City Council Candidates and Locals Discuss Development, Housing at Forum

Affordable housing and development were hot topics for locals at a candidates’ forum for the 35th City Council district at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church on June 28.

The five candidates vying to replace Council Member Letitia James, who is running for New York City Public Advocate, fielded questions from community members and sponsoring organizations Families United for Racial and Economic Equality, and Brown Community Development Corporation. The candidates included were former district leader Olanike Alabi, MoCADA director Laurie Cumbo, Community Board 8 member Ede Fox, local attorney F. Richard Hurley and Jelani Mashariki, who runs a men’s homeless shelter.

While the topics ranged from childhood obesity to after-school programs, criticisms of real estate developers, particularly of Atlantic Yard’s developer Forest City Ratner and the New York City Housing Authority, drew the loudest applause from the audience.

“Brooklyn is the hottest town in the world right now,” said Hurley, who said concerns about development were his chief reasons for entering the race. He called for a mandate requiring developers to hire locally.

Mashariki called for a mandate for developers to include more affordable housing for seniors.

“The reality is, we don’t have standing to go in and sue if the agreements are not kept,” Fox said of the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement with Forest City Ratner.

“The Community Benefits Agreement was not legally binding, so things that were promised, we’re not necessarily going to get,” Alabi said.

“The only thing we can do moving forward is learn from the mistakes and the negotiations in the past,” Cumbo said. “We have to have long term memories.”

Candidates also had strong words for NYCHA, which has lost 11 percent of its budget due to a $205 million cut in federal funding. If elected to City Council, Cumbo said she would push for a class-action suit against the federal government for misuse of funds.

Locals said they were pleased with the views they heard from the candidates.

“Nobody in our area got jobs when Atlantic Yards went up,” said FUREE member Beverly Corbin. She said she agreed with Fox that community benefits agreements are “a joke.”

“When I moved in, it was basically crack houses,” said Darryl Goodwin, who moved to Fort Greene in 2000. “Now there’s a stadium, coffee houses. It’s a good thing, but I’m also concerned about people being overlooked. Brooklyn has its own style and I don’t want to see it taken away.”

Philippe Theise contributed reporting.