Round Three
By Mike Dang
Photographs by William Hereford
Creating environmental cleanup jobs, to benefit the community on many levels, is among Council Member Diana Reyna’s goals in her third term.
Heading into 2010, city Council Member Diana Reyna is busy setting up her new district office at 217 Havemeyer Street in Williamsburg. In a phone interview, Reyna sounds cheerful, energetic, and prepared to support her constituency in the 34th District, pointing out that up to 60 residents drop by her office daily seeking assistance.
“At the moment, we’re preparing to provide the community with tax form services, and making sure everyone has the right advocacy,” Reyna said.
Reyna’s enthusiasm is welcome, after a year marked by a bitter feud that ended her close ties with Brooklyn borough boss and State Assemblyman Vito Lopez. Lopez defiantly supported Reyna’s challenger in her controversial run for a third term. Meanwhile, Reyna’s neighboring council member, Stephen Levin, won with Lopez’s support.
When the dust had settled, Reyna won by 25 percentage points, but faced the challenge of emerging as an independent leader who needed to convince those still holding onto the hard feelings of party politics, or the mantra of “no third terms,” that her reelection is well-deserved. It’s a new decade, and Reyna, the first elected Dominican woman in New York politics, likes a challenge.
Reyna has prioritized a list of issues she’d like to tackle right away, the first of which is affordable housing.
“The greatest failure of Broadway Triangle was the exclusivity provided to developers,” Reyna said. “We can no longer ignore the needs of the community. Twelve sites of public-owned land have been delayed — sites that would have provided 1,600 to 1,700 units of affordable housing. The delays are unjust and developers need to be held accountable.”
According to Reyna, the Domino Sugar Factory site has the potential for responsible building if at least 20 percent of the units are reserved for mixed-income affordable housing. She’d like to see mechanisms put into place that provide both a free market and improved quality of living for residents, without resulting in displacement.
The Domino Sugar plant, she adds, also has the potential to help Reyna with the second item on her list of priorities, employment and job creation. She says the site, which is infected with asbestos, can create local jobs for those who need it.
“We can work with the federal government to bring in grants that will help fund an asbestos removal training program, which can provide local workers with good-paying jobs.”
The same goes for Newtown Creek, which the was recommended as a Superfund site by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Reyna envisions local residents training in environmental cleanup, and creating a workforce that will empower the community.
“It’s a full circle,” she said.
Reyna’s list goes on and on. Working with businesses to attract entrepreneurs, maintaining industrial spaces and buildings for individuals who want to open new businesses, providing better education for children, monitoring waste management systems that create health hazards for residents, and making sure the community is supported with the core social services that she has seen diminish in the last eight years as a result of a deficit trickling down to neighborhoods.
“I’m seeking solutions for tangible goals for the term I was voted for,” Reyna said.
These are customary words for a veteran council member. History has shown that third terms have a tendency to be unkind to politicians. Here’s Reyna’s chance to prove history wrong.
