A few months ago, I wrote about a well-maintained loft building at 70 Wyckoff Avenue whose landlord was trying to rezone the property and the surrounding area to prevent its tenants from being evicted. The building has fifty-one units, many of whose tenants have been living there for several years and working in local schools and the nearby Wyckoff Hospital. This spring, after strong objections from Councilwoman Diana Reyna, that rezoning application was rejected by City Council.

Tenants of the building who spoke at the Council hearing are now wondering what will happen to their building while anxiety is slowly increasing among residents living in similar loft-style buildings that are zoned for manufacturing or commercial on either side of Flushing Avenue.

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Prospective candidates at the New Kings Democrats meeting in mid-May.

As the Barack Obama campaign secured a hard fought victory in the Democratic primary this week, a core group of Obama volunteers from North Brooklyn are turning their grassroots activism toward more local concerns. Matt Cowherd, a lawyer and delegate candidate for Obama in New York’s Democratic primary, and Rachel Lauter, a recent Brown University graduate who works for the City of New York and a candidate for County Committee, have co-founded New Kings Democrats, a new political club that will build off of the online network of activism that helped drive Senator Obama’s fundraising and turnout to record levels in the primary.

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State Assemblyman Vito Lopez, left, and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez

Aaron Short, usually of the Bushwick Courier, a print-only local tabloid, has been so kind as to impart us with knowledge of our local political establishment. If you’d like to see more local politics (from someone who knows about such things), let us know! –Jeremy

With a new political club meeting in Bushwick meeting for the first time this week and several candidates beginning to weigh runs for city council in 2009, now is as good a time as any to go over the political landscape in our neighborhood and how it will be changing over the next year.

Bushwick resides in New York State’s 12th Congressional District represented by Nydia Velázquez and the 10th Congressional District represented by Edolphus Towns. At the state and local levels, Bushwick resides in the 53rd Assembly District represented by Vito Lopez, the 54th Assembly District represented by Daryl Towns, and the 17th Senate District represented by Martin Malave Dilan, as well as the city’s 34th and 37th Council Districts, represented by Diana Reyna and Erik Martin Dilan, respectively. Brooklyn Community Board Four serves most of the neighborhood, below Flushing; Brooklyn CB1 serves the "Morgantown" area that shares political institutions with Williamsburg. (Queens CB5 is in charge of the Ridgewood part of the neighborhood past Cypress and Wyckoff.)

State Assemblyman Vito Lopez and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez are two of the most powerful political leaders not only in Northeast Brooklyn but in the entire city. Both endorsed Senator Clinton for President and enjoy close relationships with her; Lopez and other county leaders hosted Senator Clinton at Cono’s in Williamsburg in October last year and Velázquez has appeared at several Clinton campaign fundraising events, including one at Hunter College in Manhattan in February. Congresswoman Velázquez is the chair of the House Small Business Committee, overseeing $200 billion in annual federal programs and contracts, and sits on the House Financial Services Committee, including the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. Assemblyman Lopez is the Chair of the Committee on Housing and a member on the Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry Committee. Lopez is also, not insignificantly, the Chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. It is his responsibility to field and recruit candidates for a variety of political offices ranging from circuit court judges to city council. With so many similar committee assignments, you would think they would be working together on housing and economic development issues for North Brooklyn, but the two have been feuding for years, ever since Lopez refused to back Velázquez for her congressional run in 1992 and again in 1998.

Lopez and both Dilans have enjoyed a close relationship for decades. Erik Dilan succeeded his father into City Council office in 2001 after his father was term-limited and then won a State Senate seat in 2002. Councilman Dilan’s appointment to Chair of the influential Housing Committee raised eyebrows around Brooklyn, and he often works with Lopez’s office regarding housing legislation in both legislatures. Congresswoman Velázquez got her political start interning with Ed Towns, and is closer with Towns and other African-American political leaders in central Brooklyn. Councilmember Diana Reyna got her start in politics as Assemblyman Lopez’s Chief of Staff though she has often tried to carve her own path during her two terms in office. It remains unclear what office she will run for when her term ends in 2009.

New York political observers often break down the Bushwick political scene into the Lopez and Velázquez camps, but the reality is more complicated. A number of newer organizations have been appearing on the political landscape seeking to mobilize and pressure older political constituencies. Groups like Make the Road New York are contemplating backing candidates for office while Bushwick Impact is organizing parents and child care professionals and Arts in Bushwick is trying to work with seniors and children in local public schools. The New Kings Democratic Club, remnants of Obama campaign volunteers in North Brooklyn, met for the first time this past Thursday to discuss how to field candidates for county offices. Whether these organizations can lay the groundwork for a new political base in Bushwick will be dependent on how well they can connect with immigrants, artists, and young professionals settling in the neighborhood.