Editor’s Note: The following is a contributed political report covering what is known as Brooklyn’s Brownstone Belt – neighborhoods mainly made up of Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill and Park Slope and known for its large concentration of Brownstone housing stock. These neighborhoods are traditionally progressive in politics and demographically white. While these neighborhoods constitute many of the borough’s brownstones, KCP would be derelict to not note that the traditionally black neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant also are largely brownstone housing stock. This mention is not meant for divisive purposes, but to clarify and draw attention to Brooklyn’s various ethnic demographics concerning Brownstone neighborhoods and ownership.
The Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND) hosted a phone-bank for candidate Jon Ossoff in the special election run off in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. A solid turnout, including some people who had never been involved with IND before, were making calls aiding in the effort to take at least one vote away from the Trump congressional agenda.
IND is the 52nd Assembly District Democratic Club, and it’s Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon (D-Downtown Brooklyn, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill), was also quite active this week. She appeared on Capital Tonight with State Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) to discuss their proposed anti lunch shaming bill.
This measure would require schools to ensure that all eligible students are signed up for free and reduced-cost school meals. The bill would also prohibit schools from singling out students whose families fall into school lunch debt by assigning them extra chores or giving them alternative meals.
As mentioned in the previous round-up, Simon was scheduled to host a petitioning for women event. The event was quite successful and ended up with a waiting list to attend. Those teaching the training were Simon, her predecessor Joan Millman, and district leader and District Attorney Candidate Anne Swern.
Simon, as well as State Senator Daniel Squadron (D-Northern Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan) and Councilman Stephen Levin (D-Northern Brooklyn), after hosting a transportation forum Wednesday night at NYU POLY, were focusing on transportation on Friday. As such, they called on the State to allow the city to use the design-build bidding process for the slated $1.9 billion rehabilitation of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. The logic is that by merging the bidding for construction and design of the rehab, as opposed to individual bids, prices will come down and thus save taxpayers money. This approach has been successful in completing other large projects.
The Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) had its second endorsement meeting in as many weeks and voted, as did Lambda Independent Democrats, to support Rupert Barry in the 6th municipal district.The club will have countywide judicial endorsements at an upcoming meeting.
CBID’s former president and current Assemblymember Robert Carroll (D-Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington) introduced a bill in the election law committee that looks to remedy the all too common problem of a voters showing up to vote and being in the wrong location. This can happen for a variety of reasons, many of which are not the voters fault, State law currently dictates if a voter appears at the wrong polling location their vote doesn’t count. The proposed legislation would change that in order to ensure more people’s votes counting.
In that vein, another of Carroll’s bills will come to an Election Law Committee vote tomorrow. The measure addresses closed primaries, in which voters in New York currently can’t vote in a Part primary unless they are registered as a party member.
Currently, 25 percent of New York voters are either political independents or think they are due to registering as members of the Independence Party without realizing it. This bill would require that all voter registration forms would prominently, and in distinctive typeface, state that party enrollment is optional, but that, in order to vote in a primary election of a political party, a voter must enroll in that political party. This could make a difference for over three million voters.
Some states hold open primaries, in which all registered voters can partake regardless of their party affiliation.
Side Notes
–Get Organized Brooklyn #getorganizedbk, a group started in the wake of Donald Trumps election victory, with City Councilman Brad Lander (Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington) and the aforementioned Carroll leading the process, will be hosting a civic festival from 3-6 p.m., June 25 in the Prospect Park Bandshell. The event will feature national and local leaders, activists and entertainment.
RSVP to the Civic Festival here: http://bradlander.nationbuilder.com/civicfestival
-Link To Assemblymember Simon’s interview on Capital tonight –
