July 20th brought official certification to victors of the recent primary election. North Brooklyn ties feature in primary winners for Mayor, Brooklyn Borough President, and NYC Council. These candidates look likely to bring home victory in the general election on November 2, 2021.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was once a police officer in the 94th Precinct and as Brooklyn Borough President has supported local initiatives. As reported in Greenline in April 2015, he made a prophetic statement to inspire the students of M.S. 126, “I worked the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint for 22 years, and then I was a state senator, and now I’m the borough president, and I hope in seven years to become the mayor.” In the eighth round of rank choice tallying, Adams received 50.4% of the vote (404,513), which edged out Kathryn Garcia by 7,197 votes.
NYC Council Member Antonio Reynoso grew up in the Southside of Williamsburg, aka Los Sures. As a council member he has used his first-hand knowledge of the community to know where to bring lasting change for the better. He received 54.9% (107,963) in the eleventh round of the rank choice tally to become officially the Democratic nominee for Brooklyn Borough President. On July 7, Reynoso posted on Twitter, “Whether I was your number one, number two, or none of the above, I look forward to working with you to create a Brooklyn for all of us. Let’s get to work!”
In his bid for the NYC Council District 33 seat, outreach was key to Lincoln Restler’s success. He wanted to hear directly from the people what their concerns were. He made calls. He showed up in person at farmers markets and other spots with a high per capita of foot traffic. He used this strategy before when he campaigned for and was elected in 2010 to be Greenpoint/Williamsburg District Leader. He has been a Greenpoint resident for the past 11 years. In the 4th round of rank choice voting he received the necessary over 50% of the votes to be declared the winner. The final tally showed he received 63.9% (16,537). One area he’s looking to improve is making affordable housing truly affordable. “NONE of this is affordable: 35 studios at $2370, 65 one bedrooms at $2542, 25 two bedrooms at $3063, 2 three bedrooms at $3530. On the Council, I’ll push to eliminate 130% area median income category of unaffordable housing, so we can build truly affordable homes we need,” he tweeted on July 12.
It is looking likely that there will be a majority of women elected to the NYC Council (NYCC) after the general election. There are 51 seats on the Council and 32 women won their primaries (30 democrats and 2 republicans). Jennifer Gutierrez, who is running for NYC Council District 34, was one of the first of the women candidates for NYC Council to nab a Democratic Primary win — in the first round of tallying she won 79.5% (13,065). Her North Brooklyn bona fides is sourced from her role as NYC Council Member Reynoso’s chief of staff, where she has headed eight cycles of Participatory Budgeting that invested $5M in schools, streets, parks, and NYCHA. She is dedicated to transparency in government. At the end of June, when the NYC Council voted to approve the budget she said, “To truly implement a just recovery, funds need to be reallocated to those who need it most and away from programs we know are not only not working but harm our communities. … . But it seems there were zero lessons learned in this opaque budget cycle,” in a posted statement on her social media.
The Greenline 