As a local civic, CSCA interviewed District 26 City Council Candidates. We hope local residents and businesses will find this educational and participate in the upcoming June 22nd Election. On the candidate’s background questions, the answers are from QNS March interviews, reprinted here with permission.
1. Court Square has seen residential development with thousands of new residents. Although the City has tried to balance the unplanned residential development by promising:
QPL to reopen the closed Library branch in Court Square elsewhere
Budgeting $60M in OMB for a new Elementary School for SCA
There has been no real progress or updates from SCA and QPL, despite continued construction and land sales transactions. As the local elected official, what steps can you do to prevent this in the future, and now that we are in the current situation, what steps can you do to ensure the City actually delivers its promises for the new School and Library?
2. District 26 is made of diverse neighborhoods that are segregated. Today, families in one neighborhood in LIC live, eat, work, and send their children to different schools than other families in the District. Since these communities do not intersect, you end with perspectives from one neighborhood describing LIC filled with “ghost towers” and another perspective describing LIC as overcrowded with a lack of infrastructure for schools, sewage, and public space. As the elected official representing the overall district, how do you reconcile these perspectives and different communities to ensure better connectivity but also overall representation for the District?
3. When Court Square was first envisioned, it was to be a commercial area, an extension of midtown east, however developments went residential , and today Court Square is being positioned as a mixed-use neighborhood with commercial developments like JACX (1M sq foot office space), Innolab (267K sqf of Biolife science) and CitiBank/Altice Tower still in place. What are your perspectives on diversifying the building mixes (aka commercial business) within Court Sq. specifically, and if applicable, with what government tools/incentives or otherwise?
4. Can you let us know who your #2 RCV would be for this City Council Election, bonus question, who is your RCV for the next Mayor of NYC?
JUlie Won
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
Won: I came here from Korea when I was 8. I attended public school. I continue to work while I campaign to support my parents and pay my student loans. Our political system wasn’t built for people like me.
My upbringing motivated me to serve my community. I’ve worked in technology helping government agencies modernize their infrastructure. I’ve worked in cities around the world. I’m on my community board, where I advocate for people-friendly streets and affordable housing. I’m on the advisory board for anti-violence organization 696 Build Queensbridge.
Immigrants and working class New Yorkers deserve representation. That’s why I’m running. (Editor Note: Julie does not have a rank choice vote preference for the next Mayor' of NYC at this time)
Brent O’Leary
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
O’Leary: I’m from a working-class family. I started working at 12 years old. I was a bus boy, waiter, bartender, valet parker, karate teacher, then worked my way through college and law school on financial aid. I’ve been a business and finance lawyer, and have the white collar skills in law, negotiation, business and finance needed to get our neighborhood what it deserves, and the blue collar values to do what’s right. I’ve been serving this community as a leader for over a decade. I know the issues that matter most in our neighborhoods and how to fight for them effectively. (Editor Note: Brent O’Leary helped organize and support the creation of CSCA many years ago with the previous President, Amadeo Plaza)
Julia Forman
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
Forman: I started my career in public service as an attorney within a city agency. I’m aware of how the laws that City Council members write are implemented and enforced. Having to coordinate with multiple agencies gave me an understanding of how we can utilize our municipal workforce and invest in the resources that serve our communities. I know that combining my years of experience practicing law with my dedication to my neighbors, I will hit the ground running in City Hall by writing laws that help New Yorkers instead of catering to any outside interest.
Ebony Young
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
Young: As a leader at large nonprofit and business organizations, managing staff and budgets, I have delivered for our communities with highly successful results. For over 19 years, I served as an executive director with the YMCA – the last nine of which were at our local Long Island City YMCA, supporting children and families. I want to elevate opportunities for all and include all voices at the table for the greater good of the community. I am a proven leader who can bring all parties to the table, void of ego, to accomplish community objectives.
Hailie Kim
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
Kim: The aspect of my background that best speaks to my abilities as a City Council member is my experience as an educator at CUNY. We are experiencing an education crisis. We need someone who will prioritize fully funding our public schools. My lived experiences as a working-class, immigrant woman of color are also important because they allow me to identify with our immigrant and working-class neighbors.
amit baggha
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
Bagga: My experience. Over 14 years, I’ve made government work for working people, helping to write, pass or implement dozens of landmark laws, including paid sick leave, protections for freelancers and low-wage workers, protections against predatory lending and more. I’ve fought bureaucracies to help 1,000 immigrant families reunite, get their green cards or gain citizenship. I helped lead NYC’s $40 million census campaign, which was the city’s first-ever direct investment in community organizing in Black, Brown and immigrant communities, and achieved a city response rate higher than most major cities in the U.S., helping to secure our political and economic future.
Denise Keehan-Smith
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
Forman: I started my career in public service as an attorney within a city agency. I’m aware of how the laws that City Council members write are implemented and enforced. Having to coordinate with multiple agencies gave me an understanding of how we can utilize our municipal workforce and invest in the resources that serve our communities. I know that combining my years of experience practicing law with my dedication to my neighbors, I will hit the ground running in City Hall by writing laws that help New Yorkers instead of catering to any outside interest.
badrun khan
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
Khan: As a member of Community Board 2, I’m familiar with our city’s broken land use system, and believe I’m in a better position to help reform it. I don’t believe council members should wield an absolute veto on all issues in their district, but they should be listened to as the most knowledgeable. The recommendations from community boards should hold more weight than they’re currently given.
As the Financial Controller of the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp, my work handling complex accounting and management responsibilities along with overseeing our city, state and federal contracts has given me significant insight into the financial complexities that any council member will wrestle with.
Jonathan bailey
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
Bailey: I take positions supporting working people that others often won’t. I can do this because I have a background of building support exclusively from people that want to fight to build a better NYC. It’s why I was able to help challenge Joe Crowley with Ocasio-Cortez 2018 with no issue, co-found Amazonians United NYC (our worker’s organization at Amazon, where we fight for our rights), and advocate for an Elected Civilian Review Board to address systemic issues.
I also spent time as a teaching artist all across NYC Department of Education schools and spent time as a program manager of an arts in education initiative.
jesse laymon
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
Laymon: I’m not the only progressive candidate running, or the only one with strong experience. But my experience has been in activist and movement organizations that have been fighting for change. I’ve led campaigns and coalitions to save after-school programs, levy a millionaires tax, transform campaign finance, fight pollution from coal power plants and to invest in workers instead of corporations.
I also took time away from my family to be the Pennsylvania state director of the Vote Blue campaign to defeat Trump — because we needed to win in 2020 to have hope of achieving big changes in 2021 and beyond.
Emily sharpe
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
Sharpe: As an attorney, I naturally focus on legislative solutions. I enjoy working on solutions to problems collaboratively and creatively, and will bring this passion to City Council. As a public interest attorney working with diverse and vulnerable populations, I’ll bring empathy and an open mind. As an activist who founded Stop Sunnyside Yards, I’ve worked successfully with many different groups citywide toward a common goal of protecting residents and small businesses from displacement. As the wife of a musician, gig worker and adjunct professor, I’ll bring the experience of what it’s like to live without employer protections. As a parent, I’ll bring the understanding of the issues working parents face in NYC.
steven raga
QNS: What aspect of your background speaks best to your abilities as a City Council member?
Raga: My firsthand in-district government administration experience as well as in-district nonprofit advocacy leadership. I believe that as we come out of this pandemic, having our next City Council member understand how local government functions in our neighborhoods, as well as understand how volunteer advocacy efforts need sustained support, will only make the process easier for all or us.