By Beth Mellow

In a crowded upstairs room at Council House on West 72nd Street last Thursday evening, six Democratic candidates, and one Green party candidate for City Council, debated and discussed hotbed issues ranging from affordable housing to city taxes. The candidates are vying for an opportunity to secure the District 6 City Council seat vacated by Gale Brewer when she announced that she would run for Manhattan Borough President earlier this year. The Democratic primary for City Council will take place in September.
Candidates participating in last week’s meeting included (in alphabetical order) Ken Biberiaj, Debra Cooper, Noah Gotbaum, Marc Landis, Helen Rosenthal, Tom Siracuse, who is a Green Party member, and Mel Wymore. Although there were many nuanced differences, and a few larger divides, in the way candidates viewed topics, a belief that the community needed to secure more control over its destiny emerged as the central thesis of the evening. Time and time again, in regards to various municipal issues including education and housing, the candidates declared that the state government, or mayoral appointees, hold too much of the power in policy making.

In addition, each of the candidates also debated issues not only relevant to the Upper West Side community, but also the city at large, including Hurricane Sandy recovery. As one candidate, Debra Cooper, stated, “The Upper West Side is a specific geographic space but we have always been the leader on progressive issues affecting the rest of the city, state, and country.”

Last week’s event was hosted by the Social Action Committee of the National Council of Jewish Women, New York, West Side Federation of Neighborhood & Block Associations, and the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development. Here is a summary of how candidates weighed in on various topics.

Housing
While all seven candidates expressed concerned over rising rents on the Upper West Side and throughout New York City, each came to the topic with varying opinions on how to cap increasing housing costs. Some of the candidates mentioned problems surrounding the Urstadt law, which enables state government, instead of New York City, to set parameters for rent regulation, while others talked about the need to bring Mitchell-Lama style housing back for the middle class. See their opinions below:

Tom Siracuse: “I live in a rent control apartment, and if it weren’t for rent control, I wouldn’t be here today. Rent regulated apartments form the bedrock of working class and middle class people living in the city.”

Debra Cooper: “We need to repeal the Urstadt law. We can’t accomplish this without getting the Republicans out of control of the state senate. That will require some political organizing.”

Helen Rosenthal: “We have to work harder to connect with the community [on housing issues]. I worked with residents of Trinity House (a Mitchell-Lama building located on West 92nd street) to fend off a purchaser. They are now hoping to have a tenant buyout.”

Ken Biberiaj: “We have to support the young families that are living here and we have to hold HPD accountable to make sure that rent stabilized units are not deregulated.”

Mel Wymore: “Housing is a broken system in New York City because there are so many different programs between the city and the state working at odds with each other.”

Education
From overcrowded classrooms to free tuition at CUNY, all the candidates felt passionately about the state of education on the Upper West Side and throughout the city. Many of the candidates had personal experience with the New York City public school system, including Siracuse, who spent 29 years as a high school teacher; Landis, who helped establish Frank McCourt High School; and Gotbaum, who has been part of school boards and parent organizations over the past several years. Read what some of the candidates had to say about the current school system and how to improve it.

Marc Landis: “We need to give families options that don’t cost $40,000 a year.” He also stated, “I want to make sure the city council has more of a say on educational policies. It shouldn’t be only up to mayoral appointees.”

Noah Gotbaum: “I have fought against charter schools, high stakes testing, and demonizing teachers. The DOE right now doesn’t listen to parents and communities and are out to privatize our schools.”

Tom Siracuse: “We must restore free tuition at CUNY for students who graduate from New York City public schools.”

Debra Cooper: “We need to improve access to early childhood education. When you prepare kids as preschoolers, they do better once they get to grade school.” She added, “We need to work on classroom overcrowding too. The current elementary school bulge, will become a middle school bulge, which will in turn become a high school bulge.”

Ken Biberiaj: He believes it’s important to provide children with access to their local schools rather than sending them to other neighborhoods. “We’re zoned for P.S. 87 and we only have a four percent chance of getting our child into preschool there. When a school is right there, it doesn’t make sense that they won’t enroll your child.”

Mel Wymore: “We need to make sure that our resources are shared more effectively. There are some PTAs with million dollar budgets, while others have only $20,000.”

