Brooklyn Ron

Al Vann is All but Sure to Win Bed-Stuy Council Race, One 'Objective' Observer Says

 The race for the City Council seat in Bed-Stuy (the 36th District) is one for the books.

Some half dozen challengers are trying to unseat incumbent Al Vann. And they are taking this all very seriously, turning deaf ears to the (here) oft repeated truism that incumbents win 97 percent of the time.

This truism is true whether incumbents have done a good job or whether they have "fucked up."

Excuse the language, but that was the phrasing, more of less, of a former Councilmember quoted anonymously in City Limits magazine.

Regarding the crowded field in the 36th, it is a testament to the ambition and/or character of the would-bees that they plow ahead, despite the odds.

And, in truth, there are some grounds, in virtually each case, for hope.

For example, one would think that challenger Mark Winston Griffith -- with the backing (and presumably accompanying money and manpower) of the Working Families Party and of ACORN -- could be putting fear into the heart of Councilman Vann.

After all, challengers do sometimes end up pumping their fists up in victory.

But a big problem for Griffith -- or for the others -- is precisely that there are so many of them, and that they are so seemingly sincere.

Their determination can be seen, said our source, in the way they are going through the petition process, with due diligence, gathering signatures that will allow them to be on the Democratic primary ballot this September.

And there's the rub: The more of them on the ballot, the greater the chances of Vann sailing to the finish line first.

All of this would be less an issue if one of the challengers -- particularly Griffith -- could draw more attention, raise more hell.

But that's just not been happening, so far.

[The "objective source" referred to up above, by the way, is about as knowledge (and honest) as they come, with respect to Bed-Stuy politics.]

Candidate Cornegy is Music to Ears of Patricia Robinson, Who Leads a Symphony of Pianos, Politics and History in Bed-Stuy

[caption: l-r, Bed-Stuy's historic Patricia F. Robinson Music School; Patricia Robinson; City Council candidate Robert E. Cornegy, Jr.]

Patricia F. Robinson embodies the cultural history of the wonderful place called Bedford-Stuyvesant. Her mother, as you will hear in the below video, started a local music school 79 years ago, and that place of aural learning endures to this day.

Such continuity!

But Robinson does not want to see that kind of continuity in her elected officials.

She believes incumbent City Councilman Al Vann has been in office too long (having served 35 years in elective office, most of it as Assemblyman before switching jobs with then Councilmember Annette Robinson).

And so Music Director Robinson is now playing the renegade in Bed-Stuy's exciting City Council primary race.

She's throwing her enthusiastic energies behind Robert E. Cornegy, Jr., son of a popular minister, about whom you'll hear more in the brief video below.

Robinson says life is music, and music (as any musician knows) needs changes.

[Also, please check out this Sunday, June 28, 2009, at 2 pm, "The 79th Annual Recital" of The Patricia F. Robinson Music Studio.

It's at the Brooklyn Music School, 126 St. Felix St., Brooklyn. $25 at the door; $20 in advance. School can be emailed at [email protected]. Or visited at its website www.pfrmusicstudio.org or on Facebook.]

Here's the video:

Democracy Alive in Bed-Stuy, as Candidates Speak with Community

Five candidates hoping to beat incumbent Al Vann and become Bed-Stuy's next City Councilmember kept their hope alive on Saturday.

They appeared at Brownstone Books and summarized their positions, essentially introducing themselves to those who showed up for the early morning event.

They also answered questions and were very civil with each other.

We will post more on the event, culling from our notes, but in the meantime we offer here a little slide show that is hopefully a visual taste of what occurred.

(In photo here, Frantz Cayo, president of the Stuyvesant Heights Parents Association, presides over the gathering, which included candidates, left to right, Tremaine Wright, Saquan Jones, Robert Cornegy, Jr., Mark Winston Griffith and Adrian Straker.)

See slide show below. (Please note that, in dealing with YouTube, the creator does not have full choice in selecting the opening image.)

NetRoots Media Hits Bed-Stuy, a Sign of Good Things to Come

It is a welcome occurrence that -- in this interesting political and economic climate -- this blog is alongside other Central Brooklynites doing Web 2.0 writing and broadcasting.

