H H H H H H PRIMARY VOTERS’ GUIDE 2021 H H H H H H
Caribbean L 38 ife, June 4-10, 2021
Visit PoliticsNY.com to Watch Debates & Learn More About Each Candidate
District 35:
Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Downtown
Brooklyn, Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, and Clinton
Hill.
Current Council Member: Laurie Cumbo (termlimited)
DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY Renee Collymore
Collymore is a former
Democratic District Leader who
says she’s been active in Clinton
Hill and the surrounding
area since she was a young
girl — and that her history of service makes
her the best candidate. If elected, she plans to
prioritize affordable housing and ending the
healthcare disparity for Black women. (www.
reneecollymore2021.com) Crystal Hudson
Hudson has served as a staffer
in Cumbo’s office, a Deputy
Public Advocate, and organized
a mutual aid effort in Prospect
Heights in the early days of the
pandemic. She has identified gentrification and
the housing crisis as some of the most pressing
issues the district faces, and has pledged to
dismantle the ULURP process. (www.crystalforbk.
com) Curtis Harris
Harris, director of Green
Earth Poets Cafe and a
former accountant, says
he’s running because he
is frustrated with “the
opportunities that have been missed” in
the district. A Crown Heights resident and
former member of Community Board 8,
Harris pledges to unify the district, while
championing local cultural institutions
and addressing over-development. (www.
curtisharris2021.com) Michael
Hollingsworth
Hollingsworth is a well
known Crown Heights tenant
activist whose priorities for
the district include protecting locals from
evictions, seizing distressed properties from
slumlords, and opposing the leasing of NYCHA
land to public developers. Hollingsworth’s
experience is not “forged in politics,” he says,
but “in the streets, on stoops.” (www.m4bk.
com)
Deirdre Levy
Levy is a special education
teacher who believes more
elected officials should
be educators. She has
unsurprisingly made education a core focus
of her campaign. Levy has also served on the
district’s participatory budgeting committee
and with organizations like the Crown
Heights Jewish Community Council and
Clinton Hill and Fort Greene Mutual Aide.
(www.deirdrelevy.com)
Regina Kinsey
Vice Chair of Community
Board 8’s Seniors Committee
and a member of the Crown
Heights North Association,
Kinsey cited rising crime
rates, small businesses closing, and suicide
rates increasing as issues she hopes to address,
as well as housing and homelessness. She
wants to see affordable housing that’s actually
affordable. (www.reginakinsey.com)
Hector Robertson
Robinson is president of
the Washington Avenue
Botanic Block Association
and the Crown Heights
Community Council, and
says he’s the best candidate because he’s
faced the same hardships as constituents,
including harassment, eviction threats,
illegal construction, and exposure to lead
and asbestos. He hopes to combat the nabe’s
housing crisis. (www.hectorrobertson.com)
District 36:
Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights.
Current Council Member: Robert Cornegy (termlimited)
DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY Henry Butler
As Democratic District
Leader and Community Board
3 District Manager, Butler touts
a list of improvements he’s
helped secure for the district —
from the Bedford-Stuyvesant Housing Initiative
to the reopening of a local subway station. He is
backed by the Brooklyn Democratic Party and
some of the city’s biggest labor unions. (www.
butlerforcitycouncil.com)
Tahirah Moore
A former staffer for Cornegy,
Moore worked to combat deed
theft and the displacement of
low-income tenants, problems
she identified as among the
biggest facing the district today. She was born and
raised in the district, and also hopes to address
gentrification, a lack of repairs for NYCHA
buildings, underfunded schools, and gun violence.
(www.tahirahmoore.nyc)
Chi Ossé
Ossé, a young activist,
launched his campaign shortly
after getting involved in last
summer’s Black Lives Matter
protests. A lifelong resident of
)Crown Heights, Ossé aims to address the “stability
crisis” rocking central Brooklyn by helping
tenants, struggling businesses, and public housing
residents — while working to defund the NYPD.
(www.osse2021.comReginald Swiney
Swiney could not be reached
before press time. Little
public information about his
candidacy is available, as she
does not have a website or social
media presence.
Robert Waterman
Waterman has been a pastor
at the Antioch Baptist Church
for two decades, and has served
as the chair of the Interfaith
Medical Center board, and the
vice-chair of One Brooklyn Health. He has said he
would work to upgrade school buildings in the
district, and build affordable housing by “standing
up” to developers. (www.robertwaterman.com)
District 37:
Bushwick, East New York, Cypress Hills, Ocean Hill,
and Brownsville.
Current Council Member: Darma Diaz (seeking reelection)
DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY Misba Abdin
As the CEO of Deshi Senior
Center, Abdin worked for
years to provide services for
the people in the 37th Council
District. He says his top priority
is public safety, and that, if elected, he will work
with his constituents to set up social service
programs and satellite offices so that he can be
easily accessible to those in the district. (www.
misbaabdinnyccouncil.com) Darma Diaz
(incumbent)
A former District Leader,
Diaz was elected in a 2020
special election after former
office-holder Rafael Espinal resigned, leaving the
area unserved for more than 10 months. Diaz,
who lives in Cypress Hills, hopes to continue to be
a voice for the underserved, and plans to tackle
poverty, homelessness, inadequate healthcare,
overcrowded classrooms and more. (www.
darma4citycouncil37.nyc)
/www.misbaabdinnyccouncil.com
/www.reneecollymore2021.com
/www.crystalforbk.com
/www.crystalforbk.com
/www.curtisharris2021.com
/www.curtisharris2021.com
/www.m4bk.com
/www.m4bk.com
/www.deirdrelevy.com
/www.reginakinsey.com
/www.hectorrobertson.com
/www.butlerforcitycouncil.com
/www.butlerforcitycouncil.com
/www.tahirahmoore.nyc
/www.osse2021.com
/www.robertwaterman.com
/www.reneecollymore2021.com
/www.misbaabdinnyccouncil.com
/www.darma4citycouncil37.nyc
/www.darma4citycouncil37.nyc
/PoliticsNY.com
/reneecollymore2021.com
/(www.crystalforbk
/curtisharris2021.com
/(www.m4bk
/(www.deirdrelevy.com)
/(www.reginakinsey.com)
/(www.hectorrobertson.com)
/butlerforcitycouncil.com
/(www.tahirahmoore.nyc)
/(www.osse2021.comReginald
/(www.robertwaterman.com)
/misbaabdinnyccouncil.com
