Gounardes Faces a Challenger – Thankfully!
Andrew Gounardes voted to gerrymander Brooklyn while no one was looking. Prior to this, Gounardes spoke out against Republicans, who gerrymandered our community…..so he knew it was wrong.
When Andrew Gounardes had the chance to make fair districts in Brooklyn, Gounardes chose his party over people. (News)
We are glad to see Gounardes has a Democrat primary challenger, David Yassky.
Our district was specifically mentioned in the courts’ document because it was so badly gerrymandered.
Gounardes wanted to give Max Rose a district he could win in. Rose and Brad Lander thought the deal was done. Rose opened up a district office in Park Slope and Lander endorsed Rose. These men thought they had locked in leadership over the waterfront of Brooklyn.
The reason we have to waste money on another election in August is because politicians like Andrew Gounardes did the wrong thing and the courts had to intervene. (See here) We should be able to trust our elected officials to vote for the community – not to suppress voting rights of Brooklynites.
Andrew Gounardes didn’t stand up for Brooklyn or voting rights. We have seen this before with Gounardes – when no one is looking, he does the wrong thing.
In the situation with Angel Guardian Home, a developer purchased the property. Yet the property was historic, so they were not supposed to begin work until the hearing was done. The developer removed part of the building that may have been landmarked. Andrew Gounardes didn’t show up for the NYC landmarking meeting. Instead, he sent Justin Brannan, who doesn’t represent that area. (Abbate and Gounardes should have been present as the state representatives).
You can hear Justin Brannan speaking at the landmarking meeting, even though he doesn’t represent that district.
Andrew Gounardes accepted a $2,250.00 donation from the developer at Angel Guardian. (Source)
Like gerrymandering, landmarking was something Andrew Gounardes felt strongly about prior to taking office. As the president of the Bay Ridge Historical Society, he taught people about landmarking, so it was strange to see that he wouldn’t even show up to speak at that meeting.
We have a lot of corruption in Bay Ridge. Andrew Gounardes is silent when he should be speaking out for the community. This situation is happening in our community. Locations for public schools should not be decided like this!
Andrew Gounardes is a politician who has made promises and failed to follow through. Andrew said he was going to improve the waterfront. He didn’t. Andrew promised Bay Ridge he was going to open a high school, but didn’t. Andrew told us he was going to help with property taxes and didn’t do anything. Brad Lander pays less than half the property tax that we do.
Gounardes likes to take photos and write articles, but press release politics means things aren’t getting done. Andrew hasn’t told people that lobbyists were behind the red light cameras. Brannan, Lander and others were lobbied for the cameras. Repeat offenders of the red light cameras continue to speed because there is no penalty, other than a $50 ticket.
Andrew thinks having a cleanup in front of his office and Justin Brannan’s office is “cleaning up the neighborhood.”
Let’s get someone in the state senate who wants to listen and help residents in our community.
Gounardes accepted donations from the same family that are in the news for giving Governor Kathy Hochul donations. (See here) Gounardes has PAC money (see here) and other strange donations.
They didn’t max out their contributions for a small state senator in Brooklyn for no reason.
This district is all waterfront. We saw Gounardes was not able to help Bay Ridge’s waterfront.
David Yassky promised to protect the waterfront.
Yassky also quickly spoke out about about animal abuse in NYC.
Brad Lander seemed very eager over this position – David Yassky is not with Lander.
David Yassky is known for turning around a school, PS 8 and making it into a school that parents want their children to attend.
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Hugs,
marlene
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