Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. This week as early voting and mail-in voting take place in the New York primary. We are devoting part of the show to selected races in each borough. We will do one segment for each Borough spread on each day, this week, beginning right now, for today with Brooklyn. We'll focus primarily on the race to succeed Eric Adams, as Borough president, win or lose in the mayoral race. Adams's term-limited out as Borough president.

We'll look at two city council races in which the incumbents are also leaving because of term limits and the seats are wide open. The one that Brad Lander holds now, and that Bill de Blasio held before him representing Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, and Kensington. The one in which the outgoing member is Laurie Cumbo in Fort Green, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, and Bed-Stuy.

All three of these races, we will look at the crucial role of the real estate industry and gentrification are playing as issues in the neighborhoods and in the money that's flowing to get certain candidates elected. With us for this is Ese Olumhense, whose recent article in City Limits is called Development and The Race For Brooklyn Borough president. Ese, thanks so much for doing this. Welcome to WNYC.

Ese Olumhense: Thank you. Thanks so much for having me

Brian Lehrer: The Borough president race includes a number of candidates who were pretty well known in the Borough for being members of city council, such as Eugene Matthew, Robert Cornegy, and Antonio Reynoso. Also the assembly member from north Brooklyn, Joanne Simon, and several other people such as former Brookdale hospital vice-president Khari Edwards and Baptist Bishop Lamar Miller Whitehead, and Reverend Kim Council president of a Nonprofit Eastern New York Housing Development Corporation. They're each known in some circles. To begin to set the scene so people don't get overwhelmed with learning about 11 candidates from scratch or a few of these candidates considered in the lead or most likely to win.

Ese Olumhense: Right now there doesn't appear to be a particular candidate in the race. Polling has been super minimal and it's really only included a handful of candidates. It tells us that around half of the voters so far are undecided much like the mayoral race. The poll that I referenced also included a ranked-choice voting simulation because we'll be using the new system in this primary election.

In that simulation council member, Antonio Reynoso beats his council colleague, Robert Cornegy after five rounds of voting. I say all of that to say this is looking like it'll be a really tight race. Endorsements are still flooding in. As folks know, Spike Lee endorsed Robert Cornegy. Just this weekend, I saw Tracy Morgan, the actor, who's been a friend to Robert Cornegy in the past has also endorsed him.

Another campaign to watch. We have Reynoso branding himself as the leading progressive or less most-leaning candidate here. Cornegy being I would say moderate than Reynoso but we have assembly member, Joanne Simon who's picked up some key endorsements the UFT Congress member, Jerry Nadler, and she's also raised a considerable amount of money.

Brian Lehrer: It sounds like Simon, Reynoso, Cornegy, the top three primarily to watch. The lead revelation in your article is that nine of the 10 biggest donations to a candidate for Borough president all went to Cornegy and they all came from outside of Brooklyn. Are they mostly real estate developers?

Ese Olumhense: Yes. At the time the top donations to Cornegy included contributions. Looking at that top 10 from a number of developers, even a hotel developer's wife. It's unwise, I guess, to read too much into this. Maybe these folks just really care about the race. I find it interesting that those top 10 contributions actually came from outside the city. Not just Brooklyn, as far away as Florida money in this and would be they really care.

Maybe there's more there, but I found that super interesting. The one in district contract of that top 10 I should note was a loan from assembly member Simon toward her own campaign. Everything else fell Cornegy's way and a significant batch of those donations came from outside of New York city

Speaker 1: To not conclude to simply that he's the candidate of landlords, your article also says, even though he's gotten most of the biggest real estate link donations, they all add up to only $30,000, if I'm reading this correctly, and makeup only 10% of his total campaign donations. How much can we conclude that Cornegy would be beholden to developers if those numbers are actually so small?

Ese Olumhense: Great question. I think one of the big limits of our campaign finance data here in New York City, just in my opinion, is that donors can label their occupation or their industry however they choose, even if that's not exactly accurate. A lot of times you'll see someone say they're retired or self-employed and you do a little bit more research and see that they actually are self-employed, but they're self-employed as a developer or they're retired but they're a retired developer or some other real estate interests.

We use a bright-line rule in our analysis. We only wanted to include the obvious real estate players set either named a firm or named listed their occupation as real estate developer, a real estate investor. I am certain that the actual percentage of donation from the real estate industry across the board for all of the candidates is actually higher than what we were able to label as obvious donations.

