FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 30, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 11
Peralta & Ramos spar at QNS Facebook Live forum
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com/ @jenna_bagcal
Th e Democratic candidates for the 13th
State Senate district race discussed what
needs to be done to pass the DREAM
Act and how to fi x Roosevelt Avenue
in a bilingual Facebook Live candidate
forum on Aug. 23 co-hosted by QNS, Th e
Queens Courier and El Correo.
Senator Jose Peralta and Jessica Ramos
visited the Schneps Communications
offi ce in Bayside for the online-broadcasted
hour-long forum, which appeared
on both the QNS and El Correo Facebook
pages.
From the beginning of the conversation,
Peralta hammered home the importance
of numbers — as in the number
of votes needed to pass legislation in
the Senate. Th e incumbent senator said
that the DREAM Act, among other laws,
failed to pass due to a lack of votes.
“It’s simple math, you need 32 votes.
We only have 31 Democrats,” Peralta
said. “We were able to move it from 17
members who were cosponsors, to 31
members who are now cosponsors. But
we need that 32nd vote.”
Th e senator mentioned that despite
not being able to get 32 votes, Senate
Democrats were able to secure $15 million
in government funding to protect
DREAMers from being deported.
But Ramos disagreed that numbers
were the most important factor and
argued that the senator had done little to
pass the DREAM Act over the past eight
years, despite the issue being a priority.
“We’ve seen very little done to actually
create the public discourse or the political
environment that is conducive to having
it pass, which I think is most critical right
now because of the times that we’re living
in and because of the bigot we have in the
White House,” Ramos said.
Th e Senate hopeful said that electing
more Democrats to offi ce as well as having
conversations, “pushing the envelope,”
Screenshot from Facebook Live video
and “using your bully pulpit” are
the necessary courses of action to pass the
DREAM Act.
Later on in the debate, the candidates
talked about what needed to be done to
improve the state of Roosevelt Avenue,
which she said has been plagued with
issues of sex workers, human traffi cking
and street vendors not following the laws.
“Th ere’s just a lot of work to do on
Roosevelt Avenue in many diff erent ways
that needs to actually engage the people
who live on Roosevelt Avenue —
because we forget there are
houses there, there are people
who live there — and also
the people who work there to
have actual conversations and
fi gure out how we’re empowering
them economically.
Senator Peralta called
Roosevelt Avenue a “city
issue” that he said he had to
step in to fi x due to the inaction
of several mayors.
Th e senator added that
despite having worked for
Mayor Bill de Blasio in the
past, Ramos was not vocal
about the issues plaguing
Roosevelt Avenue, while
he sent letters to the mayor
asking for investments and
reform.
“That’s why I’ve talked
about converting it into
‘restaurant row’ and getting rid of those
$2 dance bars that leads to prostitution,
that leads to human traffi cking. I’ve been
the one who has been pushing against
that. I’ve been vocal,” said the senator,
who said he has had conversations with
entities like the state liquor authority, the
NYPD and “multiple mayors.”
Th e Democratic primary is on Th ursday,
Sept 13. Th e winner between Peralta and
Ramos will go on to represent NY-13 in
the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
See the full video on QNS.com.
/
