State Rep. Bobby Carroll On F Train Shutdown, Kensington Stables And Learning How To Drive

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Kensington Attorney Robert Carroll, 30, was elected to the New York State assembly in November and serves there as the second-youngest member of the state house.

Carroll — whose district includes Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Ditmas Park and Flatbush — sat down with Patch for an interview at his office on Seventh Avenue between 14th and 13th streets.

Our conversation has been edited for clarity and concision. (For the latest news in Windsor Terrace and Kensington, click here to sign up for Patch's daily newsletter and free, real-time news alerts. Or find your NYC neighborhood here.)

You took your first elected office right as President Trump did the same. What's that been like for you as a state representative?

It's so exciting. It used to be a good community meeting or meeting trying to organize politically or organize around a single issue, if you get 10 people in a room, 20 people in a room, you go, "OK, at least we got some people to show up. Awesome." If you got 50 people in a room it’s, "Oh you’re doing really great."

Last night, I was at Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, and there was probably over 70 people in the rom and it was, "Oh it’s kind of lightly attended tonight." If you went back a year ago and 70 people showed up to a meeting it’s, "Oh, this is a great meeting, I can’t believe we got 70 people, That’s awesome." And now that’s the bare minimum.

You got to some meetings — Brad Lander and I have been working with Get Organized Brooklyn — and 1,000 people can show up. And I go to some other political clubs and they’re having 100 people show up.

There are so many people who have been activated by what has gone on in Washington. And they’ve been activated in a really smart, pragmatic way. They’ve realized that they need to focus on specific issues, understand specific issues and reach out to their elected officials on a state level or a federal level to let them know what they think needs to be done.

How do you maintain a connection with the community when you're splitting time in Albany?

Well, I leave Albany as quickly as possible every time. Because it’s so important to get back to the community. If we get out of session Wednesday afternoon at 4 o'clock, you’ll see me at a community meeting at 7, 7:30 on a Wednesday night. I go up early Monday morning so that I can go to community meetings Sunday night.

You want to be able to do things here in Brooklyn.

If you had to rattle off a few, what do you think are the big community issues in your district?

Education funding is always really important and I’m glad that we were able to get another 700m in foundation aid for our local public schools. I think that transportation is important and making sure that our busses — we just had a press conference about bus service in the district. Making sure the Church Avenue bus, the B35 bus, making sure that runs well is an issue, and that’s a state issue.

The F express is an issue. I think the plan they have doesn’t make total sense. We can’t help a few people in the district and then hurt a whole bunch of others. I think there’s a way to make an equitable distribution so we have smart subway service.

And your district is right in the middle of that plan (which would run half of F trains express from Jay Street-Metro Tech to Church Avenue during rush hour).

It would help people at Church Avenue. It would help people at Seventh Avenue, but it would hurt people at Fort Hamilton and 15th Street and other stops along the way. And the real thing is to say, look, the MTA has been opaque. They should be able to tell us how many F trains they can run an hour, how many of those trains they plan to run express and then we should do a real impact of how many riders that is.

I can understand saying every once in awhile they want to run an express train. But not a 50-50 split, because the ridership isn’t 50-50 in a lot of ways. We’re talking about saving four to five minutes and then possibly causing somebody else maybe 10 minutes. And the big problem about it is that MTA has not been clear what their plan is. It’s going to be a big, big change. So that’s an issue.

I think affordable housing is an issue. Making sure that we have our senior centers funded.

I don’t think there’s one big overarching issue. There’s not like a project going on in the district where there’s very very - my district is right outside Fourth Avenue, so we don’t have any of the mega developments on Fourth Avenue or Atlantic Avenue.

So that changes the dynamics of the neighborhood and it’s something we care about. We care about making sure that we have livable streets but that we also have affordable housing.

You don’t need a report to tell you that this area has seen a mass influx of people and, for lack of a better word, gentrification.

