Stonewall Democrats Leader To Run For City Council In Astoria

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Stonewall Democratic Club President Rod Townsend is running for a City Council seat representing Astoria and parts of Woodside, Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst.

Townsend, an Astoria resident and member of Queens Community Board 1, launched a campaign Friday to represent the neighborhood where he has lived for 25 years.

Townsend's platform focuses on housing affordability, infrastructure and LGBTQ issues — informed by his identity as an openly gay man from a working-class family. He is also pledging to not take donations from corporate PACs, big real estate developers and landlords.

“The community is facing big challenges in the coming years, chief among them being affordability," Townsend said. "When I arrived here in February 1995, I found a community where I could afford to live comfortably on modest means. From rent hikes to fare hikes, that wouldn’t be the same if I were just starting out here today.”

Townsend is running for the City Council seat in district 22, currently occupied by City Council Member Costa Constantinides, who is term-limited in 2021. The seat could open up as early as this month if Constantinides wins a special election March 24 for Queens borough president.

Townsend will face off against Constantinides' chief of staff, Nick Roloson, and youth organizer Jesse Cerrotti.

"I want Astoria to still be that place where people from all over can move, whether it’s a gay kid from the Lower East Side or an immigrant from across the world," Townsend told Gay City News, which broke the news of his campaign Friday.

Townsend got involved in politics as an organizer lobbying the New York Senate to legalize same-sex marriage.

In 2018, he was elected president of the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, leading the citywide group's grassroots campaigns to elect local progressive candidates and increase voter registration and engagement.

He is also a member of Queens Community Board 1, which represents Astoria and parts of Long Island City and Woodside, and co-chairs the board's community and economic development committee.