Forest Hills Green Team Endorses Aleda Gagarin For City Council

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — The Forest Hills Green Team, a local environmental organization, announced Tuesday that it will endorse nonprofit leader Aleda Gagarin in this year's City Council election to represent the neighborhood.

Mark Laster, co-chair of the Forest Hills Green Team, said Gagarin was 100-percent aligned with the group's positions on issues such as a local law requiring certain large buildings to meet carbon-emission caps and the Renewable Rikers proposal, which would replace the island's jails with a new wastewater treatment plant and solar energy systems.

In a ranked-choice endorsement based on candidate interviews and questionnaire responses, the Forest Hills Green Team wrote that Gagarin "combines an exceptionally detailed climate policy agenda and a proven record as an activist and innovator that will enable her to push the City forward."

The organization ranked Lynn Schulman, who works for City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, as its second choice and Evan Boccardi as its third choice.

Gagarin, who leads fundraising efforts at the nonprofit Candid, is positioning herself as the progressive among a crowded field of Democrats running to represent Forest Hills, Rego Park, Kew Gardens and Richmond Hill.

She has earned the endorsements of New York's Working Families Party, state Assembly Member Ron Kim, City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer of Long Island City and the Kew Gardens Preservation Alliance.

Gagarin is one of a dozen candidates who have registered to run for the District 29 City Council seat, currently occupied by the term-limited City Council Member Karen Koslowitz.

The Democratic primary election in June, which will use ranked-choice voting, will determine the party nominee and likely winner of the seat.