City Council and the Mayor’s Office
All seven candidates agreed that there was a need for reform, or at least some improvement, in the functioning of City Hall and City Council. In fact, certain candidates believed that Speaker Christine Quinn’s relationship with Mayor Bloomberg had become too friendly, and as a result, is affecting proceedings at City Council. Additionally, others felt that Quinn’s leadership is skewed, claiming that she favors districts where council members are most helpful in pushing forth her agenda.

Noah Gotbaum: “City Council has become a lap dog. Christine Quinn and Bloomberg have gone together like this (shows crossed fingers to the audience). We need a strong City Council.”

Ken Biberiaj: “While I don’t agree with Bloomberg on everything that he has done, I believe that we have made progress on many fronts over the past few years.”

Marc Landis: “We need to break ties that bind in the council. I will only support a next speaker who will work on creating those reforms.”

Debra Cooper: She believes that Quinn favors some council members, and by extension, their communities, based on their loyalty to her. Cooper explained, “You shouldn’t have the power to punish those who do not support you.”

Tom Siracuse: “We need a city council that is not dominated by one party.”

City Taxation
The candidates also weighed in on city income tax. All believed that there were issues with the current system, with many citing the fact that the current tax laws impose the same percentage on all residents who earn more than $60,000 annually.
Ken Biberiaj: “We don’t have control of our destiny. We have a 70 billion dollar budget in New York City, but so much, including taxation, lies beyond our control.”

Marc Landis: “As a member of the Democratic party, I have been a proponent of the progressive tax through and through.”

Noah Gotbaum: “It was our own Democratic party that took a pass on the millionaire’s tax.”

Recovery from Super Storm Sandy
Although District 6 was minimally affected by the hurricane, recovery and future preparation was still important to many of the candidates.

Mel Wymore: “We need to re-design our drainage system because currently our drainage system and sewage system are connected [which creates a whole host of problems during and after a major storm].”

Helen Rosenthal: “We need to demand from the government that they issue bonds [to help with the recovery].”

Noah Gotbaum: “There was a shortsightedness in excluding the community from preparation. We had 20,000 New York Cares volunteers interested in helping out, but no way to get involved.”

Sen. Dan Squadron’s grassroots campaign for public advocate paying dividends

When it comes to financing his still unofficial campaign for New York City’s public advocate post, Manhattan/Brooklyn Sen. Daniel Squadron is in many ways taking the road less traveled.
With a decidedly grassroots approach to fundraising which favors dainty donations from a diverse field mostly made up of city residents, Squadron, now serving his third term in the city’s 26th Senate District, is getting the biggest bang for the buck out of the five likely candidates.

According to his campaign, Squadron has raised a total of $1.75 million in direct contributions and expected public matching funds, but he has spent only $150,000, leaving $1.6 million in contributions and matching funds to spend on the race between now and the Democratic primary.
The city’s campaign finance board confirms that Squadron has raised more money than any of his four competitors, of whom only one, Cathy Guerriero, a business consultant and teacher, has formally announced her candidacy.

Squadron’s other likely competitors for the office of public advocate are Reshma Saujani, a former deputy public advocate under Bill de Blasio; Brooklyn Council member Letitia James; and Noah Gotbaum, an education activist on the Upper West Side and also the stepson of former Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum.

In a recent press release, Betsy Gotbaum stated she would endorse Squadron instead of her stepson Noah. News reports said that Gotbaum had committed to Squadron’s campaign months before her stepson decided to shoot for the public advocate’s office.

“Daniel Squadron has the passion and the experience to be a great public advocate for all New Yorkers,” Gotbaum, who held the office from 2002 to 2009, said in a release from Squadron’s campaign. “He has always fought for families and those left out and left behind.”

The position of public advocate has only been in existence since 1994 and has been held by just three people: Mark Green from 1994-2001, Betsy Gotbaum from 2002-2009 and, since 2010, Bill de Blasio, who is now a candidate for mayor.

As a voice for all the residents of New York City, the public advocate is similar to the role of watchdog, ensuring that all residents get the services, rights and protections they are entitled to.
“I want to make this a city for more families,” Squadron said. “The advocate is a role really about giving a voice to individuals who need one.” Among the key issues Squadron says he’ll address as advocate are transportation, public housing and development of small business.