Cornegy also says he'll be independent. He'll operate as Borough president without undue influence from developers and others in the real estate industry although he's been backed more so than his rivals in the race by the real estate industry.

Brian Lehrer: Does Cornegy hold any more outwardly pro real estate positions on issues different from the leading candidates or are they lining up more or less on some development and gentrification-oriented positions?

Ese Olumhense: I'd say yes. Cornegy is a big proponent of what he dubs responsible development. This means demanding more from developers. I think he said in our story that he'd be, "unapologetic and unflinching in demanding more public goods and benefits and other things concessions from real estate developers". He was also a supporter of the industry city commercial project which has everyone else was scrapped last fall.

It is a position that now it seems that real estate money is so taboo for candidates to accept in races. That may be more so a political thing than a regular people and everyday thing. It is interesting that he was very clear on that position.

Brian Lehrer: Since we're talking about all this in the context of a race for Borough president, I wonder if you could describe what powers borough presidents have because Borough presidents don't have all that many powers actually. Some of them have to do at least on an advisory basis with real estate development. By way of background, listeners, the New York Times had an article about some of Eric Adams's relationships and wrote, for example, that Adams has taken money from developers who like David Schwartz of Slate Property Group have lobbied him or won his recommendation for crucial zoning changes.

In several cases, he appears to have violated city campaign finance law by failing to report that developers and others have raised money for him that may have allowed him to obtain public matching funds, to which he was not entitled to unquote from the New York Times. Now to be clear, that's just one newspaper article as Adams has not been formally accused of anything, but the fact that those questions even get raised. Ese, that's an indication of that the borough president is relevant to what goes on in development. Maybe you could describe some of those powers.

Ese Olumhense: Absolutely. Borough presidents have an advisory position. They get an advisory vote on development proposals in the Borough. It's been interesting to see candidates. One of the things I was really interested in is what they thought of Eric Adams, his performance on development and gentrification, and what they hope to do that would break with that or be different.

Something that most candidates raised that I thought was really interesting was they thought that a key feature of the job was using the bully pulpit. We know they have an advisory vote, but can they drum up support, can they drum up opposition to particular things? Also, something that came out that I thought was fascinating, was many of these folks running in the race say they want to work with lawmakers to change certain planning aspects here in the city.

Robert Cornegy for example, says he wants to present a proposal in the council via the Brooklyn delegation to restructure the city planning board and have two of the 13 members, I believe, voted in by city community board chairs. He wants to do this to ensure that community voices are present at the bureaucratic table. Others in the race who also say that they want to work with lawmakers to change affordability formulas in Congress. These are things that determine how affordable or affordable housing development are. I know that there's been a lot of attention specifically in this race on affordability on AMI and how those calculations advantage or disadvantage, different groups of people

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we can take a few phone calls on gentrification and development as issues for you. 6-4-6-4-3-5 7280 6-4-6-4-3-5 7280, specifically in the borough of Brooklyn in this case as this is our focus as we go borough by borough one day, each week through this week.

Now that early voting is underway in the New York primary and look at selected races. We're talking about development and the Brooklyn borough presidents race right now with journalists Ese, older men say 6-4-6 4-3-5 7280, or tweet a comment or a question @brianlehrer. We'll go into a couple of city council races in Brooklyn in a minute, but something you just mentioned, Ese, the debate over what the official measurement of affordability known as the area median income.

Should it be the median income in a specific neighborhood? Of course would be, let's say very different in Bed-Stuy compared to Park Slope or of the New York region as a whole. Do the candidates differ on that?

Ese Olumhense: It seems pretty universal that folks, I would say the things that folks seem to come to consensus on was that more affordable housing is needed. The ULA process, the process by which the city decides to approve land-use changes and the AMI formula should be changed. Right now, developments are considered affordable again, based on formulas for affordability that in New York city take all of the five boroughs and parts of Westchester into account.

Obviously, when you look locally, it skews who can afford what. It skews the formula beyond the means of many people who live in these neighborhoods. I think one of the big things that many of the candidates have embraced is having a more localized AMI formula. Kerry, Edward, you mentioned him at the top of the segment. He worked at a Brookdale hospital and he's now, honestly, surprisingly gaining lots of ground in the race.

