Elections

From a livable streets perspective, the race for public advocate is that rare contest with no clear-cut villains. 

If you live in New York City you've probably been conditioned to believe your vote doesn't count all that much. Fundraising and media appearances aside, presidential campaigns mostly ignore New York while the Electoral College ensures that the votes of people who live in places like North Dakota and Wyoming are nearly three times more valuable than our own. Every once in a while we see a contested Congressional race but even the most shockingly useless incumbents are impossible to get rid of. U.S. Senators, these days, are machine-picked like non-organic industrial produce. And in the New York state legislature, incumbents are re-elected more than 90 percent of the time. Assembly Members and State Senators leave office in handcuffs and pine boxes.

Two pedestrians were killed in Brooklyn over the weekend. Saturday evening, 66-year-old Fred Wilson took the family dog and went out for ice cream. He had only walked a short distance from his Gerritsen Avenue home when he was hit by an unidentified driver. He died soon after at Kings County Hospital.

We've got two more citywide elections to review on the eve of tomorrow's primary vote -- the contests for comptroller and public advocate.

Of all the City Council districts in New York, the one crying out the loudest for transportation reform might just be the seat vacated by Eric Gioia -- District 26 in the southwestern corner of Queens.

Outgoing Council Member John Liu has been a fickle legislator when it comes to livable streets. While the transportation committee chair might endorse congestion pricing, he was also a staunch defender of the mythical put-upon working stiff whose very survival depended on free bridge crossings. And we can't forget his fidgeting when it came time to act on the all-important issue of bike access, his skepticism of landmark street reclamations (while scolding DOT on pedestrian safety), or his repeatedly debunked "two sets of books" claim -- if for no other reason than Liu himself has made it a cornerstone of his current campaign for city comptroller.

The most telling answers at Transportation Alternatives' District 33 City Council candidates forum came after an audience member asked point blank for the debaters' stance on congestion pricing. "I can’t support a candidate who’ll support congestion pricing," said the questioner, Dave Reina. "I think it's punitive, and there are more creative solutions out there. Who’ll stand up against it?"

The New York League of Conservation Voters came out with their slate of primary endorsements today. Streetsblog readers may be surprised to see that District 1 incumbent Alan Gerson is one of four City Council candidates in Manhattan to win the environmental group's endorsement.

Tonight's candidate forum for the 33rd City Council district, which covers the Brooklyn neighborhoods closest to the East River, bears special significance for livable streets policy. Outgoing rep David Yassky was an early supporter of congestion pricing in the City Council and later carried the banner for the Bicycle Access Bill, which passed earlier this summer. Will the next council member from the 33rd build on that legacy?