By Libby Herz
New York City is known as the city that never sleeps, but many Orthodox Jews feel they are living through a nightmare under the leadership of Mayor Bill de Blasio. According to the FBI, antisemitic incidents rose by twenty-six percent, and Jews are three times more likely to experience hate crimes than any other ethnic and religious group. A disproportionate amount of anti-Jewish hate crimes have taken place at our front door, and Crown Heights residents are demanding change. New York needs a strong leader who takes action, and who will lead a safe and peaceful city.
The candidates for the upcoming New York mayoral election in November 2021 are Eric Adams on the Democratic ticket and Curtis Sliwa on the Republican one. Both candidates are familiar faces on the streets of Crown Heights.
After years in the police force, Adams was elected a State Senator representing the Crown Heights neighborhood before ascending to become Borough President of Brooklyn. He has formed deep bonds over the years with key figures in the Jewish community and is well familiar with its establishments and institutions.
Curtis Sliwa, a radio talk show host who founded the Guardian Angels patrol group, is also recognized on the streets of Crown Heights. During the Crown Heights riots in 1991, he and his volunteers wearing their signature red berets and matching jackets stood guard in the neighborhood and have remained outspoken against crime and antisemitic attacks.
In lieu of the upcoming election, we spoke to small business owners and some residents about their concerns and the policies they would like the next mayor to implement and focus on.
“I hope the new mayor will address affordable housing and the lack of public safety,” says community activist Noochie Gross. The number-one concern for Moshe Klein of Little People’s Clothes on Kingston Avenue is the safety and security of our community and the city. He also hopes that the mayor will be openly supportive of the yeshiva system and the Orthodox way of life.
Support for the NYPD, and clean streets are major concerns for Yudi Eber of Eber’s Liquor Store on Kingston Avenue. “People feel that the city is going back to a period of neglect,” Eber says, “it affects the tourists and customers who avoid shopping in person due to fear for their safety.”
Menachem Light, CEO of Buggy TLC located on Empire Boulevard, has faced a rash of burglaries by the same folks time after time. “The issue for me is crime and the ability for criminals to commit a crime, knowing that within hours they will be back on the streets, and to then commit the same crime again,” he said, adding that the NYPD has not been able to do much about the burglaries he endured.
The staff at Gombo’s Heimishe Bakery use public transit to get to the shop early in the morning. “My top priority is the safety of folks taking public transit, and overall public safety,” says owner, Levi Gombo.
Naftali Kahan of Kahan’s Superette and Ariel Pinson of Weinstein’s Hardware want the next mayor to support yeshivas, and lower the spike in crime – especially gun violence.
Dovid Hershkowitz of Sushi Spot 2 and Boeuf & Bun says he’s worried about the #DefundPolice movement but is equally concerned about the harassment of the multiple agencies which spout conflicting messages. “I hope the next mayor ensures that one message is sent from all agencies,” he says. “Store owners risk facing unnecessary fees and fines due to confusing guidelines.”
Menachem Sheinberger of Holesome Bagels and Sauce N Cheese echoes this sentiment, saying the bureaucracy “hampers small businesses like mine from operating.” Shlomie Rotter of Primo Hatters noted how “One agency says ‘A’ while a second says ‘B’, which conflicts with agency ‘A.’”
Mrs. Chaya Pruss, owner of Everything But the Baby, would like the mayor to address inequality in property taxes. “Why is it that those in Park Slope and other well-off neighborhoods pay fewer property taxes on a home that is worth double than a Crown Heights or East Flatbush home?” She asks.
Homelessness and the lack of care for those with mental health issues are at the top of the list for Mendel Votel, owner of Hamafitz Judaica.
Lastly, Avremi Scheinfeld from Abe’s Corner points out that the city has stopped using small businesses as an ATM to fill budget gaps, as they did prior to the pandemic. “I hope the next mayor will have city agencies help guide businesses to be in compliance rather than fining us for any infractions that they find,” he says.
Community activists say that the community is in desperate need of strong leadership and are urging residents to vote in the 2021 mayoral elections.
Election day is on Tuesday, November 2, 2021. Polls are open from 6 AM to 9 PM. Early voting period and absentee voting is October 23- October 31, 2021.
The city gives $25,000 for every single public School student. We pay taxes we should get money for our schools!
