The Harlem City Council election tests the boundaries of progressive politics
Two years ago, when a Democratic Socialist narrowly won an overcrowded Democratic primary for a seat on the Harlem City Council, some saw it as a sign that the historically black neighborhood was becoming more politically progressive.
But about a month before this year’s primary, on June 27, Alderman Kristin Richardson unexpectedly dropped Jordan from the race. Her decision has rescheduled the hotly contested Democratic primary, which now features three candidates — none particularly progressive.
Two sitting members of the State Assembly: Al Taylor, 65, pastor in his sixth year in the legislature; and Inez Dickens, 73, who held the Harlem Council seat for 12 years before entering the Assembly. The third candidate is 49-year-old Yusef Salaam, one of five men convicted and later acquitted of the 1989 rape and assault of a female jogger in Central Park.
They are all moderate Democrats who, before Ms. Jordan’s withdrawal, had tried to distance herself from Ms. Jordan and her political positions, including redistributing wealth and abolishing the police.
But with the incumbent out of the race, the candidates have turned on each other. Mr Salaam questioned Ms Dickens’ behavior as a landlord, asking her during a debate how many people she had evicted over the past two decades. Mrs. Dickens initially answered one, but The Daily News found out about 17 evacuation procedures had been initiated.
Ms. Dickens said her family management companies rent units below market price, and some tenants involved in eviction proceedings were four years or more in arrears. “I have done more to preserve and protect affordable housing in Harlem than any other candidate in this race,” said Ms. Dickens.
Her campaign, in turn, has questioned Mr Salaam’s experience after his campaign appeared to be running short and exceeded the $207,000 spending limit before filing amended paperwork.
The race took a bizarre turn this week at a women’s rally for Ms. Dickens when former Representative Charles B. Rangel, recounting how Mr. Salaam had called him before entering the race, remarked that Mr. Salaam had a “foreign name” had. .” Mr. Salaam responded on social media that “we all belong in New York City.” Mr Rangel, through a spokeswoman for Ms Dickens, said he did not mean it offensively and referred to foreign as unfamiliar to him.
The two men spoke on Friday afternoon and resolved the issue, representatives from both campaigns confirmed.
Ultimately, the race could be decided on issues more relevant to the district, including the loss of black residents, a lack of affordable housing, and concerns about overcrowding drug treatment centers.
The three candidates have positions that underline how the district will soon be represented by a moderate. Ms. Dickens argued against the so-called good cause for eviction, which would have limited a landlord’s ability to raise rents and evict tenants, had it been passed by the state legislature. Mr. Taylor has voted against abortion rights in the past based on religious objections, but recently voted in favor of a measure that would allow voters to add an equal rights amendment to the state constitution. Mr Salaam was in favor of congestion charging but said he still had reservations about the impact on Harlem.
All three have received support from mainstream Democratic groups and leaders: Ms. Dickens of the United Federation of Teachers and Representative Adriano Espaillat; Mr. Taylor of the New York City District Council of Carpenters; and Mr. Salaam was recruited to run for the seat by Keith LT Wright, the former councilman and chairman of the Manhattan Democratic Party.
The Greater Harlem Coalition voted for Mrs. Dickens before Mrs. Jordan dropped out of the race. The carpenter’s union said their sole purpose was to beat Ms. Jordan.
Mr Taylor said not all of Ms Jordan’s supporters necessarily supported her most left-wing positions, such as blaming the police. “I don’t think she has cornered this community’s market,” he said in an interview.
Ms Jordan’s 2021 victory over incumbent President Bill Perkins was not so much a district-wide endorsement of far-left views as the culmination of a “galvanized anti-establishment” sentiment that has built against the once powerful but Harlem’s now fading political machine. said Basil Smikle, director of the Public Policy Program at Hunter College.
“There is interest in finding an alternative and charting a new course,” said Mr Smikle.
Ms. Jordan, whose name will still be on the ballot, may have been her own worst enemy. She was criticized for using Council resources to promote her campaign. Her far-left positions on police, housing and the war in Ukraine met with reactions from colleagues and voters. She missed almost half of her committee meetings, city archives.
Syderia Asberry-Chresfield, a co-founder of the Greater Harlem Coalitiona group organizing against the neighborhood’s oversaturation of social services thought Ms. Jordan was too far to the left.
“We understood that changes were needed,” said Ms Asberry-Chresfield. But some of her changes were so radical and she wasn’t willing to budge.”
Ms Jordan declined to comment. But Charles Barron, a left-wing councilman who represents East New York and is one of Mrs. Jordan’s few allies on the city council, said her left-wing positions irritated mainstream Democratic leaders and their backers who “favour elected officials of the establishment instead of independent, strong, black radicals like she was.
The remaining three candidates didn’t make much of a difference at a forum on the National Action Network in Harlem earlier this month and during a debate Tuesday night on NY1.
All are in favor of housing development at 145th Street and Lenox Avenue, a proposal Ms. Jordan initially rejected because it was not affordable enough. The candidates said they did not support the city’s use of stop-and-frisk tactics, which a federal observer recently said were being used in a discriminatory manner.
When it comes to the influx of migrants seeking asylum, Ms. Dickens, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Salaam said they support New York City’s status as a haven city, but questioned whether the billions of dollars being spent to help migrants to house and feed should also be paid. available to New Yorkers who are homeless.
No one wants Ms. Jordan’s approval.
Of the three, Mr. Salaam has gone most aggressively after Ms. Jordan’s likely supporters by using his conviction, acquittal and prosecution by former President Donald J. Trump as the focus of his campaign. Speaking at a community center for the elderly in East Harlem last week, Mr. Salaam received the loudest applause as he criticized Mr. Trump, who in 1989 bought full-page advertisements in four city newspapers, including The New York Times, to call for the death penalty is reinstated because of the Central Park case.
“Who better to participate in leading the people than one who has been close to the pain? Mr. Salaam said.
Mr Salaam and Mr Taylor tried to weaken Ms Dickens’ chances by supporting each other on Tuesday. Voters can rank their picks in the three-way primary, and the men encouraged supporters to make the other their second pick. Two days later, Ms. Dickens responded by hosting the women’s rally, where she said the two men in the race were conspiring against her, and revealing a more prestigious endorsement: Mayor Eric Adams.
Speaking at Harlem’s Harriet Tubman Memorial, the mayor highlighted Ms. Dickens’ moderate views, saying she understands the “balance between public safety and justice” and that “it’s all right to have a city that’s friendly for companies”.
At the recent National Action Network forum, there was no question, from affordable housing to whether he supported the closure of the Rikers Island prison complex, that Mr Salaam did not link to his conviction or the nearly seven years he spent in spent time in prison – to the visible chagrin of Mrs. Dickens, who has emphasized her experience.
Mr. Salaam supports the closure of the Rikers Island prison complex and the opening of borough prisons, while Ms. Dickens and Mr. Taylor have expressed concern about the opening of local prisons.
That still hasn’t helped Mr. Salaam gain the support of local progressives. A political action committee associated with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez backed Ms. Jordan when she first ran, but is unlikely to issue another endorsement.
National progressive figures such as Cornel West, the professor and activist who recently announced a candidacy for president, and Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s progressive attorney general, have supported Mr. Salaam. .
“Donald Trump said he should get the death penalty,” Mr. Ellison said. “Who can talk about how the system should be better and more effective than Yusef Salaam?”