CRIME
I have been a resident of Sunset Park since 1970. Things are not well in our community. Crime statisrics for the 72 precinct are inching up. Meanwhile, candidate Alexa Aviles supports defunding the police at this crucial time. As a matter of fact crime was inching up as far back as 2016. The recent tenure by Carlos Menchaca has brought little or no change to our neighborhood nor any improvement.
EDUCATION
Our high school Sunset Park High school is ranked in the lower 20% of school rankings in the nation and on the bottom 50% of city high schools. The rest of our public schools aren't much better. Alexa Aviles backed by the UFT opposes both charter schools and vouchers so our children could get a better education. That is our money that could be better spent to give our children a better education.
PORN SHOPS
We've had porn shops lining 3rd avenue since the Giuliani administration. Politician after politician have promised to do something about the problem. Some of them are located not to far from our schools. Nothing was done during Menchaaca's tenure. I know of no other neighborhood with such a high concentration of porn shops. Alexa Aviles has not even addressed the issue. This a major example of our neighborhood acting as a dumping ground for things other neighborhoods reject.
Hotels Crime and Prostitution
There is a loophole in the zoning laws that particularly effect our neighborhood. The commercial zoning laws do not allow for residential construction. They do however, allow for the construction of hotels and homeless shelters. The result is that our neighborhood has one of the greatest concentrations of hotels that because of lucrative city contracts are being turned into homeless shelters. Unscrupulous developers have taken advantage of the situation and are turning our neighborhood into a haven of hotel cobstruction. A loophole in the law also allows hotels to rent rooms in an hourly basis giving rise to their use by prostitutes and other criminals for their activities. Alexa Aviles hasn't even addressed the issue. We need to tighten the law and close the loopholes. Most of the homeless suffer from drug addiction and mental problems that need to be addressed. A program needs to be setup to help these people get back on their feet. Our political class has not even touched on the necessary solutions. Instead they have been dumping the problem without putting forth any solutions into our neighborhood (while other neighborhoods reject shelters and hotels).
REZONING THE WATERFRONT
The latest hairbrained scheme that our politicians and local activists have come up with is to give 75 acres of city property (our property) to a transnational firm (Norwegian Stat Oil) to build propelers for windmills that are to be placed in the New York bay. That is aproximately 20 square blocks of land which could be better utilized to build housing for our community. Stat Oil has spent millions of dollars to influence our politicians and community organizations to get backing for the project without any partcipations from the residents of our community. We were promised that land was goig to be used for a greenway and parks along the coast. Our community activists facilitated this by pushing for the project. Any jobs created by the project will likely be specialized union jobs that will not go to any residents of our community. If built that 20 acre lot will be there foe many years to come and will not be utilized for much needed housing.
BRINGING BACK INDUSTRY
One of the biggest myths that politicians like to peddle is the idea of bringing back industry to Sunset Park. The problem is that politicians don't understand why industry left Sunset Park in the first place. Modes of production changed from vertical to horizontal factories. That meant that factories needed land and open space to build their production facilities. The result is they left the constricted space of New York city for places like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and in many instances they shipped production abroad to third world countries and China. The land as I mentioned above is better utilized for housing for our community.
TIME FOR CHANGE
Electing the same cabal over and over has been a disaster for our neighborhood. We need to change the narrative and leave out the pandering rhetoric. We need someone who is only beholding to the community not the interests who are funded by outside sources who don't give a sh*t for the community. If we are to improve the quality of life in our communty we have to think outside the box and begin a push back against the organized interests who think Sunset Park is the perfect dumping ground for projects other communities reject. At the moment I see only one candidate who has a real interest in the neighborhood where his family has lived since 1870. With all due respect, someone who lives in Red Hook has no clue what goes on here. I urge you to take a serious look at Erik Frankel for city council. You can visit his website to learn more. As an immigrant from Latin America who escaped one of the many variants of socialism as a political exile I am rather worried that I am seeing another repetition of policies that end in ruin. Our vote is the only tool we have left to change course in our community.
STAYING HOME ON ELECTION DAY IS NOT AN OPTION VOTE TOMMORROW NOVEMBER 2 FOR ERIK FRANKEL FOR DISTRICT 38
VISIT ERIK'S WEBSITE HERE