Gowanus was a place that when I was a kid that was the backdrop of "Goodfellas." It’s like, oh yeah, there they are underneath the F train at the end of "Goodfellas" and Robert De Niro is trying to lure Lorraine Bracco to the back room of some place. And now it’s a place that you go to see concerts and go to weddings and go to bars.

We don’t have a lot of areas that are seeing these rapid changes like Red Hook, Sunset Park, Gowanus, Columbia Waterfront, but they all affect us. There needs to be sensible development.

One of those "mega issues" right now a district over from you, that may be creeping your way, is homeless shelters. Mayor de Blasio said the Park Slope-area will be getting a new shelter some time in the future. Do you agree with that plan?

I supported, last year, a family shelter opened up on McDonald Avenue between Church and Albemarle, right across the street from PS 230. My parents live four blocks from there. I grew up four blocks from there. I supported that. The neighborhood as a whole supported that.

It’s a problem of affordability. Most of the folks who are in our shelter system have a job. This isn’t somebody who’s gone and said, "I’m not going to work, I don’t care." It’s a young woman who has a child or two children or three children, she’s living in an apartment that she really cant afford, that’s taking up 40, 50, 60 percent of her income and something catastrophic happens — she loses that job, she has a medical bill or something else happens. She can’t pay her rent any more and she ends up getting evicted.

We need to do something. It’s not just about opening shelters. I think opening shelters is a very reactive solution. And we have to do it, but we need to be proactive in saying, how do we create sustainable affordable housing.

There should be equity in our shelter system. No one’s going to say, "Hey I want a shelter right down my block." I hope that when the city does find a good space that they let us know. They tell us and they give us fair warning. I think that’s only right. And I think the people of Park Slope and Gowanus and Carroll Gardens, I think that at the end of the day, there might be some concern.

But just like there was a little bit of concern — but mostly an outpouring of support — about the shelter in Windsor Terrace, most people were totally fine with it.

The city is stepping in and trying to save Kensington Stables from bankruptcy. Do you support that effort?

Yeah. I would like to see that. There is something fantastic about Prospect Park and Kensington Stables and Gallop NYC and the parade grounds right next to the park. This connects so many people to the park. It also brings a unique quality to the Kensington-Windsor Terrace neighborhood that it serves and the greater Brooklyn that it serves.

You can be a kid from Brooklyn and ride a horse in one of the most magnificent public parks in the nation. And it really is. Prospect Park is truly one of the most magnificent public parks in this country.

It’s just another reason why Prospect Park is so great, is because you’re able to go horseback riding when you’re a kid. That’s something that you usually wouldn’t be able to do in New York City.

When you were sworn in, you didn't have a driver's license. Have you learned to drive yet?

I did not. Maybe this summer. I just bumped into an old friend who, her and I about 8 years ago took that five-hour course that you have to take before you get your license. We took that and it expired and we maybe took it again. and I bumped into her again and said, ‘Did you ever…?’ and she said ‘Nah.’

I use the B68 bus a lot to get to Ditmas Park and victorian Flatbush. I’m on the B and the Q and the F all the time.

I use the public transportation system multiple times a day when I’m in New York, and it lets me know really how it is. It really is important. If you don’t use our subway system and our bus routes every day, you don’t know some of the little problems and inconveniences that your constituents have.

But if any of your readership wants to teach me how to drive a car, maybe that can be like a thing, Patch can run a contest of who’s the best amateur driving instructor in the district — and will lend me their car to practice on.

You have a town hall coming up on May 10 with NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer. Tell us a little bit about that.

Scott is doing a phenomenal job of laying out how Donald Trump’s budget cuts will affect New York City and state. And the town hall is Trump and the New York City and state budget. We’ll go into all of the things that could happen.

Donald Trump’s tax plan could decimate New York. We’re going to be talking about what’s going on with Medicaid and Medicare, what’s going on with federal housing, what’s going on with transportation dollars, what’s gong on with education dollars.

It’s going to give an opportunity for constituents to come out, to voice their concerns, ask questions, learn something and prepare.

Photo courtesy Bobby Carroll

Editor's note: This story was originally published on Monday, May 1