On Staten Island – the city’s most conservative borough – voters are hoping to make an impact on one of the most crucial presidential primaries in decades.

Members of borough’s the Richmond County Young Republicans met yesterday in the neighborhood, to discuss the election, listen to a Republican guest speaker and conduct a straw poll for the upcoming primary. Leading the event was Eric Campione, the RCYR president, who is active in organizing young Republicans in Staten Island.

“We’re a local club that helps Staten Island stay red, as I like to say.” said Campione. “We try and help political candidates that are Republicans stay on the ballots, and make sure that they get elected.”

Staten Island – with an estimated population of 474,558 in 2015 – is the borough with the highest number of registered Republican voters., In the last 12 general presidential elections, the majority of Staten Island voters have voted for Republican candidates nine times. They will have a chance to vote again.

Ron Castorina, Jr., a Republican who is running for New York State Assembly District 62 in a special election next week, was the night’s guest speaker. He spoke on the island’s heroin epidemic, education, and class issues.

“There are lots of issues in education where I don’t believe we should be giving money away to those who don’t deserve it,” Castorina said. “I do, however, I think we should be enhancing TAP, and we should be assisting those in the middle class to advance and to get ahead.”

Key to middle class issues in the presidential primary have been trade economics and tax plans. The Republican candidates have all argued for lower taxes, with some proposing more radical changes to the system than others.

Under Ted Cruz’s proposed tax plan, the seven personal income tax tiers will be simplified into one personal income tax rate of 10 percent. The plan also states that the first $36,000 of income for families of four will be tax-free. In addition, Cruz’s proposed plan eliminates the corporate income tax and will has a flat rate for business tax at 16 percent.

Propositions for a flat, or fair tax, have been common among Republican candidates for two decades, and have gained popularity among Republican voters.

“[T]here should be some sort of even tax distribution, based on the amount you make,” said George Palesano, a Republican-leaning retired member of the New York City Police Department. “Whether it’s federal tax on business services and no income tax, or everybody pays a flat tax with an equal amount of deductions.”

In contrast, Donald Trump’s proposed tax plan favors those making under $25,000 – and those married filing jointly with a combined income of less than $50,000. According to Trump’s website, this means that 75 million households will manage to avoid filing personal income taxes.

Campione, who helps run a plumbing heating and air conditioning company with his family, seemed to favor Trump’s plan because of this.

“In actuality, his tax plans benefit me because I don’t make that much money,” he said. “So I would be able to pay a lesser tax.”

Both Cruz and Trump’s plans are markedly different from the current 2015 single filer personal income tax brackets – and neither reaches the current rate of 39.6 percent for the top income bracket of over $413,200. Ohio Governor John Kasich has one of the most moderate rates of the proposed tax plans, with top income earners paying 28 percent.

In a straw poll conducted at the meeting, Trump won nine votes, Kasich won four votes, Cruz won one vote, and one was undecided.

“I actually read a poll somewhere a while ago. Trump was polling around 65 percent in the 11^th Congressional district, which is our district,” said RCYR Secretary Patrick Donegan. “So in this small sample size, this is pretty much on target to what Trump was getting there.”

That Staten Island Republicans would favor Trump, and his economic policies, could be a result of the island’s demographics. Staten Island is the wealthiest borough in New York City, and this is especially true of the island’s mostly white, working and middle-class conservative South Shore – that is, neighborhoods below the Staten Island Expressway. Here median incomes range from $72, 495 to $83,441, depending on the neighborhood. In 2012, over three quarters of residents worked on the island itself, with a majority of jobs in health care, retail, and construction sectors.

The desire by many to reform or simplify taxation reflects middle class concerns among Staten Islanders, just one of many class concerns in this year’s presidential primaries.

“I just went and did my taxes, five or six sheets, I gotta save thousands of receipts, and not only that … people that are wealthy have more access to other ways of cutting their taxes,” said Palesano, “To me, that’s not fair.”

