Queens Special Election

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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. A special election is underway in Queens right now in a district that perfectly exemplifies what the city is up against. According to the Queens Daily Eagle and we'll talk to their managing editor in just a minute, in predominantly white Breezy Point on the western end of the Rockaway Peninsula, the COVID-19 vaccination rate is 27%, in predominantly Black Far Rockaway on the eastern end, the vaccination rate is 4%.

Of course, guess which end of the Peninsula is in the top tier of zip codes hit hard by the virus itself? The disparate vaccination rates in Queens are just the latest example of the broader challenge facing the winner of that city council race and the next mayor and the whole of New York City. Let's talk about it with David Brand, managing editor of the Queens Daily Eagle, and Christine Chung, Queens reporter for the nonprofit news organization, The City. David and Christine, thanks for joining us. Welcome back to WNYC.

David Brand: Thanks for having us, Brian.

Christine Chung: Hey Brian.

Brian Lehrer: David, those vaccination rates stats, 27% versus 4% on the two ends of the Rockaway Peninsula, those are brand new numbers because the city just released vaccination rates by zip code. What's the big picture that that Rockaway snapshot is a part of?

David Brand: Thank you for citing that, Brian. The Rockaway Peninsula is definitely segregated by race and income level. On the western portion, you have communities like Breezy Point predominantly white, middle-class, upper-middle-class, and wealthy and then in the eastern portion, you have communities like Far Rockaway, Arverne Edgemere, all located in Council District 31 that are predominantly Black and are lower-income, middle income. You see a huge disparity in vaccination rates based on that data we got from the city yesterday. I'm talking about New York City, not Christine's publication who has also done great work on this.

People point out, "Oh well, there are a lot of first responders, a lot of police officers, a lot of firefighters in Breezy Point." That could account for part of that high rate of vaccination but at the same time, you have a lot of people in medical care living in Far Rockaway, you have a lot of home health aids, you have a lot of people working in hospitals. I don't think that that alone accounts for the disparities, I think it comes down to a lot of racial and income issues.

Brian Lehrer: Do you know the relative vaccination availability on the Eastern and Western ends of the Rockaway Peninsula? Are there as many vaccination sites? Are there different barriers to access to those sites? How much it can be chalked up to vaccine hesitancy as opposed to access? How would you break it down?

David Brand: That's a great question. Speaking with Donovan Richards yesterday, Borough president, he used to represent City31, he was saying he's not surprised about this because there's few vaccination sites in the Far Rockaway area, there's no major site, people have to travel to mainland Queens to get those vaccines. There's only one hospital on the entire Peninsula too and that's a problem. I'm not sure when it comes to Breezy Point if there is a vaccine site over there, maybe Christine knows. I'm more familiar with what exists or doesn't exist in the Eastern portion, the Far Rockway, Arverne, Edgemere area.

Brian Lehrer: Christine, anything to add before we go to the election per se?

Christine Chung: I'm not aware of any larger scale vaccination site in Breezy Point but like David said, the biggest site in Queens is Citi Field and there's only 800 appointments a week, Wednesday through Saturday. I think that is a pretty big disparity from some of the other larger-scale vaccination sites in the city such as Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Now listeners, here's the special election context for all this, Donovan Richards who used to represent this part of Queens got elected Queens Borough president. His seat is vacant and the law allows for a special election so the area isn't left unrepresented for the next year. We're talking about Far Rockaway plus the Southeast Queens mainland neighborhoods of Laurelton, Rosedale, Springfield Gardens, Edgemere, Arverne, and Brookville. It's District 31 in your city council paint by numbers map. Christine Chung, can you paint a demographic portrait of the area? How diverse a district is this in the most diverse Borough in the solar system?

Christine Chung: Sure. This district is really unique in that, as David mentioned, there's a split geography, there's what people in the area call the mainland which is the neighborhoods in Southeast Queens that the district covers, that's Brookville, Laurelton, Rosedale, Springfield Gardens and there's also portions of the Rockaway Peninsula, Arverne, Edgemere, and Far Rockaway. These communities are really distinct and it's important to mention that depending on where you are in the district, the demographics are different but overall it is a district that's 68% Black and has historically been represented by a Black politician. In this race we have one white candidate, the other candidates are candidates of color. It's unlike the district 24 race in that we don't really have one sole front runner.

Brian Lehrer: There are nine candidates in this race as we said and we can't give people the tools in one radio segment to sift through nine people and make an informed choice. Listeners, if you want help with that, see the reporting by WNYC and Gothamist on our website and the news organizations of our guests from The City and the Queen Daily Eagle who can take you in-depth. We'll touch briefly on a few candidates who are leading by various measures, but I do want to know this and for you to tell the listeners this, what would you each say are the main issues that the candidates are talking about and how do they reflect the state of New York City here in early 2021? Christine, would you go first on issues that you're hearing these candidates raise most often?

