Housing activists organized a march and rally protesting the inclusion of the costs of major capital improvements, or “MCIs,” in calculating rent increases for rent-stabilized and controlled apartments. The march started in Jackson Heights and went to offices of a landlord at 49th Street and 47th Avenue in Woodside. The march attracted competing local politicians including Jose Peralta and Jessica Ramos, competing for a state senate seat, and Ari Espinal and Catalina Cruz, competing for a state assembly seat. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congressional candidate who defeated incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in June, also participated.
The Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City drew scores of candidates to its endorsement meeting last Wednesday as the first and best known LGBT Democratic club in New York City made its choices in many strongly contested primaries.
Democratic candidates for the 39th Assembly District, the 13th Senate District and the 14th Congressional District met for a series of debates Thursday night in Jackson Heights. Assembly Member Aridia Espinal debated challengers Catalina Cruz and Yonel Letellier Sosa, Senator Jose Peralta debated Jessica Ramos and U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley debated Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Chris Barca of the Queens Chronicle moderated each of the debates. Organized by several civic and activist groups, the debates drew an overflow crowd to the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights.
Council Member Eric Ulrich drew several Queens elected officials to a City Hall rally Friday, objecting to the de Blasio administration’s efforts at using hotels in Maspeth and Rockaway as homeless shelters. The electeds’ objections, substantially focused on the process and lack of communication by the administration, left them exposed to the deep anger of the 150 or so people attending the rally. Those attendees, predominantly from Maspeth with a minority from Rockaway, deeply oppose siting a shelter in their neighborhood no matter what process or communication is used. Their anger eventually overwhelmed the elected officials’ efforts to conduct a press conference, driving those elected officials into City Hall as the crowd chanted outside on the City Hall portico and briefly marched on City Hall plaza.
Council Member Eric Ulrich got more than he bargained for this morning as supporters joining a protest he organized overwhelmed the press Q&A portion of that protest, driving Ulrich and other elected officials to abandon the effort.
Ulrich, a Council Member from Queens who’s running for mayor and long a critic of Mayor de Blasio, organized the rally and press conference to “protest Mayor de Blasio’s failed homeless policies.” Joined by State Senators Joe Addabbo, Jose Peralta and Tony Avella and Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, Ulrich decried the de Blasio administration’s actions around placement of homeless shelters, particularly in the Playland Motel in Rockaway and the Holiday Inn Express in Maspeth. Both efforts by the de Blasio administration have generated intense neighborhood opposition. It’s a good issue for Ulrich in many ways as many of his Rockaway constituents are strongly opposed to the administration’s efforts and it provides a means for greater exposure to the City’s full electorate.
His rally spun out of control as Ulrich began taking press questions, with several attendees jumping in to shout over Ulrich and Council Member Elizabeth Crowley. Those shouting attendees (including state senate candidate Michael Conigliaro) and the elected officials attending aren’t at odds, they all oppose the shelter placements, but the deep anger flowing out of many attendees overwhelmed the more measured complaints from Ulrich and the other electeds.
