Democrat Boris Noble is running next year for City Council’s 48th District seat, currently held by term-limited Councilman Chaim M. Deutsch (D-Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Homecrest, Midwood).
Noble and his family moved to the U.S. as refugees from the Ukraine when he was young and settled in Brooklyn.
Noble has been involved in politics and housing since his first job as former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s housing policy analyst and Russian translator/Jewish community liaison.
“I went from the Red Hook houses to dealing with luxury development out in Sheepshead Bay. I got a full appreciation for the diversity of the borough working in that office,” said Noble. “I’ve gone to places in Brooklyn I didn’t know existed.”
Noble said he hasn’t reached out for endorsements yet, but is slowly building his “ground game” as a the Russian-speaking Orthodox Jewish candidate. Even so, he said he’s still making sure to include the large Pakistani and Chinese communities in the district in his policies.
Noble said his policies will focus on housing, storm infrastructure, and public safety.
“[Superstorm] Sandy is going to be eight years next month, and still there’s people that have not had their housing restored fully. We’re still dealing with the bureaucracy and red tape,” said Noble, referring to the Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery Operations (HRO) Build It Back program which was supposed to help impacted New Yorkers to repair, rebuild, and elevate their homes.
On overall housing issues, said Noble, there are multiple sources for affordable housing that’s been mismanaged. Noble said the district has a large concentration of Mitchell-Lama developments, such as Luna Park Housing. “Here you have a source of affordable housing that’s not being utilized properly,” said Noble.
He also said that the city should look into allocating derelict properties, often sold in lien sales, for first time home buyers and people from within that zip code.
On July 26, Noble was the victim of a “hate crime” in which he was attacked with what he described as a blunt object by an unknown suspect near his home in Midwood. His teeth were injured, and after several trips to the dentist, has finally gotten back to normal. Noble said the 70th Precinct was reluctant to investigate it as a hate crime, and hasn’t made any progress in the case.
“Statistics are only half the story. If people don’t feel safe then, it’s not safe. You don’t want to be a statistic. If people feel like there’s a gap or lack of coverage or slow response, or whatever, then that’s a problem in and of itself,” said Noble.
He said that the incident spurred him to look into police resources and budgeting, public safety, and nightly patrols in his community more thoroughly, but he does not advocate for defunding the police.
“My vision is to be the small man and woman’s advocate because very often people feel like they can’t fight City Hall and 311 is a hole,” said Noble, “Your frustrations are my frustrations, so I want to take the frustrations of the common folk and change it at the minimum.”
