Photo Courtesy of Avella for Mayor
State Sen. Tony Avella on Sunday launched his 2017 mayoral campaign in Maspeth.
By Michael V. Cusenza
State Sen. Tony Avella (D, IP-Bayside) last weekend officially launched his 2017 mayoral campaign in Maspeth.
“It is time to put people and neighborhoods first in this city,” Avella said, “and politics last.”
The location of last Sunday’s announcement is significant. The Astoria native and Whitestone resident opted to declare his candidacy outside a Maspeth Holiday Inn Express because earlier this year, the City attempted to rent rooms from the establishment for homeless families. After several protests and meetings – both community and clandestine – the de Blasio administration scrapped the deal with the owner of the hotel.
Avella, 65, attended those protests, and has since been unrelenting in his criticism of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s handling of the city’s homeless crisis – and so much more.
“It is time to eliminate the corruption at City Hall where campaign consultants and lobbyists sit at the table. It is time for the people of this City to be at the table,” Avella said. “It is time to stop dumping homeless families and individuals in hotels and motels throughout the city without support services and the prospect of stable long-term housing and without community notification or involvement.”
Avella has also established housing as a pillar of his platform.
“It is time to end the financial assault on the middle class and adopt the 2-percent property tax cap that the Mayor opposes, which everyone else in the State enjoys except us,” he said. “It is time to ensure the viability of coops and condos, real affordable housing, in our City by creating a new property tax class akin to one-two and three family homes, again something that the Mayor opposes. It is also long overdue to restore and enhance New York City Housing Authority buildings, another existing affordable housing stock.”
This is Avella’s second shot at the top spot. In 2009, he lost in the Democratic primary to former City Comptroller Bill Thompson. He also ran unsuccessfully for Queens Borough President.
Through his campaigns and his terms on the City Council and in Albany, Avella has burgeoned into a politician who marches to his own distinct drumbeat – a maverick to some, an outsider to others.
Avella certainly has entered the fray during turbulent times: a rudderless Democratic Party is still smarting from a bruising campaign and brutal Election Day; a fractured, jaded electorate has become distrustful of all political leaders, regardless of affiliation.
“I believe it is time for a change,” Avella, the challenger, said on Sunday.
