Noel S. Anderson, Ph.D.
+ FollowBattle for Brooklyn: Gentrification, Electoral Politics in a Chocolate City
Electoral politics are heating up in Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn has such a large population of Black people (according to 2000 census, approximately 36% of the 2.5 million residents are Black) that it represents its own “chocolate city”, and from the U.S. Congress to city council, a number of seats are up for grabs this fall, and the competition is as intense as ever.
Activist and writer, Kevin Powell is attempting to slay the goliath incumbent, Democrat Congressman Ed Towns in the 10th district, fighting against divisive politics that recently landed him into court. But Powell’s insurgent, grass roots coalition politics are a fresh approach to the staid politics of old, and needed for a district that has been sorely underserved for decades.
The most contentious battle is in Brooklyn’s 5oth Assembly district, where the politics of race and gentrification converge. State Senator, Joseph Lentol, a white incumbent, is being challenged for his seat in the upcoming Democratic primary by newcomer, Andre Soleil, a Black lawyer and Pentecostal minister.
Underfunded and relatively unknown to local politics, Soleil is claiming that Lentol is favoring the northern, mostly white gentrified part of his district and neglecting his largely Black constituency in the southern portion. Among other criticisms, Soleil argues that the stop and frisk policy is leading to disproportionately more Black young men to be railroaded into Brooklyn jails, and Lentol has not spoken out for alternatives.
Development is also at the center of the battle in this election battle. Brooklyn, like many urban areas, has experienced a boom in housing development in rezoned areas. The explosion in the creation of overpriced condos before the Great recession has created a glut of underutilized and undersold housing in neighborhoods with a scarcity of affordable housing. With the rise in unemployment and homelessness coupled with the tax incentives developers received to build in under-resourced areas, these vacant apartments need to be made available to poor and working class families.
In fact, Lentol and Soleil are fighting over the conversion of an old Domino sugar factory along the waterfront into luxury lofts, with Soleil viewing it as excessive when the southern district is suffering from an underfunding of health facilities and escalating HIV rates among Blacks. I hope Soleil wins out on the issue, if not the office.
As the saying goes, all politics are local. So this election season in Brooklyn is a microcosm of what is happening nationally. And its worth the watch.
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3 Responses to Battle for Brooklyn: Gentrification, Electoral Politics in a Chocolate City
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It's amazing the level of limited thinking that exist in the minds of these deveoplers. The only thing that surpasses their arrogance is their ignorance. If the folks they were warehousing these "Luxury" apts for had the resources to be in the apts…….they would be in them. There is no more gentry…just refugees from higher rents!
Wellenta is RENTING a multi-million dollar property in DUMBO…….dumbo!
I'm just sayin'…………….