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As grey clouds drifted rapidly outside on a cool spring afternoon, Robert Honor sat and stared outside of his wine shop. With jazz music playing in the background, he looked as students, workers, and others passed by on a busy neighborhood street leading to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

“We needed Cromwell Center before,” said Honor, a resident of the Staten Island neighborhood of St. George. “We need it more than ever.”

Staten Island’s Cromwell Recreation Center was a public park and sports facility that had been demolished in the years following its unexpected collapse in 2010. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation is currently looking into three sites to rebuild the center. Now, neighborhood residents will finally have a chance to see the center, a staple of the neighborhood for decades, be rebuilt near their waterfront – the result of community efforts paralleling that of other neighborhoods in New York City.

“As a kid I’d occasionally come to Cromwell Center. Even as late as 10 years ago I was playing basketball there” said Honor, a co-owner of the wine store Honor Wines. “I also was aware that it was also a place that had programs for youth … my children, when they were younger, took advantage of some of the programs at Cromwell Center.”

Robert Honor, store owner and user of Staten Island’s old Cromwell Center. Photo by Dale Isip

Named after Staten Island’s first borough president George Cromwell, Cromwell Recreation Center was built on an existing pier in the Staten Island neighborhood of Tompkinsville starting in 1934. It was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), a program that promoted public works construction during the Great Depression. After it opened in 1936 – and a visit from Roosevelt himself in 1939 – it was home to galas, dances, and numerous sports activities and events. In more recent years, the facility housed a weight room, a computer room, and a basketball court.

The center was closed infrequently over the last two decades for repairs. Wood borer worms had eaten away at Pier 6, the structural foundation of the center. In 2000, the weight room was temporarily removed from Cromwell to nearby Lyons Pool, and in April 2010, the center was closed for further repairs to its roof and lobby. In May 2010 the roof collapsed unexpectedly, rendering the facility unusable. In January 2012 the Department of Parks and Recreation announced the center would be demolished.

Efforts by community organizations and elected officials since then have prompted the Parks Department to investigate ways to reinstate the facility in the surrounding area. The Department recommended three sites for the new center: the Staten Island Sanitation Department on nearby Victory Boulevard, the Children’s Aid Society’s Goodhue Center further inland, and finally Lyons Pool, right across the street (Murray Hulbert Avenue) from the original Cromwell Center.

“[City officials] were looking at three different sites, two of those sites – in our opinion as a coalition – are just not viable,” said Kelly Vilar, founder of the neighborhood group Let’s Rebuild Cromwell Recreation Center. “The only site that makes sense is Lyons Pool … it would reach out to the same population and would be able to serve everybody.”

Let’s Rebuild Cromwell, as well as other local residents, are now awaiting the results of a feasibility study, which will be taken into account in addition to a community survey that was distributed in late 2014. The funding for the study was the result of a competitive sealed bid process – a process that allows the city to hire contractors from the private sector – resulting in a two-year contract that began in July 2014 and will end in July of this year.

“We expect to have a report and final recommendations this fall,” said New York City Department of Parks and Recreation press officer Mario Lopez, in a statement, “[this] will help inform the City’s decision making.”

According to the city, the estimated amount of money needed for this study is $678,000, although local media reports put the figure at $700,000. Elected officials such as City Councilwoman Debi Rose, Borough President James Oddo and Richmond County District Attorney Michael McMahon have all expressed their support for a new center. After the study is released, the project will need to undergo a fund raising process of an undetermined length.

“We do not currently have funding for implementation,” said Lopez. “But [we] are actively working to secure funding.”

Bill de Blasio’s push for affordable housing in New York – and the land rezoning to come with it – is one reason why locals are concerned about accessible park and recreation spaces. In an effort to bring 200,000 units of affordable housing to the city, a total of 15 neighborhoods are proposed to be rezoned by the mayor, including some on Staten Island. This has brought concern about over-development among residents.

“People on the North Shore are concerned that the development down here is not just done for tourists,” said Honor. “If this project is not developed properly, we’ll essentially have created a gated community.”

