Deirdre Feerick
   Quality of life issues are high on Deirdre Feerick’s agenda, and many of her priorities for City Council are geared toward making sure District 26 has plenty of “safe, supportive places to live, to work and to play.”
   Feerick, whose professional career has involved working with the City Council in various capacities over the years, said her experience in government would serve her well as a councilwoman. She worked on the council’s Oversight and Investigations Unit, evaluating city agencies for their efficiency and responsiveness to citizens, and later served as counsel to the Legislative Division of the Council. She is now the deputy director of the Administrative Services Division of the Council.
   “I don’t think government is bad,” Feerick said. “I just think that we have to be mindful of ways that it can work better. And I think that we have to do continuous assessment to make sure that we are addressing the needs and the issues of this changing district.”
   She added that, as a lifelong resident of District 26, she knows the community and understands its needs.
   Among Feerick’s top priorities are ensuring that affordable housing stays affordable, creating additional housing for low- or middle-income families and transitioning people out of homeless shelters.
   “Public housing is to be valued,” she said, adding that she would work to make public housing projects blend with surrounding neighborhoods and would encourage area residents to see the projects as assets.
   She pointed out that in several places in District 26, construction of new buildings stalled after the owners or developers ran into problems, leaving just the skeletons of structures. She said she would sit down with owners and encourage them to partner with the community so the buildings could be completed, adding that she would propose that the bottom floors be used for housing for the disabled in some cases.
   While some council candidates are calling for legislation that would require developers to include a certain percentage of affordable units in any new housing development, Feerick said a blanket requirement isn’t necessarily the best solution and that the city should be cautious about putting restrictions on what people can do with their property. “You have to balance the restriction with getting the housing built,” she said.
   Overcrowding in schools is another priority for Feerick. Some schools in the district have set up temporary classroom units, or trailers, in school yards to make more classroom space. Feerick acknowledged that TCUs help reduce class size, but she said, “that’s not enough. It isn’t OK to have children in trailers.” She added that since the TCUs eat up playground space, there isn’t enough room for children to exercise, a factor that could be contributing to childhood obesity.
   Wherever possible, Feerick would like schools to expand by adding extra stories to existing buildings. She called for re-examining zoning restrictions to ensure that major new development would include new classroom space.
   “We have a growing population,” Feerick said. “I don’t think it’s going to stop. ... When people are looking to build, schools should be part of the discussion from day one.”
   Another quality of life issue Feerick wants to tackle is graffiti. She praised the mayor’s new anti-graffiti program, under which the city identifies and removes tags without property owners having to make requests, and added that she would work with local police precincts to find and crack down on taggers.
   Feerick has the backing of the Queens County Democratic Organization, as well as party Chairman Rep. Joe Crowley, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, state Assemblyman Jose Peralta, a variety of unions and the current District 26 councilman, Eric Gioia, who is vacating his seat to run for public advocate. As far as funding is concerned, Feerick is neck and neck with rival Jimmy Van Bramer, having raised just under $75,000. Feerick and Van Bramer are well ahead of the third Democratic contender, Brent O’Leary, who has just under $43,000.
    
    
    
