Astoria Councilman Backs Ex-Sanitation Commish's Bid For Mayor

ASTORIA, QUEENS — After endorsing Comptroller Scott Stringer’s mayoral bid at the end of 2020, Queens city council member Costa Constantinides announced Tuesday that his second vote will go to former Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.

Constantinides, who represents District 22 in Astoria and chairs the council’s Environmental Protection Committee, told Patch that he chose to rank Stringer first, followed by Garcia, because of their climate plans.

“I think Scott’s climate plan is the most aggressive. Kathryn also laid out an ambitious climate plan, backed up by experience to put that plan into action,” he said, citing Garcia’s 2018 waste equity legislation, which reduced the amount of trash dumped in low-income neighborhoods, as an example of her progressive climate policies and ability to navigate the city’s bureaucracy effectively.

"I'm really strong on people who aren't just running on slogans, but are running on tangible plans," he said, adding that he believes past experience working with city agencies is essential for the city's next mayor.

Constantinides endorsed Garcia at a press conference on Tuesday where she unveiled her new “Green Futures” climate policy initiative to convert 150 million square feet into green infrastructure.

Garcia's five-part climate initiative focuses on adding sustainable elements to publicly owned buildings and land, like greening every public school roof and planting one million trees over the course of eight years.

Public housing is also central to Garcia's proposal, including electrifying NYCHA buildings in order to avoid gas leaks — Constantinides echoed his support, mentioning that dozens of his constituents living in the Astoria Houses lost gas service for weeks last year because of a leak.

Constantinides is the first city council member to issue a ranked-choice endorsement for mayor, just ahead of the city’s inaugural ranked-choice mayoral primary in June.

“I think we’re still operating under this old paradigm of ‘you’re with one person,’ but that’s not how this works anymore. We’re supposed to be talking about coalition building, and the only way to do that is actually talking about that in endorsements too,” he told Patch.

Constantinides is stepping down from his city council role at the end of this week to lead the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens, but added that his final-hour endorsement of Garcia is just how timing worked out.

“There are lots of things I’m doing this week because it’s my last week, this is not one of those,” he said.