"Oh, hi! It's you again. So you do live here."
Yup, it was Dan Garodnick, knocking on my door, politicking his way through my building, the 86th building he had visited in the Stuy-Town/Peter Cooper apartment complex where he and I live.
The first time I met Dan Garodnick was here in our little inner-city suburbia, Stuyvesant Town. I was busy wi-fing it from the playground (hence the picture above), when I saw this guy in classic blue shirt and jacket, walking up to every person that looked of voting age and who would stop to talk to him. And when I say every single person, I mean every single person. He shook black and white and brown and all-colored hands. If they were young? "Hi, my name is Dan Garodnick". If they were old? He'd ask for a few moments. Every single person he saw, he stopped to introduce himself and say hello.
This is an important detail because there's a certain politician who has the tendency of 'profiling' potential voters. More pointedly, this person walks around playgrounds and if you ... ahem ... look nanny-ish, this politician will just walk by you. If you are a white guy and/or a senior citizen, this politician will skip and jump to you. And this politician's habit is chronic. Every year, in and out, the same story.
So when Garodnick was pressing the flesh and spieling his candidacy, I was looking attentively. Granted, I was the only woman, nay, person, sitting outside the playground with a 17" PowerBook : there was no way in frigging hell I wasn't going to be "contituencied". But weirder shit has happened to me.
Well, it took him abot 20 minutes to get to my bench, but sure enough, Mr. Garodnick came over and said hello. He was quite impressed with the fact that I could wi-fi from the playground. "We need more of that."
Politicians come in many shapes and styles. I have been living here now for 11 years and this is the first time I have actually seen a candidate not only focus on the constituency of Stuyvesant Town, but it is the first time I see a candidate actually trying to get the under-60 involved in their campaign.
The assumption is that this place is filled with white and retired people. The demographics have changed radically since the first year I moved in. During the nineties, a lot of middle-class "urban types" moved in and families were born. A lot of my peers (men and women, btw) decided to work from home, part-time or completely leave the workforce. The 'old timers' started to either move out to nursing homes or die.
Just when people thought this could be a bastion of rent-controlled housing for the urban middle class, Giuliani and the Republicans made sure that was taken away from us. The rent laws changed, a lot of apartments were put on the market and the growth of the raibowed urban middle class was stalled. It's rare to see a new Latino or Black middle class family moving in. A lot of buildings, mine included, have been virtually turned into NYU dorms overnight; with 3, 4, 6 people sharing in on their market-rate housing project.
Garodnick, with his record of accomplishments [1], seems the perfect match for this part of the district. And people have caught on to that. He's raised more money than any other candidate running for city council on District 4 [2]; no minor feat in a primary race that is barely lukewarm.
Garodnick told me during his door-to-door that he wanted to set a record and visit all 100 buildings. He sincerely enjoys what most politicians seem to hate --the shaking of hands, the knocking on doors, the tete-a-tetes. He really beamed when he said, "I'm going for a record. I don't think any politician has visited the 100 building in this place. I'm going for it."
And just for that enthusiasm (and his impressive background), Dan Garodnick has my vote.
NOTA BENE: Even though I am the publisher of this blog, any and all endorsements I make are my own and not that of "The Daily Gotham". Members of "The Daily Gotham" will be voting soon on their primary candidates and we will post those results. But as a blog, "The Daily Gotham" does not do any blanket endorsements.
Liza Sabater, Publisher
http://www.culturekitchen.com [3]
http://www.dailygotham.com [4]
[5] | 
[6] | 
[7] | 
[8] | 
[9] | 
[10] | 
[11] | 
[12] | 
[13]