City Council candidate Yoni Hikind last week pledged that when elected he will tackle a host of issues with a new openness to community involvement that combines a focus on both legislative and constituent issues.
Hikind also acknowledged a growing heroin and opioid abuse problem with at-risk children and adults from both the frum (Yiddish for devout) Jewish part and secular part of the 44th City Council district including Borough Park, Midwood, Kensington, Flatbush, Bensonhurst and Gravesend
Hikind’s comments on this issue came following KCP’s exclusive story last month, Lessons Form The Tragic Life of Malky Klein, that told how a young woman from a frum family in the district fell through the cracks of her caring community to succumb to a heroin overdose death.
The story has drawn tens of thousands of views and continues to draws several hundred views every day.
“This [frum] community, I believe, more than any other community truly wants this problem [drug abuse] to no longer be a problem. It needs to be understood, and it’s only going to be dealt with appropriately when sensitive people from all sides come together and figure out a way to affect change,” said Yoni, a licensed therapist, who as the son of Assemblyman Dov Hikind, grew up around politics and is familiar with the corridors of government.
“I want the community to trust me like I trust them in the sense that nobody values human life more than our community, and the suggestion we want to sweep this under the carpet is not true in the whole picture. This is a priority because every single child is a priority, but I also want to state when people come together in a sensitive way we will make the community proud, and I am confident we can make it better and we will make it better.”
Yoni Hikind said it starts with finding the right people on all sides and creating a safe zone because it’s difficult to get things accomplished without such a safe zone where both sides are committed to making things better. This includes advocates [for at-risk youth] understanding the frum side and vice versa so that everyone is on the same page to become part of the healing. It starts with sensitivity because sensitive people respect all sides, he said.
Hikind also pledged to hold regular, monthly Town Hall meetings as councilman to allow community members to set and maintain priorities. Hikind says these types of meetings will give residents of the district opportunities to raise concerns, ask questions, and appropriately establish all the issues that must be addressed at the city council level.
“Community Board meetings are great, but residents have concerns that aren’t necessarily addressed at those meetings,” said Hikind. “While I will always be available to constituents who have issues, I also believe regular Town Hall meetings in different parts of the district will be invaluable to our community. A councilman can only maintain a single office in one location in the district, so Town Halls make us accessible to all residents to ensure appropriate representation.”
Hikind said being the son of Dov Hikind is an interesting dynamic because as on one hand he wants people to know he will be his own man, but on the other hand, he’s very proud of the work his father has done in the community for so many people.
“I want to do good for other people the way my father has shown acts of kindness to thousands of people over the last 35 years. People in the community trust my father and I want people to know the apple didn’t fall far from the tree from that standpoint,” said Hikind.
Hikind, 36, got on the November ballot on his own ‘Your Neighborhood’ party line with more than 4,000 residents signing onto his petitions. He created his own party after current City Councilman David Greenfield announced he was stepping down to head the Met Council on Jewish Poverty, and through election law loopholes, installed his longtime political operative, Kalman Yeger, to take the Democratic Party line.
Since being handed the Democratic Party line, Yeger has not returned numerous phone calls, emails and texts concerning any issues in the district, how he envisions his role as a city council member or to state his qualifications as to what makes him a good fit to represent the district in city hall.
