Here's Where District 39 Council Candidates Stand On Your Issues

BROOKLYN, NY — In February, four months before the June 22 City Council primary elections, Patch asked Brooklynites in the 39th City Council District which neighborhood issues mattered to them.

More than 60 neighbors filled out the survey, shedding light on what residents are looking for in the seven candidates vying to replace term-limited Council Member Brad Lander, who is looking to become the city's next comptroller.

Among the takeaways: urban quality of life (public transit, street safety, bike lanes, parks) emerged as a key issue, with nearly 27 percent of respondents naming it as their most important topic. Close behind were restaurants and small businesses and schools, which got 15 and 13 percent of the vote, respectively.

Schools, street safety, affordable housing and businesses, specifically commercial vacancies, emerged as key topics in the open-ended portion of the survey.

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Now, with about two weeks remaining until the election, we asked all District 39 candidates to respond to questions based on the survey results, including their plans for street safety and transit, school issues and increasing rents, both residential and commercial.

Here's a look at where they stand (answers have been paraphrased for space):

1. What do you see as the main issues facing public transit and street safety in the neighborhood?

• Justin Krebs said he will focus on measures to "move towards safer streets more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists that encourage a decreased dependence on cars." He specifically pointed to investing in protected lanes for buses and cyclists, enacting congestion pricing, promoting bike-share and scooter programs and using data-driven oversight to identify problems or successes in street changes. He also supports moving crash investigations from the NYPD to the Department of Transportation.

• Shahana Hanif highlighted the lack of accessible infrastructure in the transit system that she, as a Lupus survivor and person with disabilities, has encountered first-hand. She specifically pointed to challenges with applying for and using Access-A-Ride, transit deserts and above-ground subway stations with steep stairways, including the Seventh Avenue F/G station where she pushed for elevator in her Participatory Budgeting work. She also said she will push to bring back the B71 bus.

• Mamnun Haq also pointed to accessibility issues, including the need for elevators and accessible subway stations, increasing crosswalk safety for visually or hearing impaired neighbors and investing in more bike lanes. He said an audit of the district's intersections is needed and specifically highlighted safety problems on Ocean Parkway and at Church and McDonald avenues, where he helped push for a curb extension. Haq said more speed humps should also be introduced to slow traffic on service roads.

• Briget Rein said her focus will be on addressing parts of the district that are only accessible by car and dangerous for those using alternative means of transportation. She specifically said she will back the bus line along Union Street — ideally blocking it to cars like 14th Street in Manhattan — expand bus service across the district and work with the Department of Transportation to create more bike lanes and traffic cameras that will enforce speed limits.

• Jessica Simmons highlighted her own experience worrying about street safety walking her 8-year-old to school each day. She said she will focus on more protection for bike lanes, decreasing speeding and drag racing, bringing back the B71 bus, ensuring sidewalks are well-maintained and bringing curb cuts to every corner in the district.

• Brandon West proposed a series of short-term and long-term solutions that he says will help a goal of "emphasizing public transit, pedestrian safety, cycling, and deemphasizing car usage and ownership." Among the short-term solutions are supporting Vision Zero, bringing back the B71 bus, expanding Open Streets and strengthening bike infrastructure. Long-term solutions include bringing the subway under city control, investing in city buses and building mass transit infrastructure that is an alternative to cars.

• Doug Schneider pointed to the condition and accessibility of sidewalks and crosswalks, delivery trucks creating dangerous conditions, a lack of biking infrastructure and inaccessible mass transit. He said his street safety plan, found on his website, includes expanding automated enforcement measures, increasing sidewalk and crosswalk safety, creating more permanent Open Streets and making public transit accessible.

2. How do you view the recent efforts to increase diversity in the school district? What other problems face schools in the district and what needs to be done to address them?

• Justin Krebs highlighted his role on the Parents Association of his daughters' school P.S. 39, as a leader in the District 15 Presidents Council and as president emeritus of the Cobble Hill Playschool in Carroll Gardens. He said he will aim to "bolster, deepen and expand" the District 15 Diversity Plan and also pointed to the need to "invest in shared resources, address the failure to invest in Title 1 schools and tackle school segregation in our city."

