Bed-Stuy Senator Accuses Rival of Accepting Money From Hipsters and Gentrifiers

By Kings County Politics News Service

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — New York State Senator Martin Malavé Dilan, who has represented the northern sliver of Bed-Stuy in the State Senate for the past 14 years, is claiming that the powers behind his insurgent challenger, Debbie Medina, are the same young professionals rapidly gentrifying the longtime Latino district under the guise of being reformers.

Medina, however, claims the real people gentrifying the neighborhoods are the landlords and real-estate folks backing Dilan — not her supporters.

Pictured: New York State Senator Martin Malavé Dilan, left, and his challenger for the seat, Debbie Medina, right

The rapidly gentrifying Bushwick neighborhood is situated in the heart of the 18th district. The district also includes large swaths of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, as well as parts of East New York, Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, Cypress Hills and City Line.

Dilan and Medina will face off at the polls on Sept. 13, when locals will cast their ballots in the primary election for the 18th State Senate district. (But not unless they register before this Friday. Aug. 19!)

The two also faced off against each other in the Democratic primary two years back. In that race, Dilan edged out Medina 58 percent to 42 percent.

Dilan, the district's incumbent, said on Aug. 9 that while his challenger is "running to take the neighborhood back as a socialist Democrat," the people running her campaign are "the new people moving in. So she’s taking back the neighborhood for the new young professionals that are running her campaign."

Dilan continued: “I remember going around to the high schools and telling the kids to get an education because if they don’t, then one day they might not be able to afford to live here. Then the young professionals started moving in and the community accepted them, and people started selling their houses at a huge profit, and now one- and two-bedroom apartments are going for $2,200 and up.”

At the same time, Dilan said, unscrupulous landlords wanting to collect higher rents are harassing tenants by cutting off water and electricity and clogging sewage pipes.

"That’s why I’m introducing legislation raising tenant harassment from a violation to Class C felony,” Dilan said.

According to Dilan, several people helping run Medina’s campaign come from the New Kings Democrats Club (NKD) — formed as a reform club several years ago to oppose former Kings County Democratic Boss Vito Lopez and his way of running the county organization.

“I tried to reach out to New Kings Democrats on several occasions when they were holding a candidates forum for endorsements, but they held it while [the State Senate] was in session," Dilan said. "I talked to several members and other folks I think were connected to them, but they never gave me a chance. They call themselves reformers, but I don’t see them as transparent."

The club's president, Anusha Venkataraman, responded to Dilan’s allegation saying: “NKD reached out to Dilan to invite him to our May endorsement meeting, but received no response. We also did not receive any communication from Dilan or his staff asking to attend a meeting, in May or at any other time.”

At the May meeting, Venkataraman said, the club's membership decided to endorsed Medina — among other candidates — by taking a vote "in accordance with our bylaws and endorsements process."

Problems in Medina's personal life, including allegations that she physically abused her son, have come to the forefront this campaign season.

Dilan said while he doesn’t want to take his opponent's tragedy and turn it into a campaign issue, he does feel she should be transparent about the issue with the community.

“There are still some details that are not out, and I don’t think my opponent has dealt with the issue forthright and put it on the table,” Dilan said.

Medina's response?

She said it's typical of Dilan to distract his constituents from the real issues facing the district.

“I have all kinds of people working with my campaign: whites, Latinos, blacks," Medina said. "People are ready for a change. [Dilan] is trying to distract them instead of talking about the real issues."

"People are being displaced not by new people moving in, but by the landlords and the real estate industry, and they are the ones giving him money,” she continued. “My donations are small, and I’m not getting anything from the real estate industry. I want people to understand what’s really happening, and I’ve been a community organizer for 30 years.”

Medina said she has spoken publicly, at length, about her son — one of her four children. While she did discipline him, Medina said, she never abused him.

“My son was smoking angel dust," she said. "He was arrested four times when he was young. I was running after my son at 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. in the morning, trying to do everything I could so my son wouldn’t die on the street and so I would not lose him."

A version of this article originally appeared on the Kings County Politics news site.