov/fgm.

Invoking the urgency of establishing an archive for the Black community to document its legacy, the Weeksville Heritage Center hosted ‘Archives for Black Lives’ on Saturday as part of its Legacy Project. The initiative democratizes this once exclusionary field and empowers community members to create their own archives through photography and sound recordings.

Touting the call-to-action, “Take charge of your own legacy!” the center invited people to bring photographs, record a 10-minute interview and upload the files to Weeksville’s community archives on 5thofJuly.org, an online platform named after the day in 1872 when Black New Yorkers first celebrated their emancipation.

“Communities of color are being displaced and it’s really important to document that,” said Celeste Â-Re, a recorded sound technician at the National Library of Congress and a Legacy Project consultant. “We need to create solutions to help people resist being pushed out of their communities.” An “activist scholar,” she sees archiving as a politically-charged undertaking that determines who is included or excluded, which archives are preserved or destroyed. 

“If you get rid of the records of a particular group of people, that means you do not value them,” agreed Obden Mondésir, oral history project manager at Weeksville Heritage Center.

Mondésir kicked off proceedings with a presentation on the importance of oral history and shared interviewing techniques such as asking open-ended questions and “thinking about the ‘third person’ in the room so people in the future can use these interviews.”  

Â-Re led a second workshop showing attendees how to scan photos using smartphones or on one of the center’s scanning stations.

“That’s me on the left and that’s my husband on the right,” said participant Rodney Brown, showing a photo on his iPhone of the two men standing arm in arm in front a storefront, one side bearing an advertisement with the words: How I Look, while the other side reads How I Feel. He loved the dichotomy and insisted on taking a picture.

“How you feel and how you look were sort of two things that were opposite,” he explained. “We might look put together on the outside but not so much on the inside.”

Most people had taken photographs of old Polaroids as a way of archiving family photos. But Paulette Portier, a Bedford Stuyvesant native, brought an entire leatherbound album with black-and-white snaps. One photograph of her mother and grandfather sitting on a sofa in the backyard of her aunt’s house in Lake Forest, North Carolina, particularly amused her. 

“I never asked about it, but I always thought it was weird that they were sitting outside on that couch like it was lawn furniture.” She has about ten more of these albums and is eager to have them digitized for the sake of long-term preservation.

“What will happen to these photos after I’m gone? They can live forever if they’re archived.” Asked whether she would keep the photos once they’d been digitized, she laughed: “I’ll keep the pictures until they disintegrate.”

The Legacy Project: Archives for Black Lives, still a pilot project, could spread nationally, said Â-Re. “I would like to see a network develop of cultural heritage workers and memory workers doing research within communities.” 

Currently, the Weeksville Heritage Center is focused on raising awareness about the importance of oral histories and making the project self-sustaining through its ongoing Public Training Workshop Series.

The next workshop, titled ‘Recovering Stories: A Workshop in Active Listening’ takes place on Wednesday, November 28,  and focuses on the connection between listening and storytelling.

Dismayed by the lack of representation for women of color at the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, Korean-American community organizer Julie Kim co-founded the Brooklyn-based Asian American Feminist Collective (AAFC), a space for Asian-American women to discuss their experiences in the current political climate, to build community and advocacy.

The group, which hosted its official launch party in Prospect Heights this September, is on a mission to ensure that political resistance efforts adequately represent the needs of a demographic that’s often dismissed as apolitical.

In fact, when in 2014 Chinese-Americans jumped to the defense of NYPD Officer Peter Liang who fired a bullet into a dark stairwell at East New York’s Pink Houses that killed unarmed Akai Gurley, the resulting advocacy and street protests in Chinatown were portrayed by the media as an anomaly, says Rachel Kuo, a Crown Heights resident who is part of AAFC’s four-women leadership committee.

“There was a shock in the media, like ‘Oh my God, look at all these Asians coming out to protest,‘” she recalls.

And while headlines mostly reported on Chinese-Americans who were advocating for Liang’s acquittal, groups like Asians for Black Lives were clamoring for his arrest. Kuo says there’s a tendency within the Asian American community towards “look-alike politics,” where Asians are more likely to side with those who look like them.

