Bay Ridge Mayoral Forum



Two mayoral candidates came to Bay Ridge for a candidate forum Wednesday morning, pledging to support their fellow senior citizens and criticizing their youthful rivals.  Bo Diet and Sal Albanese participated in the forum hosted by the Bay Ridge Council on Aging at the Fort Hamilton Senior Center.  Both are themselves seniors, Dietl at 66 and Albanese at 68, and they sought to capitalize on that affinity with most of the audience.  Younger rivals Bill de Blasio, 56, and Nicole Malliotakis, 36, did not attend.

Dietl and Albanese have a very cordial relationship, several times expressing their affection for each other, but they both urged the audience to disregard their rival as unable to win and therefor a wasted vote.

Questions included how they would ensure continued funding for senior centers, whether they support a state constitutional convention, their views on charter schools, whether their candidacies help Bill de Blasio by simply drawing anti-de Blasio votes from Republican candidate Nicole Malliotakis and plans for dealing with the homeless, particularly in Bay Ridge.

Video:

Here is the full forum:

Photo Gallery:

Our photo gallery is available here.