“Daniel radiates the kind of energy, smarts and guts that are a perfect fit with the office of public advocate,” said Green, the city’s first public advocate, in a statement.

“He knows when to bring people together and when to stand up to a mayor on behalf of those left behind or out. His record on child care, housing, guns and money in politics reflect the values that the office and city need.”

And Squadron, who prides himself on having never taken corporate or special interest PAC money, has maximized his grassroots support to the tune of nearly 1,500 individual contributors, of whom nearly 90 percent contributed less than $250. In addition, he said that 150 supporters hosted private, small fundraisers.

Most recently, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand attended a dim sum fundraiser in Chinatown in support of Squadron’s campaign. Other small fundraisers were hosted by Paul Newell, Democratic district leader for New York’s 65th Assembly district, and David Gruber, chair of Community Board 1.
“2013 will be a pivotal year of transition for our city—and New York families need a fighter who is ready and willing to stand up for them,” Squadron said. “I’m incredibly honored by this show of support from New Yorkers around our city, and it’s clear we will have the resources to run an aggressive, five-borough campaign.”

Sean Sweeney, director of the SoHo Alliance, said that seeking out many, smaller donations instead of just a few lavish ones, was productive on many levels.

“Strategically, it’s a smart idea to get many smaller donations because that way, you build a base,” he said.

Discussing campaign finance reform, Squadron said the state should emulate the city. “The city’s system is what the state should be using,” he said. “The state system, now and for some time, has been about special interests giving extraordinarily large sums.”

Squadron added that the city system is more about getting thousands of people involved at whatever level of giving they’re comfortable with. “In New York City, the way to be successful is to get lots and lots of people involved.”

As a father of three children in local public schools and a member of District 3’s Community Education Council (CEC), Gotbaum has led a charge against the co-location of charter schools and has been an outspoken critic of the Department of Education’s policies. He’s also been involved in making the CEC a unified voice for parents from a diverse district that encompasses the Upper West Side as well as Manhattan Valley and parts of Central and West Harlem.

Now Gotbaum has formed a campaign committee and said that he’ll be spending the next six to nine months raising money and garnering support for a potential run, one he will base on his experience as an education advocate.

“I come from a labor family, but I’ve worked for 25 years in the private sector. Public service has always been in my blood,” Gotbaum said in an interview, acknowledging the influence of his father, Victor Gotbaum, a prominent labor leader, and his stepmother, former Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, as well as his family’s history of teaching in public schools.

“I see the public advocate position as a way to really stand up and speak up for those who feel disenfranchised, and that’s really expanded, unfortunately, under Bloomberg,” Gotbaum said. He wants to encourage grassroots and community involvement in local decision-making and would point to some of the collaborative successes of the Upper West Side community as models for other neighborhoods.

Education reform will be the cornerstone of any campaign, he said.

“One in every three New Yorkers is involved in the public school system in one way or another. We don’t really have effective advocates for us as parents and for our kids,” said Gotbaum. “We waste money when it’s not being watched. We are wasting literally billions on no-bid contracts, on services that aren’t being delivered, on funds that aren’t even being collected. We have $600 million in special education fees that Bloomberg has not collected that are owed [from the state and federal governments]. While we’re not getting our fair share, we’re threatening to lay off teachers; we need to hire more.”

He said that neither Mayor Bloomberg nor Chancellor Dennis Walcott have done enough to ensure that every student gets a quality education, and is critical of mayoral control of the school system.

“The office of the public advocate is about ensuring that the services of the city are being delivered properly and efficiently and that they work for our communities, for everyone. When you have essentially close to a dictatorship at the top, that doesn’t happen,” Gotbaum said.

He also said that the lack of services applies to other sectors, like the economy and jobs, and that the public advocate should be watching those areas closely.

“In terms of the middle class and working class, we’re not providing the services that we need. We’re not investing properly in education, which is huge—in training our students and our work force adequately,” Gotbaum said. “We’re also not providing the services that enable people to get into the workforce: child care, after-school programs, job training programs.”

