Despite the feel-good verbiage from both candidates that the main neighborhoods – Coney Island, Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge – that make up the 46th Assembly District have much in common, the socio-economic realities might just be too much to overcome for one cohesive assembly district.
A case in point was last night’s other big debate that the Dyker Heights Civic Association hosted in which Republican Lucretia Regina-Potter attacked her opponent Democrat Pamela Harris for taking money for salary and rent from her publicly funded non-profit Coney Island Generation Gap.
The two are locked in a battle for former Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny’s seat with the special election set for Nov. 3.
“If somebody’s running a nonprofit out of their home, they shouldn’t be collecting rent, nor should they be collecting a salary. This is not what we need: the same core of corruption over and over and over,” said Regina-Potter in her closing statement.
A distraught Harris denied she ever received compensation and that the only rent that was paid was for a studio space at her next door neighbor’s house. She also accused Regina-Potter of not understanding the role of non-profits.
“First of all, not-for-profits [are] transparent. You can read, look us up, read all about us, we’re like the news,” she told reporters after the debate. “You have to be in compliance in order to stay a not-for-profit. They don’t just give money willy-nilly to anybody and sit down and eat bon-bons and just give you the money. You have to be in compliance. I am in compliance and always have been and always will be.”
The allegations and animosity underscored a differing philosophy between the two candidates on the government’s role in the district throughout the debate.
Harris, a lifelong civil servant from a family of civil servants, takes pride in how her non-profit has partnered with government to help scores of kids finish school and find a pathway out from Coney Island’s hard-scrabble streets.
As such she advocated an increased role for government in educating small businesses on how to avoid city fines for violations, and establishing a merchants association to work in coordinated efforts to avoid fines. Likewise, she tended to carry the teachers union line being against any co-locations of charter schools, saying they should be allowed into communities, but need to find their own space.
Regina-Potter, a small business owner, said small businesses doesn’t need government teaching them how to reduce fines. Small businesses need government off their back and to stop mandating things like a $15 minimum wage, which will only lead to less local employment, she said.
Among the items the candidates agreed upon was the need to curb illegal home conversions, and to work with the community and police to fight increasing crime in the district.