The community push for park development in the face of rezoning on the waterfront parallels that of the Williamsburg-Greenpoint area of Brooklyn. When neighborhood was rezoned in 2005, residents there were promised an expanded Bushwick Inlet Park by then-mayor Michael Bloomberg. The city did not fulfill this promise, and has only responded in the face of extensive activism, including live protests and videos.

“The videos … helped strengthen and grow community support both in our area, but to like minded groups of people in different parts of the city,” said Steven Chelser, activist and co-chair of Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park. “We also engaged the press to hook into our story and run with it, and then most importantly, imposing our issue on the city, and it’s been continual and relentless.”

Though activism on Staten Island has been on a smaller scale, residents are similarly expressing concerns about building park and recreation facilities by the waterfront, ones that could accommodate residents both old and new.

“With all the nearly a billion dollars of development going into this area, it would be nice to see some amenities for the people who live here, and all the new people who will be coming here,” ” said Steven Joseph, a Tompkinsville resident and a supporter of Let’s Rebuild Cromwell.

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Wearing glasses and a fitted cap, Ephraim Diggs sat relaxed at a table in a busy Staten Island presentation hall waiting to hear about the rezoning plans that would bring big changes to his borough.

“I’m giving it another year,” Diggs  of Staten Island said. “If I see that it’s getting overcrowded, I’m moving, I’m getting out.”

But  New York’s current rezoning plans for affordable housing extends far beyond the borough. Staten Island is just one part.

On February 18^th and 20^th, residents of Staten Island’s North Shore – those of the Tompkinsville, St. George, and Stapleton neighborhoods – listened to presentations on the area by the Department of City Planning (DCP) and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and participated in question-and-answer sessions for a zoning area one-half mile south of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, what city agencies refer to as the “Bay Street Corridor”.

“There is a billion dollars worth of public and private investment coming to this neighborhood now,” said Len Garcia-Duran, director of DCP’s Staten Island office, “We’ve got an opportunity for new residential within walking distances of the ferry terminal in downtown Manhattan, that would attract a lot of folks who are being priced out of Manhattan.”

The area extends from Victory Boulevard in Tompkinsville to Sands Street in Stapleton. The area has a significant width, as it spans between Bay Street and Van Duzer Streets, two thoroughfares on Staten Island’s North Shore. It is currently a manufacturing district, and has been since 1961. City agencies including the DCP and the NYCEDC have held several meetings with the public in regards to proposed changes to the area’s development zone status.

The Bay Street Corridor from Pavement Pieces on Vimeo.

A key issue around the rezoning is the conflict between what residents see as a potential for gentrification and over-development, combined with the city’s insistence that the rezoning would provide required affordable housing in the area.

“In Williamsburg and other areas, they all have affordable housing components voluntarily,” said Garcia-Duran. “What we’re trying to do is demonstrate how we can get new private development done here on Staten Island, with a required affordable housing component.”

In 2005, the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint faced a similar proposed rezoning. Residents of those neighborhoods negotiated a residential neighborhood and park zone, out of a proposed power plant. But  according to some residents, the city has not held to its agreement to set aside adequate park space for the area. Those neighborhoods have since been a place of residential development, albeit with a significant population increase.

“The Williamsburg-Greenpoint rezoning is now held up as what not to do, how not to rezone a community.” said Jens Rasmussen, a community activist and resident of Greenpoint. “If the rezoning is anything like what’s happened here, it will irrevocably change the character of your neighborhood.”

Under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing plan, developers building in rezoned areas would be required to set aside a certain percentage of new units for affordable housing. Because of a community-level resistance to high-density developments, the plan has been rejected at the borough board level on Staten Island. It is also currently facing opposition in the New York City Council for similar, though not entirely identical reasons.

The rezoning phenomenon is currently city-wide, to accommodate for Mayor de Blasio’s proposed 200,000 units of affordable housing. The recent rezoning of East Harlem, for example, is indicative of a process that took months to accomplish.

Back in Staten Island, some residents fear development will affect rent and the nature of businesses in the area.

“At the moment [the Bay Street Corridor] is underutilized, so I think it would be nice to see that strip be more active,” said DB Lampman, artist and co-founder of Staten Island MakerSpace in Stapleton. “We just don’t want to see all the manufacturing being lost.”

