Candidates spar over Rangel’s legacy, housing

With the Tuesday, June 28 federal primary fast approaching, six out of nine Democratic candidates for New York’s 13th congressional district met last Friday to spar over issues from the legacy of outgoing incumbent Rep. Charlie Rangel to gentrification.

In the first question of the evening, moderator Gary Axelbank asked the contenders to evaluate Mr. Rangel’s 46-year-long career.

Assemblyman Keith Wright, whom Mr. Rangel has endorsed, defended the congressman.

“I think Rangel leaves a lasting legacy. He’s been a great Congress person,” Mr. Wright said. “I think he has gotten a little bit careless in terms of his personal finances. However, that has been adjudicated and he has been censured and he will go on to leave a lasting legacy.”

Others including Mike Gallagher, a stay-at-home father, both praised Mr. Rangel and emphasized ethics violations that caused the House of Representatives to censure him in 2010.

“His legacy is real but the end was unsightly and it’s something I would avoid myself,” Mr. Gallagher said. “There is stuff that he left undone.”

Suzan Johnson Cook, Adam Clayton Powell IV, Sam Sloan and Clyde Williams joined Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Wright at the BronxNet debate, which The Riverdale Press co-sponsored. Contenders state Sen. Adriano Espaillat and Assemblyman Guillermo Linares did not attend, citing an extended legislative session in Albany, and Yohanny Caceres declined.

Ms. Johnson Cook evoked a recent comment from Mr. Wright, who contended that all of the candidates agreed on the issuess at a June 13 debate in Upper Manhattan.

 “I don’t think we all agree on everything whatsoever,” said Ms. Johnson Cook, a former ambassador. “As I go throughout the district, I see that people are tired of the same ways. If you use the same people and the same ways, you are going to get the same results.”

Clyde Williams, who recently won the endorsement of The New York Times, moved to attack Mr. Wright’s record as chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Housing.

“Wright said judge him on his record; I say look at where we are.  We have fewer affordable apartments and people can judge from where they are for themselves,” said Mr. Williams, who previously worked in the White House under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. “If you judge people on that, then I say you need to pick someone who actually does have real experience and has the ability to do something different and bring about real change for not just a select few, but everyone who lives in our community.”

Among other issues at the debate, a question about Mr. Obama’s record on fighting terrorism drew disagreement from the candidates.

“The number-one priority of the federal government is to make sure that we safeguard our citizens,” Mr. Williams said. “I think the president has done a profound job in making certain that we do that, from killing Osama Bin Laden [and] other terrorists around the world to making certain that we are not vulnerable to those that want to harm us on a continuous basis.”

Mr. Gallagher said if elected, he would seek to regulate the next president’s use of drone strikes in foreign countries.

“Are we just to allow the same authorizations that President Obama has to continue? Let’s pretend it’s Donald Trump. It would be an awful, awful abuse of power,” he said. “I believe that President Hillary Clinton will be in office in January and it needs to be clear under what authority she will be operating under in defense of the United States.”

On gentrification and housing reform, most of the candidates said rent hikes and development have hurt poor communities in the 13th district, which covers Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, though they voiced different ways to stem the trend.

“Gentrification is spreading like cancer,” said Mr. Powell. “We are hoping to stop it here in the Bronx. It’s not here yet, but it’s certainly making a move.”

Mr. Sloan said the winner of the race should in fact welcome gentrification.

“Here’s one of those areas where I disagree with everyone down the line,” he said. “I think that’s just a natural development. New people come in, old people come out and prices go up, but Manhattan and the Bronx are still filled with empty lots that need to be developed.”

Other candidates called for authorities to remove Rockland and Westchester counties from calculations for the city’s area mean income, which is used to set rates for affordable housing.

“Gentrification is something that can be stopped by changing the area median income [calculation], which I will do right away,” Mr. Wright said. “When we take into account the income of all the folks in the five boroughs [and] are taking into account the incomes of the folks from Rockland and Westchester County, two of the richest counties in the United States, [it] makes absolutely no sense.”

Watch the debate at this link.