From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Aug 25 2009 - 10:43:21 EDT
http://fort-greene.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/the-day-ask-the-candidates/
August 25, 2009, 9:47 am The Day: Ask the Candidates
By Andy Newman
John Marshall Mantel
Letitia James.
Delia Hunley-Adossa.
Medhanie Estiphanos.
Three weeks from today, there will be a Democratic primary in the 35th
District City Council race.
We’re going to be asking the candidates some tough questions. And we
want you to help us come up with them.
Welcome to The Local’s virtual Town Hall meeting. The incumbent
council member, Letitia James, and her two challengers, Delia
Hunley-Adossa and Medhanie Estiphanos, have agreed to answer a series
of questions on the issues affecting the district. Here’s how this
will work:
>From now till the end of the week, you, the readers, may submit
questions in the comment box below. They should be questions that
apply to all three candidates. Early next week, we will compile a
bunch of questions and send them to the candidates. They will have a
week to respond. We will print their answers the week after Labor Day,
the week before the Sept. 15 primary.
Here is a bit about the candidates. You can find more at the Gotham
Gazette’s recent post about the race (and elsewhere).
Letitia James, 49, was elected to the City Council in 2001 and lives
on Lafayette Avenue near Grand. A lawyer, she is a former legislative
counsel in Albany and former assistant attorney general for Brooklyn.
She was elected as the Democratic organization’s candidate in 2001 but
now styles herself a reformer. She is perhaps best known for her
opposition to the Atlantic Yards project and for her support for the
new Business Improvement District on Fulton Street.
Delia Hunley-Adossa, 52, is the longtime president of the 88th
Precinct Community Council, the local liaison group between the police
department and the community. She lives in First Atlantic Terminal,
the apartment complex behind the Atlantic Center mall, and owns a
private security company. Ms. Hunley-Adossa is a prominent supporter
of the Atlantic Yards project and heads a committee of nonprofit
groups that signed a Community Benefits Agreement with Atlantic Yards’
developer, Forest City Ratner. Her nonprofit, Brooklyn Endeavor
Experience, has received money from Forest City Ratner.
Medhanie Estiphanos, 32, is a financial consultant and former Wall
Street analyst who lives at Franklin and Lexington Avenues. He was
born in Eritrea and grew up in California. He has presented himself as
a conciliator and on his Web site calls Ms. James one of the more
divisive public figures in the city, saying she has “alienated many
with whom she needs to work with in order to move our communities in
the right direction.”
Your questions, please.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----