Progressive Democrat Issue 87: THOUGHTS

Well, the NYC primary is over. Mostly big money and mega-developer-supported candidates won yet again. But the grassroots put up a good fight.

This newsletter is aimed at discussing how to beat Republicans and not on bashing fellow Democrats. It is also intended to strengthen the grassroots, not undermine it. However, sometimes a frank discussion of the problems within the party and grassroots are important. So, breaking from my normal routine, I will discuss some of what has been going on within my own neighborhood in its Democratic primary.

The most disturbing things that came out of this year's primary are the racial problems within our nation and within our party as well as the ongoing divide between the progressives and unions. Both of these played a huge factor in this primary and in Brooklyn politics in general. Some of my readers will have supported candidates other than the one I did and I do not want to alienate them. But I do feel the need to air these issues. Feel free to rant in return: I will include your rant in a future newsletter if you ask me to.

Some background: my Congressman, Major Owens, is retiring. Major has been one of the most consistently progressive votes in the House, voting against the Patriot Act and Iraq war at EVERY opportunity as well as standing up against certification of both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. We are losing a good one even if his leadership has been lacking.

The Democratic primary to replace Major Owens has been a very contentious and very divisive one. I want to preface by saying that if we could take the four Democratic candidates who tore eachother apart to win this congressional seat and replace any four Republicans in the House America would be far better off. We had four good candidates. But there were problems. I can't get into all of them. For example, the corruption of the local Democratic machine was a factor, but not one I need to discuss right now. But two issues stood out dividing Democrats in my neighborhood: a super-wealthy developer named Bruce Ratner who is trying to build 17 giant skyscrapers and an arena in the heart of Brooklyn, and race/ethnicity.

Bruce Ratner, who is a law school buddy of our Republican Governor, George Pataki, has been awarded the contract to build on an abandoned rail yard (the Atlantic Yards) and surrounding streets. His was the lowest bid, and yet he was awarded the contract. The deal allowing him to build was partly done behind the scenes and, in fact, he was secretly promised even more land surrounding the current project for future development. All of this means eviction of current residents, including the threat of using eminent domain to take land from private citizens to give it to a private developer. Ratner has been forced to promise jobs and affordable housing, but these promises are non-binding and the affordability promise ties the price of housing to the market value, so as market value goes up, the poorer residents would be priced out within a few short years, making it meaningless.

A former City Planner of NYC, Ron Schiffman, originally supported the Ratner plan. He now opposes it because of its cronyism and because he believes it would "scar Brooklyn permanently." There are alternative plans that also provide jobs and affordable housing without the corruption and cronyism and with a greater inclusion of community input and needs. Yet these alternate plans are being ignored, presumably because the developers associated with them are not friends of the Governor. If you want to read more on this very complicated issue, please read this Daily Gotham article I wrote some time back.

Ratner's project permeated this year's elections, with some candidates being funded by Ratner specifically to eliminate veteran politicians who oppose him. Mostly he failed, but my Congressional race pitted a single candidate (Chris Owens) who opposed awarding the contract to Ratner, favoring the more community-based development plans for the region, against three candidates who supported giving the contract to Ratner. Ratner's biggest supporter in the race won. She won because unions have accepted Ratners promise of jobs almost without question. In effect, labor in NYC has become almost virulently hostile towards local progressives and community activists to the benefit of an extremely wealthy and corrupt developer all over some vague promises of jobs and affordable housing. The winner of the Congressional race, Yvette Clarke, won because of this union support. In truth, Chris Owens was by far the most pro-labor candidate in the traditional sense. But because a wealthy developer makes a few promises, unions abandon traditional pro-labor supporters in favor of someone who supports a corrupt and unfair process to award Ratner his dream project.

I should note that Ratner's previous projects have largely been failures, never filling up office space, creating few union jobs and providing not a single unit of affordable housing.

This division of unions and progressives is a national problem for Democrats. Republicans and developers use wedge issues to divide us. Environmentalism is presented as costing jobs (a false claim under most circumstaces) and so labor and environmentalists are pitted against eachother to the benefit of Republicans and big money. Jobs vs. environment, jobs vs. community...these are false dichotomies. We ALL need jobs, a healthy environment and healthy, happy communities. THAT shoud unite us. But instead we are divided. The hostility of some unions has made me question my almost consistently pro-union stands. I should not question my pro-union stand, but when I am glared at and jeered for opposing a corrupt developer in favor of more community-oriented development, I see a problem with unions.