• Shahana Hanif said she supports recent efforts to increase diversity in District 15. As a council member, she said she would focus on addressing overcrowding and school infrastructure using state funding known as Foundation Aid, engaging multilingual and non-English speaking families, ensuring accommodations for students with disabilities and creating police-free schools.

• Mamnun Haq said the recent diversity efforts are a step in the right direction but there is a "long road ahead" to achieving equity. He pointed to overcrowding, increasing pay and benefits for teachers and the need for more childcare and after-school programs as remaining issues he'd focus on. Specifically, he said he'd expand P.S. 179's Beacon program across the district.

• Briget Rein lauded the District 15 Diversity Plan, specifically its approach to avoid siblings being separated. She said her focus on addressing diversity will be to increase low-income, affordable and workforce housing — specifically by reducing the Area Median Income used for the city's affordable housing lottery program — and building more schools to tackle overcrowding.

• Jessica Simmons pointed to her background as a teacher, principal and education consultant who "has worked with schools across the country on increasing diversity." She said schools in District 39 should use District 13, where she serves on the Community Education Council, as a model for a community-based approach to increasing diversity. District 13 is introducing a series of admissions changes this year similar to those in the District 15 Diversity Plan.

• Brandon West said he will advocate for school district rezonings similar to those happening in District 15 and said he supports the city as a whole moving from what is known as admissions "screens" toward a lottery system, which was used in the District 15 Diversity Plan. City Council should use its role in the budget process to help other districts replicate District 15's work, financially incentivize integrated schools using the Fair Student Funding formula and fund a "demonstration program for schools to experiment with whole-school enrichment," he added.

• Doug Schneider said the city should build off the District 15 Diversity Plan and also expressed his support for eliminating the SHSAT admissions test to help with integration at the high school level. His school plan also proposes a "Pandemic Playbook" for fully reopening schools and bringing in social workers to "remedy the harm that remote learning has done to our children."

3. How do you plan to address increasing rents, both commercial and residential, in the district?

• Justin Krebs pointed to struggles with landlords as a co-founder of arts nonprofit The Tank. He proposed commercial rent control, incentives for renting to nonprofits, space in new developments for arts and culture and a mediation program for landlords and tenants. For residential tenants, his proposals include investing in deeply affordable units, creating housing for formerly homeless people, protecting displacement from non-rent-stabilized units and creating a housing trust.

• Shahana Hanif proposed working with federal legislators to revise Area Median Income, the calculation used to determine affordable housing prices, to include only ZIP code, neighborhood or census tract. She said she supports commercial rent control and would focus on a "Know Your Rights" program to help tenants, specifically with limited English proficiency, learn about new tenant protections.

• Mamnun Haq said he would work on stabilizing commercial rent, expanding long-term leases, extending the commercial eviction moratorium, increasing tenant's awareness of their rights and providing rent subsidies beyond the pandemic. He pointed to his work with immigrant tenants in Kensington.

• Briget Rein said she would expand a recent increase to housing vouchers for homeless families, work to ensure the passage of the Small Business Survival Act and commercial rent control, and crack down on predatory landlords, including Greenbrook Partners, who have faced backlash for ousting tenants at several buildings in the neighborhood this year.

• Jessica Simmons pointed to businesses who struggled to pay their bills during the coronavirus crisis and creating incentives for landlords to keep businesses in their buildings. She said she will create a task force to hear from local business owners potential solutions should she be elected to the City Council.

• Brandon West expressed his support for several existing ideas, including commercial rent stabilization, the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, increasing funding for housing discrimination enforcement and legalizing Accessory Dwelling Units. He also pointed to lobbying for federal money to build publicly-owned affordable housing, revising the long-criticized Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program so all new developments include affordable units and changing the City Charter to "decommodify" housing.

• Doug Schneider proposed incentivizing landlords to give below-market rent and no-increase lease renewals to commercial tenants and highlighted the need for tax reform to help tenants with property taxes. On the residential side, he pointed to the need for more affordable housing and said new projects must promote racial and social equity to undo a history of underfunding public resources in vulnerable neighborhoods.