What should voters choose you?
Bill Batson
1. My 20-year record of working in and with the community on tenant organizing, labor organizing.
2. I would be an innovative, progressive Assemblyman, more interested in the health of my community than making backroom deals in Albany.
3. My commitment to always working to get the best deal for my constituents when it comes to negotiating with outside entities (developers, etc).
Freddie Hamilton
1. I have the most experience working in the 57th Assembly District.
2. I have demonstrated, over 30 years, my administrative skills, my ability to work effectively with people and my commitment to dependable, consistent and quality services.
3. I have the broadest knowledge of the issues that face working-class families. I also understand the issues and concerns of recent retirees or those near retirement as well as older seniors.
Hakeem Jeffries
1. I want to preserve the district’s cultural and socio-economic diversity, as well as its celebrated array of arts, cultural and educational institutions.
2. I have an ambitious agenda for change.
3. As an attorney, I have fought discrimination in federal court and bad landlords in housing court. My knowledge of the law, will allow me to legislate for the kind of change our community seeks.
4. I have the support of some of the city’s most effective public servants, including Speaker Christine Quinn and Comptroller William Thompson, plus the Working Families Party.
Offer two or more reasons why your opponent(s) are less qualified than you.
Batson
Hakeem Jeffries does not have any relevant experience working in the public sector [and] has not spent much time outside of the corporate world. Mr. Jeffries’s non-committal answers betrays his resistance to taking a strong stand. Lastly, Mr. Jeffries is inconsistent. He recently spoke out against a 16-story building slated for Clinton Hill. However, he has been repeatedly asked about Atlantic Yards. Each time, he has been unable to cultivate any definitive position. Depending upon his audience, he waffles.
As a signer of the Ratner “CBA,” Freddie Hamilton is not able to negotiate for the community without bias.
Hamilton
Bill Batson seems to be a two-issues candidate. He is against the Atlantic Yards development and is concerned about the number of fires in Prospect Heights. Otherwise, there seems to be very little depth of knowledge about anything else, including family life issues. Hakeem Jefferies’s experience is also limited. He has not stepped out of the box on any of the issues to reveal who he really is. He has also, so far, been able to waffle on Atlantic Yards.
Jeffries
My two opponents are well intentioned and good-hearted people, but neither has the unique combination of strengths — the community history, knowledge of issues, professional experience and strong institutional support — that my candidacy offers.
What are the three most-important issues facing your district — and your plan to address them?
Batson
1. Overdevelopment and gentrification: I would support contextual zoning. I would also encourage more a rigorous community planning, which would enable us to be offensive — rather than just defensive.
2. Affordable housing: I plan to pass legislation that would give incentives for developers to encourage at least 50 percent affordable units.
3. The dearth of important resources for our young people: We need to fund more after-school programs, link schools with local non-profits that provide arts/cultural programs, expand the quality of after-school and summer jobs for people of high-school age, link schools with EMS, fire, and other professions to expand career possibilities, expand the quality and availability for GED courses and job training, increase the quality of our parks and greenspaces, create a number of “Cool Parks,” which would be lit, open, and secure places for young people to be in the summertime.
Hamilton
1. Affordable housing. I would work with reputable housing groups that have development strategies that include developing housing for low- and moderate-income families, individuals, seniors and other special populations. I will support tax incentives to developers who include real affordable housing.
2. Economic development/job creation. I will create training and commercial lending programs for small businesses. I will encourage planned development of our commercial strips so that we will have variety and quality among our local retailers.
3. Health care. I will engage my Assembly colleagues to seek to cap administrative costs for HMOs that do business in New York. Of course, we would have to do this without creating a disincentive, and thus a reduction in the number of available HMOs.
Jeffries
1. Affordable housing: I will promote homeownership through the expansion of state housing programs for the middle-class and working families; fight displacement and hold the line on property-tax increases, as well as expand tax exemptions offered to those on fixed incomes; protect our communities from the abuse of eminent domain.