But the racial/ethnic divisions are a worse problem. My district is divided among Caribbean-Americans, "Southern" descended blacks, whites and jews. The district is predominantly black and was a Voting Rights Act district that once was represente by Shirley Chisolm. Initially four (one dropped out later leaving three) black candidates filed to run, already setting up a divisive situation. Shortly before the deadline to file, my city councilman, David Yassky, after determining the congresswoman in his own district was unbeatable, moved into my congressional district (a move of three blocks) to take advantage of the fact that the black vote would be divided and assuming that because he was white and Jewish, he could depend on the white and Jewish votes to win over the divided black vote.

In his earliest campaign appearances, Yassky introduced himself as "the white candidate in this race." Many blacks complained that Yassky was trying to steal a Voting Rights Act district from minorities, angry over his moving into the district and depending on the divisions within the black community. Those blacks were accused of racism and Yassky's supporters and the white dominated press focused on the progressive candidate, Chris Owens, accusing him of racism. Yet Yassky's opportunism was hardly noticed by most of my wealthy white neighbors.

Well, Yvette Clarke pretty much got almost all of the Caribbean-American vote because she was Caribbean American. Carl Andrews got almost all the "Southern" black vote because he is "Southern" black. And the vast majority of whites and Jews voted for Yassky. Chris Owens is the ONLY candidate whose support came from ALL racial/ethnic groups. Chris is half black and half Jewish. Yet he, with his multi-cultural support, was called racist because he objected to the opportunism of the white candidate moving into the district.

Here are some facts about race in Brooklyn: A baby born to a black woman in Brooklyn is much more likely to die in infancy than a white baby. Medical care is far worse for black children than for white children. Schools in predominantly black neighborhoods are far worse than those in predominantly white neighborhoods. Blacks are much more likely to go to jail than whites for the same crime. Black males have about a 50% jobless rate. And blacks have a substantially lower life expectancy. From birth to death, blacks have it worse than their on average richer, melanin-deficient neighbors.

That is the reality everyone who is born with considerable skin pigmentation is faced with.

I can only imagine the anger I would feel if I realized that my skin color meant at every moment of my life I am getting the short end of the stick.

And then I am told it is okay for a white man to move into a predominantly black district with the goal of winning a congressional seat because the black vote is split among three (originally four) candidates.

That is what blacks in the CD-11 race are faced with.

I am a white Jew. Yassky expected me to vote for him, originally. And I do feel an affinity for Yassky, perhaps because we both are kind of nerdy Jews. But I also have eyes.

I walk around our local park (Prospect Park). One end, which happens to face the richer, whiter area, is well-maintained and well-patrolled. The other end, which happens to face the poorer, darker-skinned area, has huge ruts in the paths, fewer patrols and, until recently, missing slats on most of the benches. The benches were finally fixed after years of being crappy on only the poor end of the park.

That has always struck me as a condemnation of Brooklyn and all its politicians.

And yet we are told it is racist to think it is wrong for a white man to move into a predominantly black neighborhood specifically to run in a race where three black candidates are splitting the black vote. Yassky was assuming whites would vote for him and so he would win.

Joy and I were canvassing between 3rd and 4th Ave. in our neighborhood. As you go from the park down the slope (hence, "Park Slope") there is a fairly sharp gradation in class...and a gradual increase in melanin pigment. By 3rd Ave. you are in a poorer neighborhood where the smell of the sewage laden Gowanus canal lends a nice perfume to the area.

We saw something horrifying. A baby wandered, unattended, out into the street. Luckily, cars stopped and passerbys rescued the child. There was a playground where the child had wandered from. I was angry that the parent had let the child wander off. But then I noticed the playground had no gates. Every single playground in the whiter, richer part of Park Slope has gates to keep the children from wandering off. Not in the poor, black area, though. No gates to protect the children.

The only part of our society that my Park Slope neighbors expect to be color blind are elections. They don't understand that if you are screwed your whole life because of the color of your skin you might not like the kind of racial calculus a man like Yassky is making when he moves into the district to run.

My wife, daughter and I got considerable hostility from wealthy whites because we supported Chris Owens. We were viewed as somehow traitors because we were not supporting the white candidate. My wife was called a "dupe" because she supported Chris. I can go into our reasons for supporting Chris (who, by the way, was endorsed by Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, Dennis Kucinich and a whole host of other progressives) but our reasons are not the point. The point is that we, as Democrats, are divided along many lines. There is racism within our society and within our Party and we cannot ignore that. There is a false division between labor and progressives which was manufactured by the Reagan administration about the time they were creating the "liberal media" myth. We have to face up to these divisions and overcome them. If we don't we will continue to be what my wife refers to as "dvided and conquered."