Congress member, Yvette Clark endorsed him. I think it's super interesting that he was not a politician, was not involved in government. I guess maybe with the pandemic and his experience in the healthcare system, he's managed to really make a lot of noise and gain a lot of ground. Congress member Clark introduced a bill to change the AMI formula and I know he's expressed interest in working with her on that to develop something that's more localized.

Brian Lehrer: Estelle In Brooklyn you're on WNYC. Hi, Estelle.

Estelle: Oh, hi. I'm horribly opposed to Eric Adams. I live around the corner from Cortelyou road and he has just voted to up-zone a block on Cortelyou road to permit an eight-story building, which is it's a Victorian Flatbush. What is an eight-story apartment building?

Brian Lehrer: Doing there? Estelle, I'm going to leave it there for time. Thank you very much. Of course, we're not talking about Eric Adams or the mayoral race right now, but the race to succeed, Eric Adams as Brooklyn Borough president. I think you mentioned that Cortelyou issue in your article in city limits, didn't you, Ese?

Ese Olumhense: Yes. One of the candidates was actually galvanized and he's a lesser-known candidate. He's a teacher and he was one of the folks involved in this Save Cortelyou effort. Basically, they wanted to stop the up-zoning there so that their concerns that the neighborhood would slowly become more and more unaffordable. He was actually pushed into politics according to him by this Save Cortelyou effort. His name is Robert Epstein by the way.

Brian Lehrer: What's the argument for it? When we talk about up-zoning in general and when we talk about how much development to allow-- I mean, we talked about this with mayor DeBlasio all the time and he's forced selected up-zoning for more density, as long as they include a certain amount of affordable housing. That's one of his main routes to building more affordable housing in New York City, more overall housing in New York City, which is intended to ease the housing shortage.

The ratio of people looking for housing to available units. There are different points of view on this that are not just, from people being sold out to developers, but from people having different opinions about what's in the public good with respect to affordable housing.

Ese Olumhense: Right. I think Robert Cornegy, it's been very interesting to hear him articulate his positions. He doesn't shy away or he doesn't pretend to be someone who is super progressive and who cares about gentrification and development in the same way as other candidates. He said that we can't reflexively say no to every development proposal. I think it's interesting that he's a Democrat as well, just as much as Reynoso or Simon, but it's interesting as it emerge here.

Brian Lehrer: Louise in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Louise.

Louise: Hi Brian. Thank you. for the segment, I tried to call Eric Adams office today because I'm curious if he has come out with an endorsement for anyone for borough president, I'd be curious to know what that is. Does your guests know?

Brian Lehrer: That's certainly a relevant question. Whether people like Eric Adams as Borough president or didn't like Eric Adams as Borough president, who was he endorsing to succeed him if anybody?

Ese Olumhense I would love to know. Eric Adams, if your listening, please call me and let me know. I think candidates would be interested in an Adam's endorsement.

Brian Lehrer: He hasn't come out with one yet as far as you know?

Ese Olumhense: Not that I'm aware of. Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Okay. We're going to be talking later in the show about some Brooklyn and other politicians who have recently come out just in the last few days with endorsements of Eric Adams for second place on their mayoral rank choice voting ballots, even though they endorsed other mayoral candidates for first place. We're going to do that with our reporter, brigid Bergen later in the show. That's a very interesting last minute dynamic taking place right now.

Let's see, let me do the legal ID and then we're going to go onto the city council races around the same issue of development and gentrification. This is WNYC FMHD and AM New York, WNJT FM 88.1, Trenton. WNJP 88.5, Sussex. WNJY 89.3, Netong and WNJO 90.3 Toms river. We are New York and New Jersey public radio. As we continue with Ese Olumhense who has an article in City Limits about development as an issue in the Brooklyn borough president's race.

She's also looking at two particular council races and first District 39, the open seat that Brad Lander holds now, and that Bill de Blasio held before him representing Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, and Kensington. Again, there are so many candidates like in many races this year and on the development front, the Gowanus rezoning is one major issue. Can you briefly describe for people who don't live there, what the Gowanus rezoning plan is and who likes it and doesn't?

Ese Olumhense: Absolutely. My colleague David Bran recently wrote about how contentious this rezoning is in Gowanus. There are lots of different factions here it seems. The rezoning is proposed for 82 blocks of Gowanus. There are supporters who say, "Yes, the plan is flawed," but it creates know cheaper apartments for folks or apartments below market rate that are necessary as rents go up and property values go up.