Take Norman Graham [photo], for instance.

He is a Bed-Stuy resident with years of civil service behind him who now sees (and is seeking to fill) a need for background voices to be heard.

Graham's interviews, which lately have included talks with candidates for Bed-Stuy's 36th Councilmanic District seat, as well as seats out in Queens, can be found on his website Onthespot.

Or you can go and try his NormanOnTheSpot Youtube page here

and see and hear some of his work.

The Amsterdam News recently did a profile of Graham with a headline saying, "Norman Graham takes on the web to get his message out."

Check out the article here. (You may have to sign up to see Amsterdam archives, but it's worth it.)

Good luck Norman Graham.

Al Vanns Says, I'm Keeping This Seat. Question now is Whether Challengers Will Go Home

So we've arrived finally at the point where the incumbent in the 36th Councilmanic District, Al Vann, relieves the watching world of its suffocating suspense.

He wants another four years.

The truth, of course, is that almost everyone assumed Vann would swish his hat into the ring.

Presumably, the desire for another four years was the reason he voted (along with the majority of Councilmembers) to end the two-term restriction on city office holders.

(Unless the motivation was that he deeply believed the city needed to have Mayor Mike Bloomberg in office for another term.)

Speaking of which, we are certain Vann and other black Brooklynites will be giving at least strong verbal support to Bill Thompson in Thompson's race against Bloomberg.

After all, Thompson is a black Brooklynite himself.

Now this takes us to an interesting irony in this political episode, which is this:

The loudest backing of Thompson seems to be from across the river, in Harlem, where bigshots Charles Rangel, David Dinkins and others have announced their support of Thompson -- with great fanfare, including Dinkins shouting his endorsement loudly the mountaintop (or rather, steps) of City Hall.

This should not necessarily be a cause for celebration on the part of Bill Thompson.

You see, the Harlem crowd does not have a good track record when it comes to endorsements of black candidates in prominent contests.

There was, for example, the fiasco of a quarter century ago when they backed Herman Denny Farrell against another Herman, surnamed Badillo, in the mayoral primary.

In one fell swoop, the Harlemites sabotaged the best chances for a Black/Latino alliance the city had ever seen. (And, in so doing, they also fired a wounding bullet into Al Vann and Vann's Brooklyn cohorts, who were lined up with Badillo.)

The outcome of that drama is well known, as Ed Koch sailed to victory and continued the race baiting rhetoric for which he was celebrated in certain corners at the time.

And while we're with the Harlem crowd and their endorsement history, how can we forget the recent presidential race, that saw the Harlemites siding (aggressively and till the very end) with Hillary Clinton against Barack Obama.

Which brings us back to the Councilmanic race in Bed-Stuy.

Among those slated to be present when Vann announces his candidacy this coming Saturday on Fulton Street is none other than Comptroller Bill Thompson.

And the list of others scheduled to be there is daunting. No doubt it's all intended to show the strength of incumbency. The expected attendees are (according to a note from Vann's campaign):

Governor David A. Paterson, State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith, Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Borough President Marty Markowitz and "other local elected officials".

This all brings to mind a City Limits article (quoted previously in a BrooklynRon post) in which a former Councilmember confided the following to newcomers on the Council:

"You can do anything you want and you will be re-elected. You can fuck this up and you will be re-elected. You can do an excellent job and you will be reelected."

(Read the BrooklynRon post.)

And so the real question is whether any, all or some of the half dozen challengers will continue their quest for Vann's seat on the City Council.

If they do stay in, it could possibly be a very exciting summer in Bed-Stuy.

Activist Sharonnie Perry Believes Incumbent Al Vann Has Planted Seeds of Business Growth

Sharonnie Perry [photo] is a blend of activist and insider, and her allegiance is to her community, the place where she was raised, where she has worked and where she is now unemployed.

Her status among the unpaid gives her a curious mix of feelings these days, as more than half a dozen Bed-Stuy residents challenge long-time elected official Al Vann, hoping to take his seat on the City Council.