“Rather than frame politics as right or wrong, part of our mission is to create spaces and resources that make intersectional feminist politics more accessible to our communities,” says Kuo. 

Inspired by the “Asian American Feminism in the Trump Era” series hosted by the NYC chapter of the National Pacific Asian Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), an organization dedicated to reproductive justice, gender parity and immigrant’s rights, AAFC has curated a range of events with unique angles. In June, the coalition hosted a roundtable on gender-based violence, the #MeToo movement, and how social media impacts the public discourse on rape and sexual assault.

Most recently, on Sunday night, the group held a screening of the film MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A, which chronicles the life of artist M.I.A., who as the daughter of the founder of Sri Lanka’s armed Tamil resistance fled with her family to the U.K. before rising to international pop stardom.

In October, AAFC launched its first digital zine titled Building an Asian-American Feminist Movement: A Manifesto. The zine places the Asian-American feminist movement in historical context and highlights past liberation movements that inform today’s political struggles. One particularly noteworthy section calls out the “model minority myth,” in which Asian-Americans are cast as exemplary minorities because they rank higher than Blacks and Latinos in statistics like income level, college admissions, GPA, representation in Ivy League schools.

“It creates this narrative of ‘good’ and ‘deserving’ immigrants versus ‘bad’ and ‘undeserving’ immigrants,” says Kuo, who is a Ph.D. candidate at NYU’s Department of Media, Culture and Communication and teaches courses in social and racial justice.  

Next, AAFC is working on a digital storytelling project that joins lived experiences and historical contexts to imagine political possibilities that can be accomplished as a group. The collective is currently accepting written submissions, artwork and photos until December 1.

To learn more about upcoming events, follow AAFC on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to their newsletter.

With Democrats claiming the majority in the New York State Senate for the first time in a decade, progressives are hopeful that bread-and-butter causes affecting working-class New Yorkers will finally be at the legislative forefront.

From single-payer health care to funding for education and passing criminal justice reform packages, the blue wave is poised to unstick legislation stalled in the Senate because of bipartisan clashes. Protecting New Yorkers from unjust evictions, rent increases and seizure of property are top Democratic priorities, with calls for expanded rent control and the elimination of MCI-induced rent increases.

The Brooklyn senators now charged with making the blue shift stick include two newly-minted elects, Senators Julia Salazar (District 18) and Zellnor Myrie (District 20), as well as incumbents Kevin Parker (District 21), Velmanette Montgomery (District 25) and Roxanne Persaud (District 19).

In a victory not unlike the landslide win by Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez against 10-term Congressman Joe Crowley, Salazar, a 27-year-old Latina, beat out eight-term incumbent Sen. Martin Malave Dilan, who has represented Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Bushwick and Cypress Hills since 2003.

“It challenges so much of what I grew up with,” said Salazar. “Growing up I didn’t see many women, especially women of color, in elected office. And that’s radically changing.”

A longtime community organizer inspired to run for office because of the affordable housing crisis, Salazar is raring to introduce a policy package to replace existing rent laws set to expire in June 2019.

“I want to introduce legislation around just cause evictions,” said Salazar. “In order to evict a tenant, the burden would be on the landlord or management company to prove that there’s a just cause for seeking to evict a tenant or raise their rent.”

In addition to sunsetting MCI-induced rent increases, in which tenants bear the cost of capital improvements made to their apartments through hiked rents, Salazar is pushing for universal rent control and a tenant’s rights platform that includes the right for all renters to renew a lease, and protections against rent hikes and harassment.

“What we really want is for all tenants to have the protection they need to be able to stay in their homes, not be facing housing insecurity and eviction,” Salazar explained.

Meanwhile, Myrie’s victory against incumbent Sen. Jesse Hamilton, who represented Crown Heights, Brownsville and East Flatbush since 2015, might bode a more united front amongst progressive and moderate Democrats. One of eight senators who caucused with Republicans through the Independent Democratic Conference, Hamilton was accused of accepting contributions from real estate lobbyists and blocking progressive legislation. Myrie, on the other hand, helped write the first Tenants’ Bill of Rights protecting renters from unscrupulous landlords. One of his priorities is to repeal the Urstadt law, which caps rent stabilization in NYC.

