8 FEBRUARY 27, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Meet the candidates running
for Queens Borough President
Save the date: Early voting starts March 14; special election is March 24
Costa Constantinides
In his work in the City Council, Astoria Councilman Costa Constantinides never
misses an opportunity to decry climate change as an existential threat. Constantinides
has dedicated much of his tenure focusing on legislation to making the
city greener — and he’s had some substantial success doing so. He had a huge
win in 2019, when the Council passed the “Green New Deal” that he introduced.
In his bid for borough president, many of Constantinides’ policies contain
an environmental angle, but center on public housing, MTA reform and diverse
representation among the borough’s community boards. Most Constantinides
made headlines by calling for legislation that would allow each of New York
City’s fi ve borough presidents to nominate a voting member to the MTA’s board.
Out of the remaining candidates, Constantinides has also distinguished himself
with his readiness to pick fi ghts over transportation and housing projects
that don’t fi t his principles.
He recently joined Senator Jessica Ramos to voice concerns over the current
$2 billion plan to build an AirTrain from Willets Point to LaGuardia Airport. He
also stood with opponents of the major Flushing Waterfront Rezoning, who claim
that the plan will exacerbate the neighborhood’s displacement.
Equipped with a large cash infusion of $476,697 in matching funds, Constanitinides
has also had an opportunity to bolster his get-out-the-vote operation.
Elizabeth Crowley
Elizabeth Crowley was born into a family of 15 siblings. She followed her passion for the
arts to college, where she received her bachelor’s degree from the Fashion Institute of
Technology.
She worked as a restorative painter on many New York landmarks including Radio
City Music Hall and St. Patrick’s Cathedral and became involved in union organizing.
In 2008, Crowley became the fi rst Democrat and fi rst woman elected to represent
City Council District 30, covering Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood,
Woodhaven and Woodside.
As chair of the Fire and Criminal Justice Services Committee, she was a powerful
voice against cuts to uniformed personnel. She led a citywide eff ort to save fi rehouses
and improve the city’s 911 call-taking system.
As a candidate for Queens borough president, Crowley is building support for more
public transportation options and for policies that will make Queens carbon neutral
and more storm resistant.
She believes that Queens residents pay some of the highest taxes in New York, yet
the borough receives the least in resources in return.
Ctowley founded Friends of the QNS, a nonprofi t advocacy organization, which calls
for the reactivation of the Lower Montauk Branch of the LIRR for local commuters. The
QNS Rail would run from Jamaica to Long Island, serving nearly 7.7mm riders annually.
Jim Quinn
Despite being a registered Democrat, former Assistant District Attorney Jim
Quinn is the conservative outlier of the fi eld of candidates running to be borough
president.
Aft er serving Queens County DA’s Offi ce for 42 years, Quinn made a last-minute
entry into the platform that predominantly focuses on protesting recent criminal
justice reforms that city and state legislators have championed over the past year
— laws that do not fall under the discretion of the borough president.
Quinn has vowed to stop the closing of Rikers Island, to stop Mayor de Blasio
from building jails in Kew Gardens or anywhere in Queens, and to push back on
the bail reform by allowing judges to consider a defendant’s “danger to society”
when setting bail.
As a result of his views on criminal justice, many of Quinn’s supporters include
Queens’ most prominent conservative leaders like Queens County Republican
Chairperson Joann Ariola, Councilman Robert Holden and former Republican
Queens state Sen. Serf Maltese.
He has also voiced pro-big business policy ideas about wanting to attract
companies like Amazon to the borough and supported development projects like
the Flushing rezoning for their economic potential.
Anthony Miranda
Retired NYPD Sgt. Anthony Miranda is running for Queens borough president,
not as a politician, but as a lifelong New Yorker who wants to see the borough’s
leadership refl ect its diversity.
Miranda has more than 30 years of activism and orga-nizing experience, and is
the chairman of the National Latino Offi cers Association. Inspired by campaigns
like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former district attorney candidate Tiff
any Caban, Miranda aligns himself with progressive leaders. He’s raised more
than $40,000 with a grassroots campaign, rooted in the people of Queens whose
voices haven’t been heard.
Miranda believes the education system needs to be fi xed aft er years of “wrongdoings,”
by strengthening Parent-Teacher Associations, addressing overcrowding
and working with the community. When it comes to trans-portation, he believes
that it has not improved and that the Queens mem-bers of the City Council have
failed to create a unifi ed vision for the system.
The 58-year-old, who resides in Fresh Meadows with his wife and three sons,
believes the Queens borough president’s offi ce needs to make more of an eff ort
to be more transparent and accountable when it comes to com-munity boards and
their lack of diversity and representation of the neigh-borhoods they represent.
Donovan Richards
A lifelong resident of southeast Queens and the Rockaways, Donovan Richards began his
career in politics aft er losing a childhood friend to gun violence.
He was elected to represent the region on the City Council in 2013. The following
year he was appointed to be the chair of the Committee on Environmental
Protection, which allowed him to address the decades-old systematic issue of
fl ooding in southeast Queens. Richards secured more than $1.5 billion for sewer
infrastructure.
He also served as the chair of Zoning and Franchises where he helped negotiate a stronger,
more inclusive aff ordable housing plan and he secured $228 million in investments
for rezoning in Far Rockaway.
In 2018, Richard started his second term by being named Chair of the Committee
on Public Safety, which ties back to his initial motivation for getting into politics: losing
a childhood friend to gun violence. He is committed to making the streets safer while
working to reform the criminal justice system.
As Queens borough president, Richards would also focus on jobs and aff ordable
housing as well as the fi ght for tenants rights like rent regulations and vacancy decontrol.
He wants to see “NYCHA clean up its act” and make the necessary investments into its
collapsing infrastructure.
Richards vows to fi ght for everyone who uses public transportation and with
nearly half of the Queens population born outside the United States and is dedicated
to fi ghting for immigrant rights and the need to keep ICE out of the courts and
he’ll fi ght to ensure funding continues to provide legal services to undocumented
immigrants.
Dao Yin
Dao Yin is a Queens busi-nessman and communi-ty activist who has worked for two
of fortune global 500 companies as a corpo-rate controller. Yin’s platform in his run
for Queens borough president consists of creating more opportunities for jobs in
technology, catering to work-ing families and fi xing the Queens housing crisis.
Yin, who’s worked for more than 15 companies in various industries in the U.S.,
Japan and China, believes that while Queens should be educating residents for the
technolo-gy industry, there is also a need to prepare residents for the many jobs that
don’t require tech, such as carpenters, fi remen and accountants.
He believes he can help the borough do this with his experience in part-nering
with corporate and small businesses to advance workforces by cre-ating and implementing
retraining opportunities.
The 56-year-old also believes working families are Queens’ “greatest asset.” The Bayside
resident believes in helping families by demanding good education for their children,
adequate health, adequate health care, police protection and true aff ordable housing.
Yin sees the “loss of 25,000 decent paying jobs” when Amazon left the borough
shouldn’t have happened, and thinks that the $3 billion in tax credits would have
brought in $27 billion form job holder tax revenues.
Yin, who has a masters of science degree in business from Zicklin School of
Business at Baruch College, also wants to address the housing crisis in the borough
by adding programs that will help fi x the problem.
He advocates for a balance between “redevelopment and the sanctity of peoples’
homes.” Yin is promoting a 10 percent City Rent Tax Credit, to “help with the ever
increasing cost of living in the borough of Queens.”
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