In conjunction with projects such as the currently developing New York Wheel and Urby Staten Island, other residents saw the potential for traffic and population density issues along a rezoned Bay Street Corridor.

“I live over there by the ferris wheel – they’re renovating our lot, and they’re renovating the ferry,” said Diggs, a St. George resident. “There’s a lot of building going on. I understand what they are trying to do, to build and upgrade, but in the long run there is going to be overcrowding.”

Some residents don’t want to see this happen on Staten Island.

“I think this Mayor wants more affordable housing,” said Ed Pollio, co-founder of the 5050 Skatepark in Stapleton. “My concern is, if he’s reelected, is he going to push this through without community support? … I don’t think Staten Island is ready for what’s going to happen on the North Shore.”

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Vanis Trapp sat on a low wooden post, her back to a large park covered with bright orange colors of fall foliage. She lamented the closure of Von Briesen Park in the Rosebank neighborhood of Staten Island due to the 2015 New York City Marathon.

“In the old days, I just sat, watched, enjoyed [the marathon].” said Trapp, 59. “I just want to sit down.”

A heavy police presence surrounded Rosebank today as morning preparations for the marathon drew to a close.

Intersection of School Road and Bay Street in Rosebank, Staten Island, shortly before the 2015 New York City Marathon. Photo by Dale Isip.

Large shuttle buses assisted runners on their way from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to Fort Wadsworth, the starting point of the marathon, as police barricades lined the intersection of Bay Street and School Road.

Police closed certain public areas near Fort Wadsworth to accomodate
the NYPD Running Club,and the FDNY Running Club including Von Briesen Park. Neighborhood residents were disappointed that they could not use the park during the marathon as in previous years.

“Usually, this park was for the runners to get their heads together,” said Trapp, a Stapleton resident. “It wasn’t for a police group. I can’t even sit in the park now.”

Linda Mompalao, a Rosebank resident, was walking her dog, Buddy, to the park. She also could not enter the park, and thought the difference this year was, at the very least, strange.

“We’ve always been able to go up, into the park, and see the runners go over the bridge,” Mompalao said. “This is a city park, and the federal park guy is saying we can’t go in. That’s interesting.”

Park rangers and police officers were turning away people with without identification bands. In addition to Van Briesen Park, Fort Wadsworth itself was accessible only to runners, police officers, and park rangers.

Security precautions were likely in place due to recent bombings and acts of terrorism at similar events.

“It’s different, more police presence, different organization, more security.” said Terresa Daniels, 53, a Rosebank resident. “They probably know something that we don’t know. But with what’s been going on, what are you going to do?”

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With a light grey beard and a pleasant smile, John J. Dennie, 74, from Staten Island, handed out fliers outside of a Staples store in Chelsea, Manhattan. He wore a light blue hoodie and a U.S. Postal Service cap as he tried to get his message out to afternoon passersby.

His message was postal jobs are being outsourced to Staples and postal workers are losing their jobs.

“The postal service is in the process of being privatized, and what they want to do, basically, is replace unionized postal clerks with Staples employees,” said Dennie.

Dennie was among a group of about ten members of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) who were calling for a boycott of both Staples and its merchandise website, Quill.com. They demonstrated today outside of a Staples store at 20th Street and 6th Avenue.

The protesters were concerned about the loss of existing Postal Service jobs – and along with them, the training, higher wages, and health care benefits they offered.

“Staples won’t let any of their workers work more than 25 hours a week, so it’s a part-time, low wage, no benefit job,” said Dennie. “[The] Postal Service wants to bust our unions, basically, and this is part of it, to subcontract everything to no-union employers”.

The U.S. Postal Service has been operating in a financial deficit in recent years. Starting in 2012, the Postal Service consolidated 143 of its processing centers . In 2013, Postal Service leadership made a deal with Staples to offer postal services in Staples stores. This was considered a controversial, illegal action among Postal Service union workers because the APWU was not bargained with first.

