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Here's Who Is Running For Brooklyn Council Seat After Rafael Espinal Resigned
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Feb 17, 2020
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Courtesy of each candidate's campaign
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Feb 17, 2020
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Four Brooklynites are eyeing a suddenly open City Council seat after Councilmember Rafael Espinal resigned two years before his term ended—kicking off a special election process in the 37th District, which covers Cypress Hills, Bushwick, East New York and Brownsville.
State committee member Darma Diaz, community activist and former State Assembly candidate Sandy Nurse, the founder of Bangladeshi American Community Development & Youth Service Misba Abdin, and former City Council candidate Kimberly Council have all registered to run.
A fifth candidate, Rick Echevarría—an ousted de Blasio administration official who alleged he was fired for whistleblowing within the housing preservation department—had previously planned to run in the special election before dropping out, calling the special election an “insiders’ race.” He instead plans to run in the primary come June 23rd—the second of five elections that are now in the works for this one seat on the City Council.
The special election for Espinal’s successor is slated for April 28th, coinciding with the presidential primary in New York and beginning the slew of elections.
Whoever wins the special election would represent the 37th District until the end of 2020. Later this year, candidates would run in another primary election and then a general election in November to serve until the end of 2021. During 2021, there would be another primary and general election for the 37th District Councilmember to begin a new term in 2022.
Here’s who has registered to run in the special election:
DARMA DIAZ
Cypress Hills resident Diaz, 51, has worked for OverComing Love Ministry for 12 years, assisting families experiencing homelessness with finding stable housing and employment. She was a founding member of the Coalition for Community Advancement, a community group which fought to exclude a mostly-empty low-income building from the East New York rezoning that locals said put it at risk of being torn down and replaced under speculative real estate.
“My plan was to run in 2021, but with the resignation of the councilman on [January 26th], it just sped the process up about a year now,” said Diaz, who has secured the backing of the Brooklyn Democratic Party under its new leader Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte, according to City & State. She said she submitted 1,700 signatures to get on the ballot (450 are required). She ran for City Council in 2009, but got kicked off the ballot after a challenge for her petition signatures, and has been a district leader since 2016.
“I want to be able to sit down with the committee on housing and share my 12 years of experience with them from an insider looking out and be able to influence their thought process and what happens when decisions made that impact average day citizens,” she said. She wants to host more housing fairs for residents to inform people about applying to affordable housing as well as work with small homeowners, who she says have been impacted by rent reforms.
SANDY NURSE
Nurse, a Bushwick resident born in Panama, was previously running to take Assemblymember Erik Dilan’s seat in the 54th District, but announced she would drop out and run for City Council upon Espinal’s resignation.
“This is just an extension of what I’ve already been doing at the super local level,” Nurse, 35, said. “And I would be excited to work at either level, but there is a need right now and this is an opportunity to start right away.”
She hopes she’d be able to take on roles in the sanitation and environmental protection committees—issues she’s already focused on in her community work.
City Council and the State Assembly representation “have not been strong in addressing the community needs,” said Nurse, who works as a carpenter and founded bike-powered composting service BK Rot and activist and events center Mayday Space.
“They come from the legacy of the Vito Lopez machine and the larger Democratic machine, particularly in this area of North Brooklyn,” she said, referencing the Brooklyn party boss who was ousted following sexual misconduct allegations. “The representation across the board has not been sufficient to say it politely.”
She herself has been endorsed by a slew of local pols: Representative Nydia Velázquez, Councilmembers Antonio Reynoso and Carlos Menchaca, and State Senator Julia Salazar. Her team has already knocked on 1,200 doors since mid-December, she said, and her Assembly campaign raised more than $42,000. This week, her campaign announced she submitted 1,500 ballot signatures collected by volunteers.
KIMBERLY COUNCIL
Council, 47, ran for the seat against Espinal back in 2013. She finished second to Espinal in a four-person primary and also ran an unsuccessful campaign against Assemblymember Erik Dilan in 2014. She works as a reference librarian at a Wall Street law firm and is the executive director of the Berean Community and Family Life Center.
“I felt very strongly that my community deserves to have the very best representation, and so I can’t sit on the sidelines and complain,” Council, of Cypress Hills, said of her decision to run. “I have to figure out how we can bring the resources to our community that they deserve.”
“We talk a lot about affordable housing, but I don’t think we really hit the mark,” Council said.
Following the controversial East New York rezoning in 2016—one of six that the de Blasio administration has been able to pass under plans to create or preserve 300,000 units of “affordable” housing—Council says the way affordability is calculated should be altered, with apartments made for lower incomes that match locals’ incomes.
“We need a more localized model,” she said. “We are literally being priced out of our communities.”
MISBA ABDIN
East New York resident Abdin, 50, is focusing his campaign on crime and safety.
“It’s never been taken seriously,” said Abdin, a Bangladeshi-American who has lived in East New York for nearly 40 years and said he submitted 1,287 ballot signatures. “If I have a golden house and a golden car, what am I going to do with it if I’m not safe in the neighborhood.”
“It’s worse than a war zone,” he said. “I think there’s more people getting shot here than in a Middle East war.”
He wants to bring in additional police officers to the neighborhood, split up the 75th Precinct, which covers a part of the district in East New York, and encourage officers to be more friendly in the community. “They [the police] have too much area to cover,” he said, an issue he has raised for years, according to a 2014 report in Bklynr.
In 2011, he opened Bangladeshi American Community Development & Youth Services, which operates a community garden, hosts multicultural festivals, and connects Bangladeshis to social services. Last year, it was tapped to develop nearly 170 affordable apartments in East New York.
He runs the Deshi Senior Center and founded the Bangladesh Sport Council, a soccer league for Bangladeshi kids. If he wins, he would be the first South Asian councilmember. But for Abdin, he’s not so concerned about his race.
“I’m from East New York, and I’m proud to be an East New Yorker,” he said.
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Sydney Pereira
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