For nine-term Sen. Parker, who represents East Flatbush, Flatbush, Midwood, Ditmas Park, Kensington, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace and Borough Park, the Democratic majority in the Senate represents an opportunity to reallocate resources to Black and Latino communities. 

“This gives us an ability to right some of those wrongs and create a balance in the budget in which Black and Latino communities across the state are now getting the resources they need, because up until this point most of them have been underrepresented,” said Parker.

Last month, he introduced the Jeremiah’s law, a bill designed to protect children from false 911 calls after the “Cornerstore Caroline” incident occurred, in which Flatbush resident Teresa Klein falsely accused 9-year-old Jeremiah Harvey of groping her.

In addition to championing sustainable energy causes and calling for one million households in New York to use solar panels by 2023, Parker also advocates for stricter gun control and has proposed legislation requiring those who apply for a gun license to undergo a social media history review that scours for red flags like hate speech. If the bill passes, applicants would have to provide access to their Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram, and their Google, Yahoo and Bing searches.

“It’s something we can do to make sure that we are not giving gun licenses to people who should not have them,” said Parker.

The state senators will return to Albany for the new legislative session on January 9, lead for the first time by a woman, the newly appointed Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

Don Victor Mooney, the first African American to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a rowboat, has launched a petition for a “Resilience Plaque” to be mounted at the Brooklyn Bridge to commemorate the arrival of the first African slaves on U.S. shores 400 years ago.

The campaign is part of a national movement to recognize the resilience and cultural contributions of African Americans since their arrival at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619. The movement spurred a bill in 2018, the 400 Years of African-American History Commission Act, which establishes a commission to launch programs, activities and research dedicated to acknowledging not only the contributions of Africans, but also the enduring impact of slavery and laws that enforced racial discrimination.

“It is a story of achievement and beauty, poets and presidents, pain and degradation, triumph over adversity and sometimes adversity following triumph,” Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, who co-sponsored the bill. “This story must be told in full to enrich our understanding of who we are as a country.”

Mooney’s personal journey began when he rowed 5000 miles from the Canary Islands to the Brooklyn Bridge in 2015, retracing the treacherous routes of the transatlantic slave trade to “bring global awareness to HIV/AIDS, which is devastating populations across the world,” he said. It was a gruesome adventure he took on to honor his brother who died from the disease.

Inspired by the experience, he’s now speaking at churches and schools throughout Brooklyn not only about his 21-month journey, but about the resilience of his forebears, and why his story is one of many testaments to the power of not giving up.

“It is about sharing this experience with as many people as possible and especially the children,” said Mooney. “It’s important for them to know their African ancestry.”

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first Africans arriving in the U.S., Mooney and a raft of supporters are now petitioning to have a stone ‘Resilience Plaque’ mounted at the Brooklyn Bridge, where he successfully concluded his transatlantic crossing, after three previous attempts.

“Since day one, the endpoint was the Brooklyn Bridge — it wasn’t St. Martin, Puerto Rico or Miami,” Mooney said of his journey. “That was the dream that was embedded into my mind, and, by God’s grace, I was able to end at Brooklyn Bridge.”

Mooney has become a figurehead of history himself, sort of, brought to life from having slept in the slave dungeons on Goree Island, Senegal, and attacked by Haitian pirates in the Caribbean on his third attempt at crossing the Atlantic. For him, the greatest gift has been the ability to inspire younger generations to see that anything is possible.

“We need perseverance every day, and getting kids to do well in school can be challenging,” Mooney said. “Now they can relate to something that did happen and understand that they can overcome obstacles and challenges. With perseverance, studying and having faith, there’s nothing that they can’t accomplish.”

To sign the petition for the ‘Resilience Plaque, visit Change.org.

In a heated public hearing at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School Thursday night on the proposed New York City borough-based jail system, Brooklyn residents voiced their dissent the possible expansion of the Atlantic Avenue Detention Center.