Gotbaum said he will wait for current public advocate Bill de Blasio to declare his 2013 plans—he is likely to run for mayor—before making an ultimate decision on whether to run. City & State reported last week that other likely contenders in the race will be City Council Member Letitia James of Brooklyn and Reshma Saujani, who challenged Upper East Side Rep. Carolyn Maloney in 2010 and has been working for de Blasio’s office since. Manhattan-Brooklyn State Sen. Daniel Squadron is also reported to be considering a run.

P.S. 145, is according to the Department of Education and Principal Ivelisse Alvarez, a good school.

The city gave P.S. 145, located on 150 W. 105th St. between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues, a B in this year’s progress report card. Though the school received poor marks for school environment and student performance, it achieved an A in student progress.

Yet a charter school—often viewed as an alternative in areas with failing public schools—is being planned to open up in P.S. 145’s building.

Success Academy, a charter school network with locations in Harlem and the South Bronx, is seeking a spot in the Upper West Side and recently, the city deemed P.S. 145 “underutilized”.

Student enrollment at the school—currently at 59 percent capacity—declined to 431 this school year, from 524 in 2006.

Alvarez, the school’s principal, sees the situation inside P.S. 145 differently.

“You can say it’s underutilized, but on the basis of what?” Alvarez said. “The classes are being used, the rooms are being used.”

The principal at P.S. 145 believes that a charter school occupying the school building will hamper future expansion plans. She wants to grow the school so that it includes K through the 8th grade.

This year, the school received part of an $11 million, three-year federal grant awarded to eight Upper West Side schools in late September. The funding, $3.7 million for the district this year, is meant to help these “magnet” schools attract a diverse set of students. P.S. 145’s student body is mostly black and Latino.

“It’s not a failing school and there shouldn’t be a charter school in the building,” Alvarez said.

The city, however, seems intent on keeping student enrollment at P.S. 145 low.

The Department of Education presented a draft redrawing of school zones in the neighborhood’s school district Oct. 14. P.S. 145 was the only school to keep its boundaries in the draft rezoning.

“P.S.145 has been identified as an underutilized building. It is the only one on the Upper West Side,” Elizabeth Rose, a Department of Education official, told a crowd of parents and educators at a recent Community Education Council meeting. “Underutilized buildings are very rare.”

The school zones are being changed to ease overcrowding in the southern part of the Upper West Side school district where there are waitlists. Crowded schools like P.S. 199 and 87 in the West 60s and 70s had their zones shrunken, while the catchment area for P.S. 75 on West 96th Street grew.

Alvarez wants P.S. 145’s catchment area expanded to attract new students.

“We don’t have that many blocks in the school zone to register children from,” Alvarez said.

Eva Moskowitz, the former East Side Council member who is the CEO of the Success Academy charter schools, said that Upper West Side parents need a choice now and cannot wait years to see if P.S. 145’s enrollment increases.

“Parents need options now. Their 5 year old can’t wait five years,” Moskowitz said. “What are we going to tell parents on the Upper West Side, ‘Well this school might expand so we’re not going to use the 300 seats’?”

In New York City, charter schools have proliferated in economically disadvantaged areas. But Moskowitz believes parents in the Upper West Side should be able to send their children to a charter school as well.

“Even parents of means have a very anxiety-producing challenge and I didn’t think that should be the case,” Moskowitz said. “There’s nothing in the charter law that says you’re only supposed to serve the most disadvantaged.”

Noah Gotbaum heads the parent body that holds meetings on education policy, known as a Community Education Council. The council has to vote on the new rezoning map for the 2011 school year.

Gotbaum, a critic of Success Academy charter schools in Harlem, is supporting Alvarez, the P.S. 145 principal.

“They also want to be able to grow their school, which is a terrific school and use this federal money to really draw in students,” Gotbaum said. “Harlem Success will stop this in its tracks.”

District 3, which runs from West 59th Street up to Harlem, has been overcrowded in its southern section as more young families have moved into the neighborhood and parents have chosen public school over private education amid the recession.

“It’s a major problem, in terms of a surge in enrollment,” said Noah Gotbaum, the parent council’s president. “The Department of Education’s projections were way off and still are way off.”

City education officials are expected to give their assessment of the overcrowding problem at the upcoming meeting.

The Oct. 21 meeting will be held at
6:30 p.m. at P.S. 76, on West 121st Street between Seventh and St. Nicholas avenues.