I want to do two quick updates on Jo Anne Simon's campaign for the 33rd City Council race. One is another big endorsement, the other is yet another counter to some accusations made about Jo Anne and Atlantic Yards by campaigns that prefer negative campaigning.

First the new endorsement: NYC Veterans for Progressive Change have endorsed Jo Anne Simon for City Council. Here is their endorsement:

City Council, District 33 – There is no incumbent in this race. Out of the
possible 7 strong candidates we looked at, we believe that having worked with
Jo Anne Simon, a nationally prominent A.D.A. lawyer and democratic district
leader on veterans’ issues in the past; she will be an excellent supporter of
veterans’ issues and will take up our issues at City Hall. We believe that she will bring her advocacy talents and political know how to produce results for both
veterans and the district. Ms. Simon is endorsed by the New York Times. We
highly recommend Jo Anne Simon.

Now the other clarification regarding endorsements in the 33rd race. Three of the other candidates in the race have as their main strategy negative campaigning against Jo Anne Simon. Among their attacks have been trying to portray her as pro-Ratner. This is very much not the case. I want to emphsize that Jo Anne Simon is THE candidate endorsed by many of the core anti-Ratner activists. I have highlighted some of them in the past, but let me give a more comprehensive list (with a reminder of some I have forgotten before thanks to the Simon campaign).

Jo Anne Simon has been endorsed by:

Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats
Councilwoman Tish James
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery
State Senator Eric Adams
Candace Carpenter (head of the DDDB legal team fighting Ratner)
Isabel Hill (film maker who made Brooklyn Matters, an award winning documentary about the fight against Ratner)

All of these have been champions in the fight against Ratner and they have ALL endorsed Jo Anne Simon. Believe me that Tish James, CBID, the head of the DDDB legal team and the maker of Brooklyn Matters would NOT endorse a pro-Ratner candidate! So don't believe misleading negative campaigning. A vote for Jo Anne Simon is a vote against not just the Vito Lopez machine but a vote against Bruce Ratner.

Tuesday, April 1, 7pm. Screening of Isabel Hill's Atlantic Yards documentary "Brooklyn Matters". Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School
357 Clermont Avenue, Brooklyn
(btwn. Greene & Lafayette Aves.). Co-sponsors: Society for Clinton Hill, The Fort Greene Association, and DDDB

This documentary has been very highly acclaimed. For example:

“It wasn’t until viewing Isabel Hill’s film that I realized the true scope of what is at stake for the future of Brooklyn in proceeding with the development of the Atlantic Yards in its present form.”
-Carmi Bee, FAIA, RKT&B Architects & Planners

“Brooklyn Matters is a remarkable film that slowly, quietly, calmly reveals the extreme ugliness at the heart of one of the most ill-conceived mega-development schemes in New York history.”
-Francis Morrone, Architectural Historian

"Isabel Hill’s revealing documentary about the proposed Atlantic Yards project takes an honest look at the complex role that race, class, power, and money play in the redevelopment of our communities and calls for a more open discussion about equitable urban development."  read more »