District 5 City Council Candidates Debate: Who Won?
Candidates Focus on Homelessness, Zoning issues and Environmental Hazards in District 5 Debate
Growing homelessness on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, along with current zoning patters that are creating “overdevelopment” and environmental threats posed by the planned construction of a Marine Transport Station on 91st Street, were the topics that occupied most of the recent televised debate between three candidates vying for the City Council seat in District 5.
“Growing homelessness is a crisis in our district and across the city,” said incumbent Ben Kallos. “The city is now trying to provide homeless people who live on the streets with three square meals a day, a place to shelter and job training services, but we must engage with the faith-based community more in seeking solutions to homelessness and in providing services to homeless people.”
In addition to Kallos, the other candidates taking part in the debate were Patrick Bobilin, a self-declared democratic socialist, and Gwen Goodwin, a long-time community activist. Joyce Short, community advocate and resident of District 5 moderated the debate.
Goodwin described current zoning patterns in the district as disruptive, and Kallos said that what was needed to combat “overdevelopment” was grassroots community-led rezoning.
“We need to stop evicting people who then become homeless and instead provide rent stabilized buildings,” she added. “There’s no need to build more homeless shelters. We need to build more low-income, affordable housing to address this crisis. Luxury high-rise developments are taking up valuable space where affordable housing can be constructed.”
In responding, Kallos claimed that he and his City Council colleagues are placing more regulations and conditions on evictions and offering more protections for people who face evictions.
Bobilin argued that homelessness is tied to access to affordable housing and to a higher minimum wage, and stated that we should not conflate substance abuse issues with mental health and affordability issues when dealing with the crisis of homelessness.
“We need to be more caring as a community towards our homeless citizens,” he said. “More and more hard-working people with jobs cannot afford the high rents for apartments in this district. Single mothers are most adversely affected and I know of city employees who are literally living in their cars today.”
He went on to say that City Council members don’t know what affordability really means and accused legislators of “lacking the courage to stand up to the billionaire real estate developers and the 1% who are building high-rise luxury apartment complexes willy-nilly… we need to overhaul vacancy and infrastructure taxes. 75% of all New Yorkers are struggling with housing affordability.”
On the planned expansion of the Marine Transfer Station at 91st Street, Kallos said the goal is to make the station obsolete by 2030. He added that it is too expensive to operate and is an environmental hazard, contributing to bad air quality in the district.
However, Bobilin disagreed and demanded the immediate closure of the facility “It is one of the most toxic and dangerous sites in Manhattan. It is an environmental hazard and we should immediately move to implement alternatives like recycling and composting,” he said.
For her part, Goodwin said this is not an easy issue to resolve. Short of closing it down, she called for the station to be made into a green facility using solar power and added that all city buses should be diesel-free.
Want more election info? Head to MNN's Race To Represent site now.
