6 OCTOBER 6 - OCTOBER 12, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
City Council hopefuls go head-to-head
during three-way debate in Bay Ridge
BY HELEN KLEIN
HKLEIN@BROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
Since the September 12 primary
— which winnowed a broad field
of nine candidates (four Republicans
and five Democrats) down to one
representative from each party — it
seemed like the race to replace 43rd
District Councilmember Vincent
Gentile was going to be a one-on-one
competition.
Not anymore.
The biggest surprise at the candidates’
debate hosted by the Bay Ridge
Council on Aging at the Fort Hamilton
Senior Center on the morning
of Wednesday, October 4 was not
the positions espoused by Democrat
Justin Brannan and Republican John
Quaglione but the addition of a third
candidate into the fray with unsuccessful
GOP hopeful Bob Capano back in
the race as the candidate of the Reform
Party, which he told the crowd he had
become a member of just that morning.
Pointing out that, in his previous
career, he had worked for elected officials
on both sides of the aisle, as well
as having run a business and taught
on various levels, Capano said that
the community “needs someone with
common sense business experience
and political experience with both
Democrats and Republicans.
“If any district in New York City is
going to elect the first Reform Party
candidate,” Capano added, “this is it.”
But, not if Brannan and Quaglione
have anything to say about it.
Both stressed not only their deep
roots in the community (something
Capano also emphasized), but also
their long stints working for elected
officials — Brannan worked for Gentile
for a decade and Quaglione for State
Senator Marty Golden since Golden
was in the City Council in the late 1990s.
The differences between the three
candidates were easily apparent.
Both Quaglione and Capano expressed
opposition to current Mayor
Bill de Blasio and his governance of
the city.
Quaglione, who contended that,
despite bloating the municipal budget,
de Blasio had sought to cut important
programs, such as those serving
seniors, promised the crowd that he
would be a “fighter against Bill de Blasio,”
and initiatives that he’s pushing
such as building 90 new homeless
shelters (which, he contended, would
end up with one or two being built in
the Council district) as well as closing
Riker’s Island, which could result in a
jail being built locally as well, he said.
Capano, for his part, bashed de
Blasio, reusing a line he had repeated
during the leadup to the Republican
primary. “I believe his progressive
policies are progressively bad for New
York City,” he said, “and I don’t want
the City Council passing any more
radical laws on us.”
Among his targets — the mayor’s recently
formed public art commission
which is looking into the possibility
of removing certain statues (such
as those of Columbus) and which
he called “political correctness on
steroids” and the $100,000 allocated
by the City Council to “study opening
heroin injection facilities in the community.
To me that’s nuts.”
Brannan, who called himself an
“independent Democrat...beholden
to you, the voter,” contended that, in
contrast to the gloom-and-doom scenarios
many de Blasio bashers paint,
“I’m an optimist. I try to see the glass
as half full.”
And, he emphasized, governing is
not just about identifying problems.
“You have to have solutions,” he said,
adding, “If we work together, anything
is possible.”
That said, Brannan didn’t shy away
from criticizing the mayor. “I’m the
only one of the candidates suing de
Blasio,” he told the crowd, “because he
isn’t picking up the garbage on private
streets.”
The three also discussed affordable
housing with Quaglione expressing
support for building more senior
housing and a revamp of the real
estate tax to make it fairer, and Capano
saying it’s “about making the
city better and more affordable,” and
“allow(ing) all residents to keep more
of their hard-earned money.”
Brannan — who said he wanted to
see the “property tax system ...recalibrated”
emphasized also, “To me,
affordable housing means that the
people who built the housing can
afford to live in it,” and added that
keeping the city affordable for residents
means “preserving affordable
housing” as well as building new
units.
The overwhelmingly courteous
debate ended with all three candidates
pitching their strong points.
Capano urged his listeners to vote
for change, telling them that, “The
Republican and Democratic parties in
New York State are going in the wrong
direction.”
Quaglione rejected the “doom and
gloom” label, while listing all the problems
he has perceived in the city under
de Blasio. “The reality is it’s not doom
and gloom. It’s what’s happening in the
city," he contended.
And Brannan, for his part, told the
crowd that his campaign was “deeply
inclusive,” and focused on the needs of
area residents. “Councilman Gentile
has one heck of a legacy that I hope I
can continue,” he urged.
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photo by Helen Klein
Justin Brannan, Bob Capano and John Quaglione.