In 2017, Mayor DeBlasio committed to closing Rikers by 2027, proposing instead four borough-based jails that would put inmates closer to courthouses, healthcare facilities and their families. The mayor’s plan suggests expanding the 800-bed facility on Atlantic Avenue to a 40-story building with a capacity of 1500 beds, adding ground-floor retail and community space, and nearly 300 parking spaces.

At the hearing hosted by Community Board 2, naysayers expressed concerns ranging from the unsightliness of a prison complex to the fear that the detention center’s excess capacity would ultimately increase the prison population.

“If you build it, they will fill it,” the audience chanted at regular intervals throughout the hearing.

In conjunction with the mayor’s plan, advocates have pushed for criminal justice reforms to further drive down the number of inmates on Rikers, leading the state legislature to set a goal of reducing the prison population from 15,000 to 5,000; meanwhile, the city plans to reduce the number to 3,500 inmates by 2027.

“Bail is going to be the biggest driver of reducing the number of people that are sitting on pretrial detention because they can’t afford bail,” said State Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon, who was in attendance along with Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Councilmember Stephen Levitt. Roughly 78 percent of those jailed on Rikers can’t afford to post bail before their trial.

“A new report today from the Center for Court Innovation revealed that of the nearly 8,000 incarcerated people in NYC jails, 43 percent of the 5000 pretrial detainees would not be in jail had the recently enacted reforms been effected,” Simon continued.

Most community members said they support the closure of Rikers but want to limit the expansion of the detention center at 275 Atlantic Avenue. Part of the city’s approach to closing Rikers has been to divide its 5,750 beds equally between the four boroughs —  hence the proposed 1,500 beds in Brooklyn.

But community members are clamoring for smaller jails in anticipation of lower incarceration rates; others questioned the need of building new jails despite the new reforms designed to prevent people from being incarcerated.

“Why is that we’re not waiting to see what the impact of these reforms are going to before build these new jails,” said Albert Saint-Jean of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. “And: I find it very disingenuous for people to talk about decarceration but at the same time your first go-to is to build jails.”

Others suggested that the $10 billion allocated for the expansion of the detention center could be better spent on job training, mental health services and schools.

Darren Mac, who spent 19 months on Rikers, said it’s imperative that the new jails are not managed by the same Department of Corrections officers known to use excessive force against inmates.

“The mayor proposed a system that is safer,” said Mac. “Conditions are important, but culture is equally important because the culture of violence on Rikers is led by its isolation on an island and decades of mismanagement by the Department of Corrections. Therefore, it is time to end the absolute and unaccountable power the DOC has on these facilities.”

Under the Uniform Land Use Review Process, the community boards representing the neighborhoods where the four detention sites are planned have 60 days to host a public hearing and provide recommendations to the city. Brooklyn’s CB 2 will continue to discuss the borough-based jail system ULURP application at its Land Use Committee meeting on Wednesday, April 17, at NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

Eight candidates are jostling for the District 45 City Council seat left by Jumaane Williams when he was elected public advocate in February. Mayor DeBlasio set a special election date on May 14. But, whoever wins will have to run again in the June 25-primary six weeks later to serve out the remainder of Williams’ term through 2021.

Meet the contenders (in alphabetical order) who are emphatic about protecting local tenants and small businesses, and providing educational and mental health services in the district that covers East Flatbush, Flatbush, Flatlands, Marine Park and Midwood.

Anthony Alexis

Platform:

• Employment, housing, youth and senior services

Community organizer Anthony Alexis currently supervises city-funded senior centers and co-founded Brooklyn Young Democrats in the ’90s “with a mission to motivate and encourage young people to participate in the political process.” Prior to working with seniors, Alexis served in the City Council and the NY State Assembly.

Monique Chandler-Waterman

Platform:

• Fund education and promote mental health awareness
• Address up-zoning of residential communities
• Curb gun violence

Monique Chandler-Waterman is a mother of four, a longtime advocate and founder of East Flatbush Village Inc., a nonprofit youth programs and family support including mental health tools and anti-violence initiatives. She has become one of the frontrunners after receiving Williams’ endorsement, for whom she worked as director of community outreach from 2012-2014. 