Christine Chung: Sure. Some of the key issues that have emerged in this race have been storm resiliency, the Rockaways, and the rest of the district were hit really hard during Superstorm Sandy. That was actually a key issue back in the last special election for the district back in 2013 when Donovan Richards first won his seat. There's been a lot of discussion about adequate funding for greater resiliency and emergency preparation for the next possible storm, there's been talk about the role of the NYPD. Some candidates have said that they want to make sure that there's enough funding for the local precinct, they don't want to defund the police while other candidates such as Manny Silva has said that they support the reallocation of NYPD funding into different areas.

There's also been a lot of discussion about need for the local government to provide greater support to the area to contain the spread of the virus, the Rockaways and other parts of the district were considered red zones earlier in the pandemic. Housing that's actually affordable, implementing programs to help first-time owners has been something that's been discussed especially by candidate Selvena Brooks-Powers. One thing as David mentioned earlier is that there's only one hospital in the Peninsula so the need for better health care and greater hospital access, especially for a trauma center on the Peninsula has been something that's come a lot.

Brian Lehrer: David, same question, if I landed in Queens this morning from Mars and knew nothing about the area or the people who live in District 31 and fell into a candidates forum on Zoom or something, what would be issues number one, two and three that I'd probably hear about?

David Brand: Brian, I don't know if you're landing for Mars but if you're landing from many other places in the world, you probably would be landing in City31 because that's where JFK airport is located, major job provider for the district and also a lot of the companies that rely on the airport. Right now there's a problem because there's few travelers, airport business is down, a lot of the companies involved there have done furloughs and layoffs, jobs are a huge issue. Christine really hit, I think, a lot of the other major issues when it comes to affordable housing, not just for renters but also for homeowners and people maintaining their homes, avoiding foreclosure, especially in the Southeast Queens mainland portion of the district. Healthcare, the district lost a hospital about 10 years ago, they just have one now, St. John's Episcopal hospital, so efforts to get at least a health and hospital center site there, maybe a larger clinic and not necessarily a full hospital but I think that would be an ideal goal for a lot of the candidates and for a lot of people living there. Then another issue, transportation. Again, I talked with Don Richards and he was like, "When you're talking about this race, make sure you talk about transportation." It takes people longer to get into Manhattan from the Southeast Queens portion of the district than it does to get to Florida from JFK airport. Just more reliable, more consistent, faster transportation.

Brian Lehrer: David, how diverse is this field of candidates, and how much does the field breakdown like the population demographics that Christine laid out before?

David Brand: There's nine candidates, the majority are Black or African-American and that reflects the district which is predominantly Black. There's a couple of Latino candidates and then there's also one Orthodox Jewish candidate who is a leader in of a significant sized Orthodox Jewish community there in Far Rockaway area and his name is Pesach Osina. He ran in a special election in 2013 and narrowly lost to Donovan Richards by I think about fewer than 80 votes.

He will probably bring out a significant number of voters from that community, but that 2013 special election was, I think, seen as like a model for why New York City could benefit from rank choice voting because Don Richards won that with about 29% and then Osina came in second with about 27% and so Richards with less than a third of the votes won that election and got the seat and stayed in office for another seven years.

Brian Lehrer: We'll get to the rank choice voting element of this in a second but Christine, you report that this time around, Osina leads the field and fundraising, and he's been the Queens borough director in the city controller, Scott Stringer's office for the last seven years so he's got that relevant experience. Another candidate has the endorsement of most of the local Democrats, that candidate is Selvena Brooks-Powers. Donovan Richards has endorsed Brooks-Powers to succeed him, state Senator James Sanders from the area, the Queens County Democratic party, as well as an organization and prominent unions, including the healthcare workers 1199 and the building services workers 32BJ, have endorsed her as well. Would you say these are the two leading candidates in the race Selvena Brooks-Powers and Pesach Osina out of the nine or should other candidates be described in a top tier as well? Or is there any way to even know in a low turnout unpolled situation like this?

Christine Chung: Yes, I think it's really difficult to say clearly who the top two front runners are. It might be more along the lines of top four so Selvena, also Pesach Osina, Manuel Silva, Latoya Benjamin appear to be in the mix too and have all pulled pretty strong fundraising numbers and although, as you mentioned, Brian, that Brooks-Powers has taken home a lot of the major endorsements from local elected officials and labor unions, a lot of local community support from grassroots groups and community leaders have gone to Benjamin and Osina and Silva so in terms of the front runners, those would be the four leading candidates.

Brian Lehrer: David, this is an early test of the city's new rank choice voting system with nine candidates on the ballot, voters don't have to choose only one. They can rank up to five candidates, one through five if they choose to vote that way. Can you tell if that's affecting how people campaign, because in theory it's supposed to for less negative campaigning, for example, because candidates will want to be the second choice of people voting for their opponents?

