WNYC is taking a closer look at some of the most competitive City Council races in partnership with City Limits and Gotham Gazette.
In District 35, which includes Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, incumbent Laurie Cumbo is facing a tough reelection. Many Crown Heights residents are angry over plans to redevelop the Bedford-Union Armory — a vacant military building the de Blasio administration wants to turn into high-end condos, recreational space and affordable housing.
"Laurie Cumbo has finally come out against the deal, but she had a lot of opponents and critics saying she was too slow to oppose it," said Ben Max, executive editor of Gotham Gazette.
The controversy speaks to the anxieties in many of the city's changing neighborhoods, where residents feel developers are getting the better part of a bargain.
Max spoke to WNYC's Kerry Nolan about Cumbo's tough reelection fight and the murky future of the Bedford-Union Armory deal.