One of her main concerns is that police often have to respond to incidents involving mental health issues without being properly trained.

“I believe there should be a dedicated emergency response mental health team to take care of people in crisis,” said Waterman. “Too many people with mental illness have been shot, and killed, by police. People in my community live with the trauma of these incidents, the stress of daily life and a rapidly-changing community. I want to make sure they have support.”

Victor Jordan

Platform:

• Education funding
• Solutions to the foreclosure crisis plaguing the district
• Resisting the displacement of the community

A small business owner and economist from Guyana, Victor Jordan previously worked as a trade economist for Trinidad’s Ministry of Trade Industry. He ran unsuccessfully for District 42nd’s State Assembly seat in 2014, 2016 and 2018. Currently, he serves as a member of Community Board 17’s Community Emergency Response Team, where he is on standby to assist police and firefighters in cases of emergency.

Farah Louis

Platform:

• Community outreach and education around affordable housing
• Re-characterizing “Little Haiti” designation into “Little Caribbean”
• Youth and professional development

Before Williams endorsed Waterman, the presumed top contender was Farah Louis, his former deputy chief of staff. Prior to her time at the City Council, Louis worked as a mental health professional and founded Girls Leading Up, an organization that prepares young women to become leaders. Additionally, she has worked with several local community groups, including the Haitian Centers Council and Flatbush Development Corporation, promoting health and wellness, financial literacy and civic engagement.

Jovia Radix

Platform:

• Affordable senior housing
• Investing in schools and after-school programs
• Support services for immigrants

Attorney Jovia Radix is a life-long Flatbush resident and the vice president of the Thomas Jefferson Young Democrats Club. She previously served as Brooklyn Regional Representative to Governor Cuomo. With her family, Radix runs a weekly tutoring program for local kids at the Barbadian Ex-Police Association.

“There needs to be more investment in the growth and education of our youth in District 45,” said Radix. “Lower-income students should not have barriers to their education based on what they can or cannot afford. Public universities should be completely tuition-free.”

Xamayla Rose

Platform:

• Land use and affordable housing
• Small business development
• School funding
• Support services for immigrants

Xamayla Rose is a former BP Marty Markowitz campaign consultant, who has served on Community Board 17, the Ernest Skinner Political Association and who co-founded the Christopher Rose Community Empowerment Campaign, an organization dedicated to fighting youth violence.

One of her main concerns is to contextualize zoning as developers swoop in and construct larger buildings between single and two-family homes, often damaging their foundations. She has also called for a more transparent MTA budget to shed light on the agency’s spending and shift some of the cost burdens off riders. 

“We’ve lost a lot of our affordable housing in our neighborhoods,” stated Rose. “I will work to bring back more meaningful and actual affordable housing to our communities so our families can stay here.”

Adina Sash

Platform:

• Supporting local small business
• Extending MTA subway lines
• Expanding affordable healthcare

Adina Sash, a social media sensation who also goes by the name Flatbush Girl, is set on using her social media smarts to set up a support system helping small businesses engage their customers digitally and to protect them from being taken over by chain stores like Walmart and TJ Maxx.

“We can pair [the small businesses] up with staff members who are looking for internships in technology or social media, thereby creating longevity for these mom-and-pops which are still using mailers or signs in front of their store,” said Sash.

If elected, she has pledged to donate half her $148,500 salary to local nonprofits that keep youth engaged, fight for safer streets and against gun violence.

L. Rickie Tulloch

Platform:

• Affordable housing
• Downzoning of residential areas
• Funding for homelessness prevention and re-housing programs

L. Rickie Tulloch, senior director of the Office of Facilities Development at NYC Health + Hospitals, is a longtime advocate for housing affordability and homelessness prevention.

He currently serves as chairman of the Visionary Political Action Committee, and was the treasurer and chair of Comunity Board 17’s Land Use Committee.. In 2014, he ran for State Assembly and came in second to now-Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte.

“I have lived and served our community for 40 years and I have seen the power of organizing and community-building to fight for quality housing, good schools and jobs with dignity,” Tulloch said.