There’s quite an intense race in Brooklyn’s 8th congressional district (which includes Fort Greene, Bed Stuy, Prospect Heights and East New York) going on. Turnout will be the key to who wins.

City Council Member Charles Barron and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries are duking out it out. Last week, Charles Barron got a toxic endorsement from David Duke, a former KKK Grand Wizard and fervent anti-semite.

And what a great reason to vote for Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, who is running for congress in the 8th congressional district against City Council Member Charles Barron for Ed Towns’ congressional seat. Not that you need a reason to vote for Jeffries, who is a good guy.

City Council Member Brad Lander has worked closely with Jeffries on issues including affordable housing, creating good jobs, and building stronger neighborhoods. “He’s great at bringing people together to make real and concrete change. He’s going to be a fantastic Congressman. I hope you can support him if you live in Prospect Heights, East New York, Bed Stuy, or one of the other neighborhoods in the district,” writes Lander in an email.

According to the Daily News: 

The battle for a Brooklyn Congressional seat will likely hinge on one neighborhood in the sprawling and diverse new district- Bedford-Stuyvesant, political insiders say.

With record low turnout expected for the June 26 Demoratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Ed Towns, controversial City Councilman Charles Barron upstart and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries have flooded Bed-Stuy with campaign literature and door to door visits in recent weeks, residents say.

“It’s the Ohio of the district,” a Jeffries campaign staffer said, referring to the perennial swing state in Presidential elections.

While each candidate has carved out sections of strong support in the recently redrawn 8th Congressional district, neither one currently represents more than small enclaves of Bedford-Stuyvesant, long seen as a must win area for any black pol. As many as 9,000 votes are up for grabs based on prior turnout.

Here’s the way I am voting on Tuesday, June 26th in the democratic primary: Turns out I’m in the 9th congressional district and not the 7th. So I voted for Congresswoman Yvette Clarke. That was a no-brainer. Now if I can just keep my congressional districts straight.

For  congress in the newly redrawn 7th district I am voting for Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, the incumbent, because she’s been doing a good job for twenty years and she cares about health care, education and transit. According to Brad Lander, “she led the successful effort to get the Gowanus Canal declared a Superfund site, which will bring hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up the Canal in the decade to come.”

It’s a race to watch because she’s being opposed by Dan O’Connor, City Council Member Erik Marin Dilan and George Martinez (the Occupy Wall Street candidate).  Interesting candidates all.

But Nydia’s the one I’m going for this time.

Here’s a nice picture of City Council Member Steve Levin drinking a Coca Cola at the First Annual North Brooklyn Boat Club Summer Solstice party last night.

Steve’s a very good guy. He represents parts of Park Slope; he shares Park Slope with Council Member Brad Lander.

Yes, he’s as young as he looks. I don’t think he’s still in his twenties but he’s probably just this side of thirty.

He grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey and came to Brooklyn to work as a community organizer after he graduated from Brown University.

He ran a  Lead Safe House program and an Anti-Predatory lending program, both based in Bushwick. In 2006, Stephen became Chief of Staff to Assemblymember Vito Lopez. IN November 2009, Stephen was elected to represent the 33rd District of Brooklyn, which covers Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Park Slope, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, and Vinegar Hill

I remember that election very well. You can read my Breakfast of Candidates  interview with Steve Levin here.

North Brooklyn is part of Steve’s district, and the North Brooklyn Boat Club is a very happening thing in that neck of the woods.

Read this honest assessment of the new construction and negligible planning on Fourth Avenue by Robbie Whelan in the Wall Street Journal.

How did this happen in a neighborhood that fought like hell (and failed) to prevent the Atlantic Yards project, freaks out about a Barnes and Noble going in on Seventh Avenue, and cares about landmarking and all the rest. I hope Whalen is wrong when he states bracingly: “Brooklyn is going to be stuck for decades with this depressing wasteland of cheap materials and designs.”

The optimist in me hopes that good minds (hello Brad Lander, Steve Levin, Park Slope Civic Council, Park Slope Neighbors) are working on ways to FIX what’s wrong with Fourth Avenue. The zoning was screwed. No one was mandated to put storefronts on the Fourth Avenue side of their ugly high rise apartment buildings. Hence, it is an avenue with little or no street life. Thank goodness for the businesses that have set up shop there. The blocks between Union and President have some street life going on (Oxaca, Mission Delores, Rock Shop, Root Hill, an eyeglass store a wine shop). And between 2nd and 3rd Streets there’s Two Moon Art House and Cafe.

There needs to be more and much in the way of amenable city planning or organic and artistic development. Is that even possible anymore?

Here’s an excerpt:

Just as great architecture can lift the spirit, bad architecture can crush it.

In few parts of New York is this more the case than with the rash of new apartment buildings along Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue, the six-lane street that runs south from Atlantic Terminal and cleaves Park Slope from Gowanus. Because of bad decisions by Amanda Burden’s City Planning Department and the profit-above-all-else motive of some developers, Brooklyn is going to be stuck for decades with this depressing wasteland of cheap materials and designs.

Just how bad is Fourth Avenue? Consider the latest addition, a 12-story rental apartment building ..

Brad Lander, one of Park Slope’s City Council Members (yes, we have two, two City Council Members), has proposed legislation to add oversight to the NYPD in light of the Stop and Frisk controversy. A couple of days ago, he introduced legislation, along with Councilmember Jumaane Williams and 22 of his colleagues, to create an Inspector General for the NYPD. It sounds very Gilbert and Sullivan but it also sounds like a very good idea.

You can read about the new bill in the New York Times. Bur first read what Lander had to say about this effort on his blog.

We live in the greatest city in the world, so it’s not often that I find myself wishing that we had something that exists in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, but not here in New York. All of these cities have independent oversight for their police departments – which means there is someone whose job is to ensure that the police department’s operations are effective, efficient, and protect our civil liberties.

With good oversight, people are more likely to follow the rules. Taxpayers can be more confident their money is well spent. Rights are more likely to be respected. Communities are more likely to build relationships of trust.

Without meaningful, independent oversight, problems grow and fester. Rules are broken. Pressure from the top outweighs what’s right. Money is wasted. People take shortcuts with the truth. Our civil liberties are less likely to be protected. Agency morale suffers. The bonds of trust between the police and communities around the city are frayed. Policing becomes less effective. We need to stop this trend.

There was a panel with NYC Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio, City Councilmember Brad Lander and others at Congregation Beth Elohim last night about the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy and improving relations between the police and the community.

I wasn’t there. Were you? Via Google I found this short You Tube video of Bill de Blasio speaking last night. City Councilman Brad Lander is sitting behind him.

Have a look.