While Perry likes the idea of taking on the powerful and making them work hard for their constituents, she also feels there is some value in incumbency, particularly when the incumbent has the wherewithal to accomplish substantive things  -- like following through on a new Business Improvement District being established in the community ("Now you're going to see upscale stores coming in," Perry says approvingly) and like seeing through the housing projects being developed by the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, the Bridge Street Development Corporation and others, with Vann's backing.

"There are some major things on the table now pertaining to Bedford Stuyvesant," Perry says, "and we have to make sure that they happen."

It is not as likely these things will happen if any of the challengers win Bed-Stuy's Council seat, Perry says.

"From what I've looked at, there's nobody right now I see who's going to be able to do that," she says.

She has a cautionary note to sound at this point, however, and it is this:

That she likes and respects Tremaine Wright, the young lawyer who owns the Common Grounds cafe on Tompkins Avenue and who is one of the challengers.

Perry believes Wright, who has served on the local community board, stands out among the challengers for her history of active involvement in the community.

(Needless to say, other challengers would disagree vigorously with that, but we'll save their replies for another posting.)

"If I was to support anybody other than voting for Al Vann, it would be Tremaine Wright," Perry says.

"I think she's the most articulate . . . She has a head. She's not egotistical and she's a person who might be able to be groomed."

Perry once had -- and still, in fact, has -- ambitions for public office; but she's putting them on hold. She would likely have tossed her hat into the ring if, as many had hoped, Vann and other City Councilmembers were barred from running for another term. But Vann and a majority of the Council went along with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and they overturned the two-term limits that voters had put into place.

So Vann is now able to run for a third term in the Council. (Vann goes back 35 years as an elective office holder, having won a seat in the State Assembly in 1974. He gave up that seat in 2001 in an apparent arrangement with then Councilmember Annette Robinson, who was prevented from seeking another four years by the term limits then in effect. Robinson then won the Assembly spot that Vann had relinquished.)

Sharonnie Perry has a long history in activism and working with elected officials. She was for a time Chairperson of Community Board 3 that covers Bed-Stuy. Perry says that several years ago she was fired from the staff of Congressman Ed Towns when it was perceived that she was planning to run for Al Vann's seat. She was not actually planning to do so, she says. (Perry says she does not blame Towns himself but staffers who were under pressure to get rid of her.) 

Perry, who has had good relations with Assemblywoman Robinson, says that Congressman Towns actually has a strong staff that represents him well in community meetings.

Notably, perhaps, Perry says that Councilman Vann (like a number of other elected officials) is not as well represented at such gatherings.

In fact, a number of Bed-Stuy residents complain that Vann is not personally connected to them and does not get sufficiently involved in issues affecting them.

Here a bit of disclosure: I went (oh, more than forty years back) to the same grammar school as Sharonnie, and over the years I've come to admire the work she's done on behalf of the homeless and others in Brooklyn. These above views are, of course, her own.

Till next time.

BklynRon Video: Tremaine Wright Declares Candidacy for Bed-Stuy Council Seat

Tremaine Wright, an attorney and owner of Common Grounds café in Bedford Stuyvesant, formally announced that she's running for the City Council seat currently occupied by Al Vann.

Vann has held elective office in Bed-Stuy for 35 years; but now at least a dozen residents have expressed interest in replacing him as Coucilmember for the world-famous black neighborhood.

Vann has not made formal declarations about the primary race this fall.

Apparently, the candidates began gearing up for the Council race last year, when it seemed that term limits  would bar Vann from another four years.

But Vann, going along with  Mayor  Michael  Bloomberg (who wanted another four years as mayor)  voted to  overturn  the  limits, extending  it so that they could serve one more term.

As you'll see in the below video, which captures the gist of Wright's announcement day (Saturday, May 2nd), Wright did not attack Vann but rather insisted on the need for "change."

[Photo and video were taken by BrooklynRon.]

An Incumbent's Dream: Bed-Stuy Council Challengers Fire On Each Other

Two candidates for Bed-Stuy's City Council seat went at it with (verbal) guns firing.

