Residents attend the NYC-DSA Public Power rally at Rufus King Park in Jamaica. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’
Queens residents rally for public power cluding Zohran Mamdani,
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
More than three dozen
Queens residents gathered at
Rufus King Park in Jamaica
to launch NYC Democratic
Socialists of America’s (NYCDSA)
campaign for “Public
Power” on Saturday, April 10.
NYC-DSA’s “Public Power”
campaign aims to put New
York’s energy system in control
of the public rather than
corporations like Con Edison
and National Grid. To do that,
the coalition is advocating
for two bills, the N.Y. Build
Public Renewables Act (NYPBRA)
and the N.Y. Utility
Democracy Act (NYUDA).
Saturday’s rally — one
of several that took place in
Brooklyn and the Bronx —
featured multiple speakers,
including DSA member Nolen
Scruggs, City Council District
23 candidate Jaslin Kaur and a
representative of City Council
District 22 candidate Tiffany
Cabán, as well as Rockaway
Revolution organizer Marva
Kerwin and local Black Lives
Matter activist Larry Malcolm
Smith Jr.
Scruggs, a resident of
Ozone Park, said that having
a publicly owned energy
system would lead to a more
accountable and fair power
distribution.
“We’re here today because
for too long, our government
and elected officials have prioritized
the pockets and profits
of millionaires and billionaires
over the energy needs
of every day New Yorkers,”
Scruggs said. “With public
power that would come to an
end.”
The NYBPRA would require
the New York Public Authority
to fully transition to renewable
energy and expand its scope
to sell clean energy directly to
residential customers, banning
for-profit rates and shut-offs.
The bill is primarily sponsored
by Brooklyn Assemblyman
Robert Carroll, and currently
co-sponsored by several
Queens Assembly members in-
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.2 COM | APRIL 23-APRIL 29, 2021
Catalina Cruz, Ron Kim, Brain
Barnwell, Alicia Hyndman and
Khaleel Anderson.
The NYUDA, sponsored by
Astoria Assemblyman Zohran
Mamdani and Brooklyn state
Senator Julia Salazar, would
require all of the state’s utilities
to transition into public
ownership within two years
and create democratically
elected boards to oversee distribution
operations.
Mamdani, who wasn’t able
to attend the rally as he was
traveling to Albany, said that
private energy companies can
currently “prioritize their
profits over our lives.”
“In Astoria, this looks like
Con Ed rate hikes and additional
fees for not switching
to smart meters. It looks like
NRG trying to build more
fracked gas infrastructure
when our neighbors have said
that our lungs and our planet
don’t need any more dirty energy.
It looks like energy shutoffs
in the dead of winter for
our neighbors,” Mamdani told
QNS. “Enough is enough. It’s
time for a democratized energy
system that’s accountable
to us — that’s why I’m proud to
support public power.”
At Saturday’s event, Kerwin,
a Far Rockaway resident,
said her home was ravaged
by Hurricane Sandy, leaving
many like her and her family
homeless due to power outages.
“If we need something to
live, the cost should not be
on our backs,” Kerwin said.
“We have to have the courage
to ask for more. We deserve
maintenance over profits. We
deserve proper infrastructure.
We deserve our power to
work whether it’s cold, hot or
stormy. I should not live in a
brownout home.”
Kaur said that while City
Council District 23, currently
represented by Barry Grodenchik,
received a perfect score
on the New York League of
Conservation Voters’s Environmental
Scorecard, equitable
treatment doesn’t trickle
down to every person in the
district.
“As soon as you cross Hillside
Avenue and Jamaica
Avenue, you see a different
reality for the way people in
my district live, and those are
the people we’re fighting for,”
Kaur said.
Advocates also point to
corporate utility companies’
use of fossil fuels and how it’s
led to damaging climate effects
like extreme heat waves
and storms that trigger blackouts,
and how the COVID-19
pandemic has exacerbated
the state’s indebted utilities
system.
Kaur said she doesn’t want
to continue talking about
expensive Con Ed bills; she
wants a solution, “and that is
public power.”
“We get that with a Green
New Deal for public housing,
making sure these buildings
are climate-resilient, hiring
union labor, hiring local and
making sure that our city can
continue to have a future that
is certain, livable and green
because that is what we deserve,”
Kaur said. “Our public
utilities are not a commodity,
and neither are our people.”
Reach reporter Angélica
Acevedo by e-mail at aacevedo@
schnepsmedia.com
TIMESLEDGER is published weekly by Queens CNG LLC, 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY.11361, (718) 229-0300. The entire contents of this publication are copyright 2021. All rights reserved. The newspaper will not be
liable for errors appearing in any advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Periodicals postage paid at Flushing, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the TimesLedger C/O News Queens
CNG LLC. 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, N.Y. 11361.
/schnepsmedia.com
