With rumors circulating that Assemblymember Charles Barron and his wife, City Councilmember Inez Barron will try to pull yet another switcheroo in their state and city seats, former Female Democratic District Leader Nikki Lucas, along with the Black owner of a hyper-local news site say its time the Barrons hang up the political gloves and give the neighborhood a fresh start.
Lucas yesterday officially announced her bid for I. Barron’s term-limited 42nd District City Council District seat covering East New York, New Lots, Remsen Village, Spring Creek, Starrett City.
“This campaign is not about me, it’s about the residents who live in the district. I’m asking residents who have been left out of the process for so many years to join me as we create real solutions for change. East New York has been suffering for decades and we must move forward,” said Lucas in her announcement she is running for the city council seat next year.
“NYCHA is in the final stages of privatization, which will lead to massive gentrification and displacement of long-time residents, East New York suffered more than any neighborhood during the COVID pandemic because we were ill prepared and our schools were exposed as being far behind when it comes to internet access and technology,” she added.
In 2001, C. Barron was elected to the City Council. After (three) four year terms, he was termed limited out in 2013, and then succeeded by his wife. On November 4, 2014, Charles Barron was elected to the New York State Assembly, succeeding his wife and which unlike the city council, has no term limits.
The couple told Gotham Gazette this week in a lengthy and glowing piece about how the couple were all into black empowerment, and in which they took shots at other black electeds including State Attorney General Letitia James.
But online publisher Vernon K. Jones, Sr., who was born and raised in the Brownsville and East New York, and whose EastNewYork.com news website is chock full of useful information about local affordable housing opportunities, NYCHA news and local health and arts events, said the Barrons are less interested in the community and more interested in keeping their collective $259,500 base salary ($148,500 as a city council member, $110,000 as an assemblymember).
“They (the Barrons) are doing the same thing the Boylands did for years in Brownsville. Charles used to yell about it and now he’s doing the same thing. They talk about bringing in youth, but they haven’t groomed anybody to take over because they only care about themselves,” said Jones.
Jones noted that while Charles Barron talks about and empowering the Black community, they have never even bothered to build or promote a website where constituents can find information.
“If you don’t even have a website, how are you going to bring your whole community into the tech age. They don’t even have a website putting out where they stand on policies and issues. If that’s not taking your community for granted, I don’t know what is,” he said, adding this failure to embrace technology throughout the district puts constituents behind the curve in becoming part of the modern world.
It is this lack of putting out information that has not only kept the Barrons in power, but also put Black constituents into silos where they can’t reach their full potential, which has also led to a lack of truly affordable housing, the privatization of NYCHA and a host of other negative issues in the district, said Jones.
In Lucas, Jones has found a willing partner for his innovative website, and who hosts the interactive weekly show, Voices of East New York, which has had an array of guests from other elected officials to community activists to artists to journalists.
In an editorial on the site today, Lucas took aim at Charles Barron’s comments that James was a puppet for Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The real problem with calling Tish James a puppet is that this is the woman who recently filed a lawsuit against the powerful NRA, which is a strong organization that supports Trump and plays a major role in the proliferation of guns on the streets of New York City, and particularly, East New York, said Lucas.
Neither of the Barrons returned communications to them for this story.
-Ariama C. Long contributed to this story
