Holden’s Retains Slight Edge Over Crowley
Republican Challenger Robert Holden continues to hold a narrow lead in the tightly contested City Council race with incumbent Elizabeth Crowley (D-Glendale Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, and parts of Woodside and Woodhaven).
As of late Tuesday night, Holden, a longtime civic activist had a 133-vote lead with about 400 to 500 absentee and affidavit ballots still to be counted, but at his post-election party Tuesday night Holden claimed victory.
“We took out the machine and a nine-year incumbent who had all the advantages,” Holden told reporter. “But we had drive, we had relentless volunteers. This is a victory for the community.”
If it holds, Holden will have overcome Crowley beating him in the September Deomocratic Primary by 1,600 votes. Following the defeat, Holden, a registered Democrat, cut a deal to run on the Republican Party line. He also nabbed the Conservative and Reform party lines in the general election.
Holden, the president of the Juniper Park Civic Association and a member of Community Board 5, was one of the leaders of high-profile protests against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to convert a Maspeth Holiday Inn Express into a homeless shelter.
If the victory holds up, it remains to be seen whether Holden will caucus with the Republicans or Democrats in the City Council.
De Blasio Pays Tribute To Flight 587 Victims
Mayor de Blasio yesterday paid tribute to the victims and their families at the 16th anniversary of Flight 587 at the Flight 587 Memorial Park in Rockaway Park.
On November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, departing from New York headed for the Dominican Republic, experienced engine trouble and crashed into a residential neighborhood in the Belle Harbor community of Queens.
Five people on the ground and 260 crew and passengers died as a result of the crash.
In 2006, on the fifth anniversary of the Flight 587 tragedy, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg dedicated the Flight 587 Memorial designed by artist Freddy Rodriguez in Belle Harbor, Queens.
