8 THE QUEENS COURIER • SEPTEMBER 27, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Inside the one Queens Assembly district that Nixon carried in primary
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Although Governor Andrew Cuomo
soundly defeated his rival Cynthia Nixon
in his native borough of Queens in the
Sept. 13 gubernatorial primary, there was
one area of the borough where Nixon
reigned.
Assembly District 36, represented by
Aravella Simotas, went for Nixon in rather
convincing fashion; she won 56.8 percent
of the vote in the district, which also had
the highest percentage of voter turnout in
the borough. It’s rather fi tting considering
that Nixon had her campaign headquarters
in the district, at Katch Astoria Tavern, the
same place where a video of Nixon tending
bar was fi lmed and reported on by the
New York Post.
District 36, which includes Long Island
City and Astoria is a blend of immigrants,
families and millennials. According to a
2015 community health profi le, 47 percent
of adults in Long Island City and Astoria
were college educated and in 2016 Astoria
ranked number 11 on New York’s most
gentrifi ed areas.
According to Moumita Ahmed, the
Queens fi eld organizer for Nixon’s campaign,
a large portion of Nixon’s campaign
footwork and rallies happened in
the neighborhood. Eff orts were also made
in Jackson Heights but a language barrier
proved to be a problem for reaching constituents
in the largely Spanish-speaking
neighborhood.
“If we would have had more resources we
would have done better,” said Ahmed, who
mentioned that Cuomo had a political war
chest of $30 million while Nixon only had
$2 million. With the exception of Ahmed,
the entirety of Nixon’s Queens-based campaign
team was made up of volunteers.
But despite the loss, Ahmed is still proud
of the campaign’s eff orts.
“We reached our target,” said Ahmed,
“the disenfranchised, people of color, people
that don’t normally get heard.” She
described the focus group of Nixon’s campaign
as young, working-class millennials,
families, small business owners and immigrants.
“Just because someone has a college
degree doesn’t mean they can’t be working
class,” said Ahmed, who added that many
of the neighborhood’s baristas and servers
are millennials not working in the fi eld in
which they were educated.
But for some District 36 residents,
Nixon’s appeal came from the fact that she
was diff erent. Many millennial voters were
tired of seeing an middle-aged white man
in power and voted for Nixon in order to
break a political tradition of incumbent
favoritism.
“I think that a problem was that a lot of
people didn’t know who she was,” said one
25-year-old, Alexa Vagelatos. She thinks
that if Nixon would have made herself
a more familiar face not just in Queens
neighborhoods but in the city, she would
Photo via Shutterstock
have garnered more support.
“We did the best we could,” said Ahmed.
Assemblywoman Simotas declined to
comment on why the district had a large
number of Nixon supporters.
MTA to boost weekday 7 line service starting next spring
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Queens subway riders will soon see
a spike in 7 train service, as MTA
New York City Transit announced on
Monday that it would increase service
on the heavily used line between
Flushing and Manhattan starting in
April 2019.
Increased service comes aft er voiced
transportation concern due to the L
train’s impending shutdown and as part
of the NYC Transit Fast Forward Plan
— an eff ort to modernize the city’s
entire subway and bus system.
“It’s extremely important for us to
get the subway service alternatives right
during the L tunnel reconstruction project,
because we plan to accommodate
up to 80 percent of diverted L riders on
other subway lines,” said MTA NYC
Transit President Andy Byford.
On weekdays, fi ve additional round
trips on the 7 train will be added
between the hours of 8 and 11 a.m., and
nine round trips will be added during
and aft er the evening rush hour, from
5:30 p.m. until midnight.
“By adding service on the 7 line to prepare
for more customers, we’re making
sure that once the tunnel work begins,
Brooklyn riders can get to where they
need to go while Queens customers get
the service they depend upon,” Byford
noted.
Construction work on the L train tunnel
between Brooklyn and Manhattan,
which was damaged in 2012 during
Hurricane Sandy, is scheduled to being
Photo via Shutterstock
in April 2019. Th e 7 line is expected to
be one of several service alternatives
for regular L train riders in Greenpoint,
Williamsburg and Bushwick who can
take the G train to Court Square in Long
Island City, where they can then transfer
to the 7, E or M trains, all of which serve
midtown Manhattan.
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