The Return of Gunset Park?

Next Tuesday on June 28 Sunset Park will hold one of the most important elections in its recent history. We will be voting in our next state assembly representative. Yes, its only the Democratic primary, but in a district where there are 40,000 registered democrats versus slightly over 2,000 of other parties it might as well be the general election because the democrat nominee is guaranteed to win in November no matter what. In the last year alone, crime in the 72 precinct has gone up an incredible 30%+ according to the statistics published in the NYPD website. A recent poll published by the New York Post shows that 7 out of 10 New Yorkers fear being the victims of a crime. The headlines in the papers are reminiscent of Chicago. Murders are up citywide and crime is up everywhere. Studies have shown that the primary cause of this upward shift is the bail reform laws passed by our state legislature by "progressive" representatives. 

Our current assembly person Marcela Mitaynes is on record in an interview on WPIX 11 as being an avid supporter of these "progressive" policies. She is also on record as supporting defund the Police policies. She believes that crime should be handled by "social workers" rather than trained law enforcement. A recent story in the NY POST highlighted that record numbers of police officers are resigning and leaving the NYPD as a result of these policies.  There are also a wide number of other issues which most constituents of our nabe may not be aware. There are plans to pass a new slew of bills that will raise Real Estate taxes on current homeowners thus indirectly leading to a spike in rents as well.   

Rezoning of the waterfront to build affordable housing for our constituents in keeping with the low income standards of our neighborhood are opposed by both Alexa Aviles and Marcela Mitaynes. The 5th Avenue Committee which is colluding with developers to build Apartment complexes throughout our neighborhood is pushing for "affordable Housing" whose income criteria puts most of these units out of reach of our working class neighbors and effectively gentrifying the area. Literally the opposite of our politicians claim they oppose. 

As if that weren't enough, our local politicians have by stealth colluded with the NYC Development Corporation to hand over 72 acres (the size of two Sunset parks) of our prime real estate to an international conglomerate to build a propeller factory for green energy. Con Edison will be forced to buy the electricity produced which will drive up our electric bills through the roof. The excuse they used was that it was to create jobs. In reality most of the jobs that will be created will be out of reach of our local residents. Millions of dollars exchanged hands in the deal, none of which benefit our local residents. 

Then there is the issue of education and our schools. Looking at the rankings of the schools in our neighborhood paints a disturbing picture. According to the US news and World Report school ranking most of our schools including Sunset Park High school are ranked in the lower 50% of all schools in the city. In the meantime our elected officials oppose either vouchers for our residents or building any charter schools in our neighborhood. As many of you may be aware, the teachers unions are big contributors to the campaigns of our local politicians. 

A recent investigative essay click here delves into these complex corrupt relationships which I urge those reading this post to read. We cannot afford to continue on our current direction. We must fight back or we will return back to the old days when Sunset Park earned the moniker of "Gunset Park". As an immigrant and resident of Sunset Park since 1970 I fear we are returning to the conditions that made Sunset Park an unpleasant and dangerous place to live in. Of course, you could stay home this coming Tuesday  and hope for the best However, I implore you that staying home is NOT an option, You MUST show up and vote in the primary. For the sake of our neighborhood, the Democratic party and the future of our children The only choice on the ballot to reverse course and begin to implement sane, moderate and rational policies to help our Sunset Park is Erik Frankel. His family has been in the neighborhood since 1890. He has a stake on seeing it survive.