Then there are folks who say, "They're not going to support this unless the city pours money into repairs to local public housing complexes." I think they're looking for, I think around $300 million in repairs to come for the city before they can give their support. they're also very interested the second group in preventing sewage from spilling out of the canal. In Gowanus, it's a toxic site so the environmental impact is something that's on a lot of people's minds at this point.

Then there's a third camp of people who are direct opponents of the plan. They say that it'll change the neighborhood. It'll allow bigger developments, luxury tower. Then they say, there'll be like 30-stories high and it will forever change the character of this community and sell them out a bit to developers.

Brian Lehrer: Good summary of that issue. What's the lay of the land in this council district that produced our current mayor in terms of the range of candidates. It looks like candidates are coming from a variety of walks of life.

Ese Olumhense: Yes. I mean, it's fascinating. I did an analysis last night, just super rough, just to see what the average number of folks running in the open council seats was.I think of democratic candidates, it's like nine people in all of these races, it's fascinating. I think this district especially is interesting because we have our current mayor, as you said, he came from this district.

We have Brad Lander, who's running for Comptroller, who also came out of this district and in the race now we've got attorneys, cab drivers, labor leaders, community health workers, teachers. It looks and feels a lot like New York City. We see that AOC has even endorsed a candidate in this race. Shahana Haneef, she's a public housing and tenant organizer.

She'd be the first, I believe Muslim woman and for south Asian person elected to the city council, if she wins and perhaps even the district's first woman council member, so there's a lot here. There's a teacher Bridgette Reign, who I've seen pick up some endorsements recently. It's going to be a fascinating race, and one that I think is unique, but also representative of a lot of the concepts we're seeing across the city.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, the reason why we're talking about this here, we can't do in a radio segment, a full analysis of a race with like 11 candidates in it for one city council district, and really get you to your choice. We're helping to maybe put this on your radar and some of the names who were prominent in this race, and then go Google your way to more information or ask people you know who maybe are more involved in politics than you, who you trust, use the voters guides on golfing nest or elsewhere.

We're just trying to raise the profile of some of these races because with 51 members of city council and most of them up now because so many people are term-limited out this year, it's really going to make a difference to the city. Put in a little time, that's the bottom line here. Let's go on finally to the District 35 council race and other open seats because council member, Laurie Cumbo, is term-limited out.

You're watching how some of the candidates are breaking with Cumbo's own positions on development issues, what are some examples of that?

Ese Olumhense: Yes, another really fascinating race, this district includes Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights, parts of Bed-Stuy. There are seven folks running, housing is a huge issue. When we look at these neighborhoods, there's been a lot of concern over gentrification and folks being displaced. I think the campaigns to watch here are that of Crystal Hudson. She used to work for Laurie Cumbo. I guess her primary opponent would be the tenant activists, Michael Hollingsworth.

He's been backed by some top DSA figures in New York City like Jabari Bridgeport, we've seen Cynthia Nixon endorsed him and state Senator Julia Salazar. Hudson, on the other hand, she has the support of Congress members Hakeem Jeffries and Yvette Clark. She's broken with and it's, I think this has been really fascinating with Cumbo's position, her former boss on the Bedford armory project. She said it was a bad deal.

I think that's the only compounded since, but she worked as Cumbo's campaign treasurer at that time. It's interesting to see how she's even splitting with her former boss here. Hollingsworth is kind of the more leftist candidate here. Of course, he was a member of the Tenants Union in Crown Heights. They led the fight really against the armory project. He thought, or the group thought I should say, that the current council member was really contemptuous in dismissive of the community and of their concerns around this project.

That will be one, I think that will be, even though there are many candidates, I think it'll come down to the two and I think we'll see a lot of super interesting stuff come out of-- We don't have much time left but it's been an interesting race so far and I think it may have another interesting and maybe unpredictable outcome.

Brian Lehrer: That listeners is a look at some of the races in Brooklyn as the early voting is underway in the New York primary. In this case, through the lens of some development issues. Tomorrow, we'll look at some of the races in Queens and later in the show today, Brigid Bergin will be here with tips on rank choice voting for mayor and some of the interesting endorsements for ranking people. Number two that have come out in the last few days. Ese Olumhense, thanks for the 411 on these Brooklyn races. Great job.

Ese Olumhense: Thanks so much for inviting me.

Copyright © 2021 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.