   Brent O’Leary
   Brent O’Leary describes himself as a liberal Democrat with “a true grassroots campaign.”
   An attorney originally from Jackson Heights, O’Leary says community members need two things: a voice, and economic help, and he promises to provide both if elected.
   “I’m a kitchen-table politician,” he said. “The number one thing is to get people working again.”
   O’Leary pledged to hold late office hours and host monthly town hall-style meetings, in which he would gather input from constituents and respond to their questions, and he said he would answer all calls, emails and letters he receives.
   He has not accepted any campaign money from special interest groups, and he said that in office, he would record every conversation with lobbyists and would make those recordings available to the public online, in an effort to increase transparency.
   To help his district economically, O’Leary wants to open training centers that prepare people for jobs in fields that have the potential to grow, such as health care and green industries.
   He added that he would like to create a “solar empowerment zone,” or area in which all electricity is solar — a move which he said would be good for the environment and the economy, as it would put many engineers and electricians to work.
   O’Leary also wants to introduce business incubators, places where startup companies could rent office space and equipment and receive help and advice about getting off the ground. He wants such centers to be government-subsidized.
   O’Leary sees a silver lining in the recession, as far as affordable housing is concerned. “Let’s use this as an opportunity to buy real estate cheap and start building more affordable housing,” he said, adding that he would like at least some of the new units to be for sale rather than for rent.
   On education, O’Leary said overcrowding could be addressed by leasing buildings formerly occupied by Catholic schools which have closed. “Using schools as schools — what an idea,” he joked.
   O’Leary said he hopes to work with law enforcement officials to crack down on speeding drivers, and he called for a task force to figure out how better to deal with trash collection in the district.
   The candidate thinks his professional background has prepared him well to get things done.
   “I’ve done a lot of work helping small businesses get going, and I’ve done a lot of project finance, where we have public-private partnerships where we do things like build power plants and build toll roads,” O’Leary said. “We get this done usually with private money but for the public good. So I think I have the right skill set ... to help out in this financial crisis.”
   O’Leary also served on the Democratic National Committee from 2004 to 2008. “I noticed that government wasn’t working well, but I thought that it could if we had the right people in,” he said.
   O’Leary is trailing his rivals monetarily, having raised less than $43,000, about $30,000 less than Deirdre Feerick and Jimmy Van Bramer. He is also headquartered in the smallest campaign office of any of the Democratic hopefuls in District 26. But he proudly sports a giant campaign button, joking, “The candidate with the largest button always wins.”
    
    
    
   Jimmy Van Bramer
   Jimmy Van Bramer is running “first and foremost as a community organizer,” and his priorities for office center largely on improving quality of life in the district and giving residents a greater say in local government.
   Van Bramer proposes measures aimed at curbing graffiti, giving community boards more power, cutting down on noise from truck traffic, creating more public green space and fighting overdevelopment. He also supports regulations to protect tenants’ rights and ensure the availability of affordable housing.
   As the chief external affairs officer of the Queens Public Library for the past 10 years, Van Bramer has worked to expand after-school programs, English language classes and other free services. Before joining the library’s staff, he worked for Clean Money, Clean Elections, a nonprofit that aims to give “big special interest money” less clout in American politics. Van Bramer is also a member of Community Board 2.
   If elected, Van Bramer promised to be responsive, accessible and accountable, answering every call, e-mail and letter from constituents, tracking neighborhood complaints and concerns and making sure residents’ issues are resolved.
   “What people desire is meaningful input — not lip service, and not the attitude of ‘Thank you very much; now we’re going to do what we always intended to do,’” he said.
   One way to involve residents is to give community boards more power. “Particularly when it comes to land use and zoning issues, I really think that community boards should be ... listened to in much more than an advisory capacity,” he said.
   When it comes to zoning, Van Bramer said regulations should require that 30 to 40 percent of the apartments in new housing developments be priced for low- or middle-income families. To ensure that existing affordable housing units stay affordable, he wants to end vacancy decontrol. And he advocates penalizing landlords who harass tenants, and using city resources to fund tenant assistance organizations.
   In addition to making the area more affordable, Van Bramer wants to make it more pleasant. To keep noise at a minimum, he wants stricter enforcement of laws barring trucks from certain streets. To give residents more access to the outdoors, he proposes expanding public green spaces. And to preserve the character of the area, he pledges to fight potential mass development at the Sunnyside Rail Yard.
   The candidate added that the recession is a prime time to increase the city’s parkland. “With the lull in building, there are opportunities for us to take spaces and use them as community gardens and green spaces,” he said.
   Van Bramer thinks libraries are an integral part of the community and wants six-day service to be the minimum, especially during tough economic times. “That’s precisely when we need libraries open, because people are struggling,” he said. “If they’re closed, you can’t teach someone to speak English for free, which is what we do, you can’t give a child a book, you can’t give someone assistance with resume writing skills.”
   Van Bramer describes himself as “a community organizer ... not a product of the political establishment,” and said he is in tune with the neighborhood’s needs and capable of being “independent yet effective.”
   He has raised more than $75,000 — more than either of his competitors — and has the backing of state Assemblywomen Cathy Nolan and Deborah Glick, state Sen. Tom Duane, C.B. 2 Chairman Joe Conley, the Working Families Party and an array of unions.