The duel led one of the candidates, Mark Winston Griffith, to say that if the nastiness continued there would be little chance to defeat incumbent Al Vann.

"We're just going to create a circular firing squad and there'll be no one left but him," Griffith said.

The tiff centered on charges by candidate Saquan Jones that Griffith is "elitist" and unable to "go on the corner with the bloods" and "fight for this city and this district without being intimidated."

Griffith, who acknowledged that he had gone to both public and private schools, has a long history of fighting for the economically disadvantaged, especially victims of predatory lending, and he expressed strong resentment at Jones' allegations.

Jones, in this latest video segment that is offered here below, said he did not want to attack Vann, who has held elective office for 35 years.

Griffith, on the other hand, said he had once greatly admired Vann but that "I think he's lost sight of what he was put in this neighborhood to do."

Griffith maintained Vann has become too comfortable and is not as involved in the community as he should be.

The square-off between Griffith and Jones was videotaped by independent videographer Norman Graham. Ryan Mack, president of Optimum Capital Management, was also in the studio asking questions of the candidates. Graham's webite is http://www.onthespotpro.com/.

Here is the latest segment of the appearance by Griffith and Jones.

[Above gunfight image comes from CreativeCommons.]

On Video: Two Bed Stuy Councilmanic Candidates Present Themselves

  

On a video produced by Bed-Stuy independent filmmaker Norman Graham, two of the candidates challenging incumbent Al Vann offered sketches of themselves, hoping to win over Bed-Stuy residents who get to watch the show.

Relations between the two candidates, Mark Winston Griffith [photo, left] and Saquan Jones [photo, right] have seemed testy, though this short clip below does not evidence that.

Graham, whose company is called Onthespot, will be releasing other parts of the stand-off between Griffith and Jones soon, Graham says.

The testiness between the candidates has to do with Jones' accusations that Griffith is an elitist, though in fact Griffith has a record of fighting for victims of predatory lending.

Predatory lending -- or, better said, strong and vocal opposition to it -- has been a hallmark of Griffith's career as an activist.

Such cruel actions by bankers, brokers and their conspirators -- whether predatory lending or other acts of economic violence against the vulnerable -- should be a focus of this campaign.

Candidates should be, among other things, leaning on District Attorney Charles J. Hynes to move more vigorously against perpetrators of economic violence, especially in communities like Bedford Stuyvesant. Prosecutors should be pushing the statute of limitations to its limits, going after those who thought they'd gotten away free.

As for Saquan Jones, he says in his introductory remarks that he is the one best able to relate to poor, struggling residents of public developments. He cites his own upbringing in a public housing project.

There are, as readers of this site know, some half dozen men and women interested in challenging Vann. It's expected we will be hearing more from them in the coming days and weeks.

Between Griffith and Jones, as they offered themselves in their brief presentations, Griffith seemed to take more direct aim at Al Vann, saying Vann's time had come and gone and that while Vann was once "a hero to many . . . a change is needed" now.

Bad News for Bed-Stuy Council Challengers: Incumbents Almost Always Win, Even if They 'Fuck up'

The special issue of City Limits magazine, the public policy publication that is mostly online these days, treats a very pertinent topic:

The state of the City Council.

It's a nice read, all 31 pages of it, and it takes us inside the days of several Councilmembers who opened themselves up to City Limits reporters.

But of particular interest to us were several lines toward the end of the series of profiles, where a former councilmember recalls advice that he used to give to Council colleagues:

"You can do anything you want and you will be re-elected. You can fuck this up and you will be re-elected. You can do an excellent job and you will be reelected."

The magazine then goes on to state that incumbent Councilmembers "have a 97 percent reelection rate."

Chances are that the half dozen or so men and women going for Al Vann's seat are very much aware of that.

Chances are also that the challengers would rather focus on Vann's perceived weaknesses, one of them being that some constituents view his 35 years in elective office as more than enough.

Also perhaps going against the incumbent will be attendance rates cited by City Limits, showing Vann to be fifth from the bottom of the list of 51 members. (See list at the bottom of this City Limits web page.)

To read the special issue, one has to be a subscriber to City Limits or purchase the issue. (See here.)