Climate Change Town Hall Should Come To Outer Borough, Pols Say

NEW YORK — The climate crisis is no Broadway show. More than a dozen New York City lawmakers called on CNN this week to hold its town hall on climate change in Brooklyn or Queens instead of Manhattan.

The move would ensure that Democratic White House hopefuls speak directly to New Yorkers directly threatened by the climate crisis at the Sept. 4 event, the 13 city, state and federal legislators argued in a Thursday letter to CNN President Jeff Zucker.

"Qualifying candidates should answer to the Rockaway, Coney Island, and Long Island City residents who every day face toxic air, unprecedented sea level rise, heat waves, and other extreme weather," says the letter signed by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, state Sen. Michael Gianaris, City Council Member Costa Constantinides and 10 others.

The Post Theatre in Fort Tilden, the Ford Amphitheater in Coney Island or LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City would be suitable venues for the town hall, Constantinides said at a Friday news conference.

Both boroughs are accessible from LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports, "which could be leveled and drowned by sea level rise," the lawmakers' letter says.

CNN announced plans last month for a town hall event on climate change amid calls for the Democratic National Committee to hold a formal presidential debate on the issue.

Candidates must have met the DNC's polling threshold for next month's third round of debates — reaching 2 percent support in at least four qualifying polls — to be invited to the town hall, according to CNN.

Nine of the roughly two dozen Democratic candidates have hit that mark so far. Mayor Bill de Blasio is not among them.

Bringing the town hall to the outer-borough waterfront would bring the candidates face-to-face with people who live with the consequences of climate change, lawmakers said. They cited the damage that Superstorm Sandy wrought on Coney Island and the Rockaways and the high asthma rates in Long Island City's Queensbridge Houses, the nation's largest public housing development.

"If CNN wants to reach the real people and create a truthful report, it is in their best interests to be bold and let the American people hear from our communities so they can see that climate change isn’t a threat looming in the future," said Marva Kerwin, the co-founder of the activist group Rockaway Revolution. "It’s not far off in the distance. It’s in our past, it’s our present."

The town hall will come about four months after the City Council passed a package of legislation aimed at climate change known as the Climate Mobilization Act. It includes a landmark law that will require the city's largest buildings to reduce their emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Constantinides said he wants to hear the presidential candidates go beyond the Green New Deal, a proposal supported by many White House hopefuls to shift the nation to renewable energy sources.

"Frankly, if you're a Democratic candidate and you're on the stage and you don't support the Green New Deal, then you're not a Democrat, and you don't belong there," the Astoria Democrat said.

A CNN spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.