2. As a parent of two young sons, I am committed to improving our public schools. I will fight for greater resources; build public-private partnerships to further increase funding; attract the most qualified teachers to our schools; focus greater attention on our intermediate schools.
3. Economic development. I will create an economic opportunity zone, which will address the need for jobs and reasonable economic development.
Is Brooklyn heading in the “right” direction or the “wrong” direction?
Batson
I am concerned it’s the wrong direction. Rents have skyrocketed, yet virtually all of the new units are luxury. Some landlords have gone as far as setting fire to their buildings to get rid of their long-term tenants. Developers are given permits to build irresponsibly — both by designing buildings that are completely out of scale, and taking shortcuts that endanger life. And yet the borough president and the mayor welcome more activity that puts the character of our borough in jeopardy and creates adverse ripple effects like increased traffic, an overwhelmed infrastructure, and accelerated gentrification.
Hamilton
I really don’t know. It’s clear to me that in the next 10–15 years Brooklyn will not be the Brooklyn that we know today. When you think about those developments, together with Atlantic Yards, it is very scary, but change is often scary. I actually think that gentrification is less an issue of race and more an issue of class and income. We are moving in the wrong direction if we drive out people of modest means.
Jeffries
Because I am an optimist, I think we are largely headed in the right direction. That said, we do have serious problems. The affordable housing crisis, which is forcing out longtime residents, threatens the diversity that has made Brooklyn so vibrant.
SPECIFIC ISSUE ROUND
Atlantic Yards?
Batson
I am absolutely opposed to the project as it stands. Not enough affordable housing for families making below $70K; no guarantee on the number of living wage jobs, increased traffic; lack of foresight on public transportation; air pollution from 10+ years of construction, which may lead to spike in rates of asthma; shadows; design insensitive and inconsistent with surrounding neighborhood.
Hamilton
I support Atlantic Yards because I believe that it will bring jobs, business opportunities, some affordable housing and support of services to the community through the Community Benefits Agreement.
Jeffries
The scale and density of the project should be reduced considerably and I am opposed to the use of eminent domain by a private developer to build a basketball arena.
“Brooklyn Bridge Park” waterfront development?
Batson
I am in favor of greenspace — Brooklyn needs more parks. However, I am absolutely opposed to putting a hotel in the middle of a public park.
Hamilton
I haven’t really paid a great deal of attention to the details of the Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront development. My uninformed opinion is that the development will be an enclave for the rich.
Jeffries
I strongly disagree that somehow parks must be “self-sustaining.” When planning a park, the role of revenue needs to be a very distant consideration.
Marty Markowitz’s plans to run for mayor?
Batson
Judging from Marty’s lack of interest in our community’s outcry regarding overdevelopment and its ripple effects in Brooklyn, I don’t believe he would be a very responsive or responsible Mayor.
Hamilton
No comment.
Jeffries
No doubt Marty will make whatever race he chooses to join extremely interesting.
Tolls on the East River crossings?
Batson
I’m not sure it would be the most effective way of mitigating traffic issues in the city of New York, but we need an overall plan to drive less throughout the five boroughs, immediately. I really like some of the European traffic-mitigation models
Hamilton
I am against tolls on the East River crossings.
Jeffries
I would like to see creative solutions to traffic problems, like the downtown Brooklyn parking permit plan that deserves serious consideration. However, I oppose tolls on East River bridges; it is one “solution” that seems to promise greater costs and inconvenience for Brooklynites.
Bonus: What TV show do you TiVO so you are sure to never miss it?
Batson
If I had TiVO, it would be “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”
Hamilton
I watch very little television and do not use TiVO.
Jeffries
My wife and I don’t TiVO, but we do regularly make time for HBO’s thought-provoking Sunday night line-up. We enjoy “The Sopranos,” “Entourage” and “The Wire” and also documentaries such as Spike Lee’s focus on New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
