To LeFrak City Tenants, Rising Star AOC Just Their Congresswoman

CORONA, QUEENS — The Queens Library at LeFrak City was remarkably quiet on a brisk spring Thursday, considering what was about to take place there.

Two dozen residents from the 20-tower housing complex milled about a basement meeting room and nibbled on pastries as they waited for their guest. There was no line out the door of the library. There was no huddle of news cameramen.

There was just U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a small group of her constituents, eating danishes and drinking coffee from those iconic blue-and-white Anthora paper cups, the ones that read: "WE ARE HAPPY TO SERVE YOU."

"When we share space together — when we share some coffee, when we share some food, when we show up in our libraries together — we're able to create that community together," Ocasio-Cortez said.

The congresswoman, who represents the Bronx and northern Queens, personally hosted or attended 40 local events since she took office in January, her office touted in a recent email newsletter. She's shown up at community board meetings, and she hosted a town hall on Saturday in Corona.

As a federal official, Ocasio-Cortez has limited authority over the local issues her constituents ask her to fix, she told Patch. (Her office works on cases regarding federal agencies and programs, like immigration visas and social security, she has said on Twitter.)

When it comes to local matters, she said, she sees herself as an advocate who can amplify her constituents' voices.

In Queens, she's following news of a controversial Target planned for 82nd Street in Jackson Heights — it's currently facing a zoning challenge — and the LaGuardia AirTrain proposal. She said the newly renovated LaGuardia Airport will have solar panels and that the AirTrain could, too.

"We're talking about the potential of having that energy diverted to public schools ... to lower the electricity bills," she said, before launching into an explanation of her Green New Deal for a table of LeFrak City residents.

The attendees at the Thursday get-together know how powerful it is having Ocasio-Cortez on their team.

Michelle Dunston, president of the LeFrak City Tenants' Association, said she wants the congresswoman to advocate for expanded senior programming at the library where they met that day. Juliane Williams hoped Ocasio-Cortez would sign a petition to rename a Corona intersection for Williams's daughter, who was killed in a car crash in 2016.

"I love her," Williams said of Ocasio-Cortez. "She's real. She's pure."

But many of them came just for the catharsis of venting to someone they said understood their woes, from racism in the workplace to the rhetoric of President Donald Trump.

After two hours at the library, Ocasio-Cortez and a staffer bought Italian ices from a cart on the corner then headed back to her district office in Jackson Heights. A man packing up a van tentatively peered to the side as Ocasio-Cortez disappeared from view.

"Hey," he called out to this reporter. "Was that our congresswoman?"