North Shore Towers Meets the Candidates
control. Richards wants to use the
Queens’ president’s office to build
greater communication with Albany.
Crowley said, “Throw out the rede-sign
and start over,” while Quinn
noted that the plan is not final and
should be analyzed further before
any radical changes are made.
The candidates were also asked
for their perspectives on taxes, spe-cifically
the disparity in how NYC
co-ops and condos are taxed versus
private homes. Again the candidates
were in agreement that the current
tax structure needs reform and that
the office of the Queens president
can use its weight to make changes
happen.
Changing the tax basis for co-ops
and condos from their current Class
2 to the lower basis of Class 1 that
is used for private homes was a
strategy suggested by Crowley,
while Quinn tied high taxes to
NYC’s budgets which, he said, have
“increased exponentially over the
years.” Miranda wants to “challenge
the tax process toward a resolu-tion,
noting that the “tax base is
through the roof.’ Constantindes
agreed that “the system is broken,”
and Richards added, “At the end
of the day, we’re overtaxed and not
getting the services we deserve.”
Attracting business to the borough,
which is critical to a healthy econ-omy
in Queens, was another topic
discussed. The focus of all the candi-dates
was on finding solutions to aid
small businesses, whether by work-ing
with local Business Improvement
Districts (Constantindes); providing
tax incentives (Miranda); improving
transportation for their employees
and customers (Crowley); free legal
services (Richards) or lowering
operating costs for small businesses
(Quinn).
The subject of bail reform, which
eliminated cash bail as of Jan. 1 of
this year, was also introduced. One
of the main objections to the new
policy that the candidates shared
was that law was passed by the
state with little or no input from
the City Council or other NYC
entities. “Neither law enforcement
or victims were part of the conver-sations,”
Miranda said. In addition,
the candidates largely believe that
judges need to have more latitude
in making decisions on bail.
Each candidate was also asked
in what ways each distinguishes
him/herself from their opponents.
Following is an excerpt of each
candidate’s response:
Costa Constantindes (current
NYC Councilmember, District 22):
“I have stood up to ‘big special
interests’…I want to invest in parks
and green space and build good
union jobs and membership.”
Elizabeth Crowley (former NYC
Councilmember, District 30):
“In 2008 I was the first Democrat
ever to represent my district…it is a
heavily Republican district so I had
to have Republicans vote for me. We
need a borough president who will
represent all of us.”
Anthony Miranda (former
Sergeant, NYPD):
“I have been in public service for
over 30 years, 20-plus years with
NYPD. No other candidate can say
they worked in the streets.”
Jim Quinn (former Queens Asst.
District Attorney):
“I was ADA for 42 years and not
involved in politics; it was prohibit-ed.
I have no agenda; I’m doing this
because I watched the crime rate go
down and want to keep that.”
Donovan Richards (current NYC
Councilmember, District 31):
“On the city council, I’ve done
just about every job as the Queens
Borough President would do, such
as being chair of committees on
zoning and franchises, public safe-ty
and environmental protection
committee.”
Photos by Jenna Bagcal/
Queens Courier
l-r: Anthony Miranda; former Queens Borough President Claire
Schulman; Donovan Richards; Debra Markell-Kleinert
Off to
the Races
The Mar. 24 special election
is not the end of the race for
Queens Borough President; in
fact, the job may be only tem-porary
for whoever comes out
ahead. That’s because Melinda
Katz’s term is not over until Dec.
31, 2021, which means there will
be a few more races—four, to be
exact--until a president takes
office for a full four-year term.
First, the results of a primary in
June, 2020, and the general elec-tion
in November, 2020, will be
combined to determine who will
serve the final year of Katz’s term.
Then in June, 2021, another
primary election and November,
2021, general election will decide
who will hold the office for a
four-year term beginning Jan
1, 2022.
Queens Borough President
Special Election
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Towers on the Green
Voting is open from
6:00am-9:00am
Typically, the order of names on
the ballot is decided by the order in
which valid petitions are received,
i.e., on a ‘first-in/first-listed’ basis.
However, three of the candidates
submitted their petitions at virtu-ally
the same moment. It was the
first time that had happened, and
it led the Board of Elections to
make the unprecedented decision
to determine the order by random
draw. The candidates will appear
on the ballot in the following order:
Donovan Richards
Elizabeth Crowley
Jimmy Van Bramer*
Costa Constantinides
James Quinn
Dao Yin
Anthony Miranda
*Van Bramer has withdrawn
from the race but will remain on
the ballot because he submitted
valid petition signatures before the
deadline.
March 2020 ¢ NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER 9