It’s called self investment
Unfortunately we are not there, and don’t live in a wealthy hood at least to enjoy the infrastructure…
We don’t have anything for our kids – not playground not a swimming pool – zero
Sliwa stood with us during the riots!!
Adams will be another Dinkins! He stood with Farakan y”s, he idolized Dinkins, he will allow us Jews to be targeted and won’t do anything about it!
How can our community be so blind and dumb! Just because some “leaders” in the community are friendly with Adams, dont fall for it!
Its nice to have a kids museum, but if it won’t be safe to get there, or the front of it will become a drug hangout, what good will it do us!
Amazing not one mention of the trash and filthy streets.
We need to start cleaning and making crown heights clean again. The city stopped cleaning the streets. Thank you to sam stern for taking the initiative to clean up the rebbes schuna!
“Support for the NYPD, and ***clean streets*** are major concerns for Yudi Eber of Eber’s Liquor Store on Kingston Avenue.”
Any mayor of NYC isn’t doing diddly squat for our community. New York City is now controlled by special interests, unions, and the people who rely on the government for everything and bring in the most votes. Which is why this city is perpetually in the dumps and has to function as a Ponzi-scheme like entity. NYC takes the most from the people who work the hardest and spits them out. Which is why they move to Florida The mayor is a useless figurehead, not an effective policy maker.
The only effect of your vote is the block by block vote map that appears after election day. So an adams vote tells the media that you want leftist policies and a sliwa vote means “no way”. Ps don’t forget to vote “NO” to the horrible proposals on the back of the ballot. Ychi Hamelek! / Shmaya balberg
This is so, so wrong. We went all out to get Adams in the chair and the left and the media absolutely hate us for it. They hate us for it and absolutely nobody is saying heh district 35 loves them some leftist policy. Adams can do a lot of good if he’s inclined (only G-d really knows), working blacks want pretty much everything we’ve insisted on in these interviews. In theory silwa could be better but you might as well pencil Donald J for mayor then. (further I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Adams is in fact… Read more »
Curtis Sliwa is most certainly the only logical choice for Crown Heights and the rest of the city. But who says Crown Heights and our community “leaders” are logical.
But worse!
It will be a mad house! Sky high crime, anti semetism, Al Sharpton and Farakon, all the dirt bags!
Adams claiming that Curtis Sliwa is a racist is preposterous. Pulling the race card like that is what you will get if same ol’ voting prevails. We need Sliwa, who puts the best interest of NY’ers first, for decades. He’s married to a Jewish woman btw.
After 5pm it is very dark in CH, zero lighting and kids are going home mainly young teens by themselves!
And so many homeless /crazy ppl around
All businesses here can U add lighting?
When you host politicians can you ask them to Turn Streets lights On !!!
I don’t know we are minority here and no one to talk too…
All politicians are corrupt to the core !!!
Keep voting for Democrats it’s only gonna get worse. U will more and more people leaving crooklyn !!!
If you do the math he’ll see that school assistance is the biggest issue. All other issues total a few million dollars combined if they all pass. However, if we assume there are 3,000 students in our schools and we got $25k for each student – the same amount given for public students – that would total $75 million. No other program comes close. It is by far the most important issue as tuition is also the biggest expense for many frum families.
We can demand NYC to sponsor private schools ( u know the most richest school is $50K per student and lower property taxes) if we will have free & equal education for our kids we will free our money to buy proper houses /homes/appointments or just we can have more food in the table ….
But who will sponsor this Bill, Who?
And in terms of parochial schools, part of my life. I went to a parochial school. Catholic schools, they taught evolution. And in fact, it was state mandated. Now, Roman Catholic theology doesn’t believe in evolution, but we were exposed to that. Most of the Jewish shuls and synagogues, their religious schools, they have secular education. To those who refuse any secular education whatsoever, then they have to suffer the effects of that. And that means none of the state funding that they are entitled to if they would just do a balanced program. Mostly rigid, religious, I understand that,… Read more »
Why does no one mention vaccine mandates?
Or mandates in general it will control all buisness in general.
All the people that voted for adams is anti vaccine mandate.
The blacks the jews and the moderate democrats.
Sliwa…
Adams is a Farakhan Sharpton lackey.
A Dinkens 2.0