Torodash to Challenge Koslowitz for Her Council Seat

Community activist Jon Torodash said he would challenge Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz, D-Forest Hills, for her seat this fall by running on the Independent line.  

Torodash, a software engineer who was born in Forest Hills and currently lives in Kew Gardens, said his campaign would focus on everything from overdevelopment and landmarking to improvements at local schools.  

“It’s very apparent that city government is failing on several levels,” he said. “Residents of Queens have not been well served.”  
He said quality of life issues and fighting overdevelopment were issues of great importance to the district.

“In the district, we have been woefully underserved by [the city’s] Landmark Preservation Commission,” he said. “And there have been an influx of food trucks on Austin Street that are contributing to parking problems.”  

If elected, he said he would also call for the city’s Department of Education to address overcrowding at schools in the district.  

“We have overcrowding at Forest Hills High School,” he said. “In general, you’re averaging 30 to 32 students per class. And the spending at the DOE is atrocious for the results that we get.”  

Torodash said two recent events inspired him to enter the race for Koslowitz’s seat – the transfer of the publically-owned Civic Virtue statue from Queens Boulevard to Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery with little public notice and the slew of corruption charges leveled against elected officials at the city and state level, including state Sen. Malcolm Smith, D-Jamaica, and Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone.  

“I led the fight to keep the Civic Virtue statue in Queens,” Torodash said. “Our councilwoman told me that it wasn’t worth her time. The other event that inspired me to run was the huge fallout from the indictment of several members of city and state level government. It’s very plain to me that people are fed up and want an independent to come to the floor and speak truth to power.”  

Torodash said he would push for more transparency in government as a City Council member.  

“I want a closer tracking of how money is being spent,” he said. “It’s painfully obvious that there’s a lack of oversight.”  

Torodash officially announced his Council run on May 5. He has since launched a campaign website.  

The 29th City Council District represents Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Rego Park, Elmhurst, Maspeth and portions of Richmond Hill.