Queens Borough President’s Election
l-r: QBP Candidates Costa Constantindes; Elizabeth Crowley; Anthony Miranda; Donovan Richards; Jim Quinn
BY JILL DAVIS
Candidates for the office of
Queens Borough President
met at NST’s movie the-ater
on Thursday, February 13, to
answer questions and make their
cases for why they should replace
Melinda Katz, who left the position
following her victory in last year’s
Queens District Attorney election.
The forum, which was co-spon-sored
by NST’s Political Affairs/
Media & Marketing Committee
and the Queens Courier, brought
together candidates Costa
Constantindes, Elizabeth Crowley,
Anthony Miranda, James Quinn
and Donovan Richards (candidate
Dao Yin did not attend).
The candidates will be facing off
in a special election on March 24
in the first of several steps towards
electing a new borough president
(see Sidebar).
NST Board member Debra
Markell-Kleinert, Chair of NST’s
Political Affairs/Media & Marketing
Committee, introduced the evening
and thanked its committee mem-bers
for their work in putting the
forum together. She then introduced
Victoria Schneps-Yunis, CEO of
Schneps Media, publisher of the
Queens Courier.
Schneps-Yunis introduced former
Queens Borough President Claire
Schulman, who was in attendance.
Schulman, who held the borough
president position for 16 years, was
about to celebrate her 94th birthday
and quipped, “I can’t walk so well
because I worked so hard.” She
continued, “This is a very import-ant
evening. You’re going to meet
the very wonderful young people
who are running for the borough
president’s job. Let me tell you, it’s
not an easy job….you take care of
senior citizens, you take care of
people who are very vulnerable.”
She asked the audience to “listen
very carefully to all these young
people. They all work very hard
in their current jobs and we thank
them for being here.”
The question-and-answer peri-od
began in which each candidate
Schneps Media CEO Victoria Schneps-Yunis
was given two minutes to respond.
The questions kicked off with each
candidate explaining what their
priorities would be as Queens
Borough President. Despite differ-ences
in approach, the candidates
uniformly cited transportation in
Queens as a major problem that
must be addressed. Specifically,
the proposed MTA bus redesign is
a hot-button issue for North Shore
Towers’ residents and other areas
of Queens that are “transit deserts.”
Constantindes is an advocate
for there to be a voice for Queens
on the MTA board, while Miranda
believes that MTA oversight should
be shifted from the state to municipal
NST Political Affairs/Marketing & Media Chair Debra Markell-Kleinert
8 NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER ¢ March 2020