David Brand: Yes, I think it is changing the way. Brigid Bergen from WNYC and I hosted or moderated a forum the other day.

Brian Lehrer: I've heard of her.

David Brand: She's great, and it's great to work with her on this. We talk to the candidates specifically about how rank-choice voting is affecting their campaigning. I think, for the most part, people are positive. There's not too much negativity. I think one specific example and then maybe get a little bit more into it but with Osina back in 2013, I think his campaign really focused on that Orthodox Jewish community and I heard that he is sending mailers out throughout the district, including in Southeast Queens, which I think was an area he ignored that last time around. Maybe saying, "I might not be your first choice, but you could consider me a second, a third, a fourth choice."

A few of the candidates, one, in particular, Manuel Silva has actually outlined his entire ballot and he talked to us about that at that forum. None of the other candidates have been as bold as of yet. Nancy Martinez who runs a home health care training agency. She said she would rank Silva third. Silva had ranked her third but everyone else was not willing to give that up just yet, but many of them did say they were going to rank candidates. Maybe after this show, if they're listening that will inspire them to reach out to Christine and me or to tweet, tell us your ballot.

Brian Lehrer: Let's hope. Christine, your article in The City quotes a political consultant who says the question is how well candidates will be able to navigate rank choice voting, how their political coalition will be able to succeed under the conditions of a special election in a pandemic. How do you see candidates trying to do that especially the rank-choice voting aspect?

Christine Chung: There's been a lot of candidates who were actually still canvassing, knocking on doors, even despite the difficult conditions of the pandemic, and there's been obviously a lot of mailers being sent out for any election but a big focus on digital outreach as well in order to both educate voters about rank choice voting, which is happening essentially for the first time with this election and also that there is an election even happening. A lot of voters in the district don't even know that there's a special election on February 23rd and that early voting is actually happening so that's a key hurdle that all of the campaigns are trying to grapple with right now.

Brian Lehrer: Before you both go, David, let me touch on one other story you have in the Queens Daily Eagle this morning and it's about a moment on the TV show Jeopardy in which Queens unexpectedly comes up and the contestant in question whose name is actually, Karen is being called the Jeopardy Karen. She is Karen L. Stad, a chaplain originally from Frankfort, Kentucky who got introduced by the host Ken Jennings in this clip, having had a troubling experience as a 15-year-old in Queens. I pulled the clip. You want to set this up?

David Brand: Yes, they do the personal anecdote portion of the show where the candidates get the, not candidates, but contestants talk for 30 seconds or so about a memorable life experience and for some reason, the experience that came up with her was she was doing a summer program when she was 15, she's from Kentucky. She was in Manhattan and she would spend her days riding the subways because she didn't know anybody in New York City and so she said she ended up accidentally taking the subway to Jamaica Queens and it was a terrifying moment.

Brian Lehrer: This begins with Ken Jennings, host of jeopardy.

Ken Jennings: Karen L. Stad, a Chaplin originally from Frankfort, Kentucky had troubling your experience as a 15-year-old in Queens, New York. What happened?

Karen L. Stad: Yes. I was doing a summer program, I was in Manhattan and I didn't know a single person in New York City and shockingly, I didn't make any friends in the program so I would spend my time riding the subway around the city. One day I wasn't paying attention to the changes that I was making and I ended up in Jamaica, Queens, and had no idea how I got there. This was very much pre Uber, pre smartphones so terrifying moment, just me and abject fear.

Brian Lehrer: Terrifying moment, terrifying moment, just being in Jamaica, Queens, apparently, and that nervous laughter by the host. You report David that Ms. L. Stad's defenders on Twitter are saying she didn't make any racial references and if she was caught anywhere in a new location, far from where she thought she was going, she might've had the same reaction. Has she since elaborated on if it was something about being at a Jamaica subway station that freaked her out?

David Brand: I reached out, found her on Facebook, and found her email address and she hasn't got back to me yet. I definitely want to hear her side of it. It doesn't look good. That's for sure. First off her name's Karen and that's become shorthand for white women who are scared of people of color, particularly Black people, and that the population of Jamaica, Queens is predominantly people of color. Some people defending her saying, well, maybe she was just a surprise to end up in a new location. Maybe she thought she was on the A going uptown and she took the E and it took her into Queens but a lot of people, I think see this as she might've been scared because she is racist or it's not comfortable being among people of color in a new neighborhood. We want to hear from her that's for sure.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Another Karen being called another Karen and again, for more information on the special election in Queen's city council, district 31 early rank choice voting now underway, election day itself next Tuesday, February 23rd, you can see coverage on our Gothamist local news website or from the news organizations of our guests. David Brand, managing editor of the Queens Daily Eagle, and Christine Chung Queen's reporter for The City. Thanks so much to both of you.

David Brand: Thank you, Brian.

Christine Chung: Thank you.

 

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