Those at the protest today were predominantly older, retired Postal Service employees.  APWU member Dennis O’Neil, 65, from Harlem, saw good reason for their enthusiasm.

“Those of us who came up, we came up from a time where the union was stronger … and we know what’s possible, what could be, because we lived it,” said O’Neil. “So we’re trying to make that happen again.”
O’Neil also noted the importance of getting the public aware of changes within the U.S. Postal Service and the outsourcing of once-public jobs to private companies.

“People are unaware of what’s happening, and even if they see it, they think, ‘Well it’s an approved thing by the post office, I guess it’s okay,’ but once we tell them about the damage that’s being done, they listen,” O’Neil said as he pointed to the U.S. Postal Service logo on the Staples storefront.
That damage would arguably include a loss of living-wage jobs. Staples employees make only about $8.50 or $9.50 an hour, while the average Postal Service employee makes about $25 an hour.

This was enough for passer-by Mark Hurston, 54, to support the protesters.

“I kind of understand where they’re coming from.” Hurston said. “Makes sense to me. This is a big deal, U.S. mail is a big deal.”

Dennie said the protests have had mixed results.

“We get some people to turn away, we do have people turn away.” Dennie said. “I don’t know how much of a dent we’re making, but I hope to be more of a nuisance to them.”

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Students, alumni, and politicians stood united outside of 41 Cooper Square yesterday to celebrate an anticipated settlement that will put Cooper Union on the path back to free tuition.

Members of the Committee to Save Cooper Union (CSCU), along with New York State Senator Brad Hoylman, spoke to the public about their years-long effort in gaining an anticipated state settlement that would change the way the privately funded college would continue to function financially.

A group of about 40 cheering students and alumni held signs reading “Community Saves Cooper Union” and “150 More Years Free Education 4 All” as feelings of relief, hugs, and smiles abounded.

Engineering students Chris Curro, 22, and Monica Abdallah, 19, were present and supported the coming settlement and CSCU’s recent work.

“There were things that we needed to do get [the school] back to a healthy state, but we were unable to because of the people in power at the time,” Curro said. “But now with this consent agreement, we have some kind of governance structure in place.”

Abdallah also said that many students at Cooper Union held similar views regarding the institution’s financial future.

“We’re all part of Cooper, and we all fight for the vision of what we want this school to be,” she said. “Tuition-free [education] is a big part of that.”

The rally/celebration of a settlement that would put Cooper Union on the path to free tuition was held at 41 Cooper Square, yesterday. Photo by Dale Isip.

The college had come into financial trouble in 2011, when moves made by then president Jamshed Bharucha, indicated that the school could not sustain its tuition free status. That status indeed came to an end in the fall of 2014 – with some students set to pay roughly $20,000 a year – but not after several student protests, rallies, and sit-ins, on the part of Free Cooper Union (a student organization) and the CSCU.
Tuition scholarships currently remain at half rate: $20,400 per year, or $10,200 per semester. This means students still have to pay tuition as of now. The restructuring settlement is expected to be signed by State Supreme Court Judge Nancy Bannon on Sept. 14.

Alumni Casey Gollan, 24, who was present at the celebration. He described current student efforts for the college.

“As alumni and students, we’re doing a community residency in the old St. Marks Bookstore, and we’re trying to make sure that the agreement is held up,” Gollan said. “There’s a lot of loopholes in any agreement, it’s a negotiation, so we all have to rally behind it.”
Resident advisor, Alfred Roosevelt W. III, 19, also spoke about the students’ continued involvement in the settlement process.

“Half the kids there right now, holding up those signs, those are all freshmen, they’re the most involved,” he said. “My year, I’m a sophomore, we were the vanguard. They’re the vanguard right now.”
Student passion about the colleges’ financial problems seemed to span generations.

Nils Anderson, a 1994 graduate, had been intermittently involved as an alumnus. When he heard of the tuition being implemented last year, he had a clear reaction.

“I was very troubled by that … I became an educator when I was here.” he said. “And the path I took after that, of teaching and making public art … [this school] shaped my life, basically.”

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