Borough Park, NY – Pull The Lever for Simcha Felder. Interview With VIN News

Brooklyn, NY – When addressing the hotly contested race for the 21st State Senate District in Flatbush, incumbent Kevin Parker tells both the press and longtime supporters that he is a victim of “term limits.”

Yes, opponents Simcha Felder and Kendall Stewart are both City Councilmembers who are facing the prospect of unemployment at the end of 2009, but Parker is a victim of something more dire than term limits: he suffers from lethargy.

While the three-term incumbent has spent the last two years rising in the ranks of the State Senate (he’s the newly appointed Democratic Minority Whip) as well as being one of the early supporters of presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign – both noble causes, mind you – he has left his constituents fending for themselves in a dicey economic time, leaving the door open for two Albany hopefuls who claim to have done more for the community on a city level than Parker has from upstate.

It’s this lassitude that, we believe, is the reason he is always facing a bare-knuckled primary challenge every time he’s up for re-election while his Albany colleagues skate through the electoral process – even as all of their colleagues in the City Council face term limits as well.

Four years ago, Parker won a similar three-way primary challenge with 45 percent of the vote.

We predict that this year will be far worse for him.

Each of his challengers is tied to a different part the 21st District, which includes Flatbush, Kensington, Midwood, Ditmas Park and Borough Park.

Stewart, who has been constantly under a microscope ever since his staff members were charged with taking part in a slush fund scandal, was born in St. Vincent and represents the district’s Caribbean community while Felder represents the Jewish Orthodoxy.

Yet of the three, Felder is the one we believe will represent all of the communities in the 21st District with compassion, vigor and a splash of humor.

During his time in the City Council, Felder has proven to have both an open mind as well as a willingness to work with anyone, even when their personal and political philosophies conflict.

Even though he disagrees with some of his politics, Felder has also built a strong alliance with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has backed him in his State Senate run.

This, of course, has backfired somewhat, with many Democrats claiming that Felder would side with the Republicans in the Senate if elected.

We disagree and believe that Felder will be an independent thinker and straddle the political divide in the senate, voting for the bills he believes would benefit his entire district.

That is why VIN News gives our endorsement to Felder as well as hold him to the challenge we’ve just laid out for him.

VIN News compiled questions what our readers have sent us in the past few weeks to ask Simcha, below is the interview.

VIN News: Rumors are that you took sides in the Satmar fight and you were responsible for funding UJCARE. Also, why did you visit the Satmar Camp belonging only to one side?

Simcha: I do not take one side or the other side. In all my years in the City Council, I have directly helped fund UJO and was proud to have done so. This year, I was deeply concerned that their funding would be cut as was the funding of many important community groups and did everything humanly possible to protect them. This was the first year I advocated for UJCARE and was proud of that as well, but in no way was UJCARE funded at the expense of funding to UJO or anyone else. In the future, I will continue to advocate for all worthy community organizations just as I did this year. With regard to my camp visits, I visited every camp that invited me. If other camps would have invited me, I would have loved to visit them as well.

VIN News: Some people in the community say that it was not appropriate that you brought the council speaker Christine Quinn to Beis Yaakov School of Borough Park, because Ms. Quinn is openly not practicing family values.

Simcha: The school begged me to bring her cause they needed help with certain programs. it was not my idea.

VIN News: Why did you support the Dahill Road housing development?

Simcha: There has been a lot of lashon hora and false information spread around the community to try to get people to think this is a bad thing, but the truth is, this is an extraordinary housing development. 179 new condominiums will be built; the majority of them are 3-, 4-, and 5- bedrooms. Each has a Pesach kitchen, a Sukkoh porch, with a mikvah in the building and indoor parking for every owner. And despite the rumors of commercial space and it being a 13-story building, the development will not include commercial space and the building is only 7 floors with a setback. This won’t be the Empire State Building or a huge shopping complex or any of the things opponents of the development have falsely claimed. I made a commitment when I was elected to build more housing in this community, which is why I worked so hard to secure housing development at the Culver El line. In this case, I’m proud to have taken an abandoned, rodent-infested, crime-ridden wasteland and am turning it into a great housing development. I can understand neighbors not wanting anything built in their backyard, but this badly needed housing is about the entire community, and that is why I supported it.

VIN News: Why did you support congestion pricing?

Simcha: It is my job to weigh all of the factors and make difficult decisions. Sometimes we need to anticipate a lot of different factors. It became clear to me that congestion pricing was going to pass the Council by an overwhelming majority with or without my vote and get sent to Albany where it would have been defeated. I could have registered a no vote and it probably would have made me a lot more popular to do so. At the end of the day, I need to be effective every other day of the year as well. In no way would I have ever jeopardized the crucial support to chesed organizations just to register a symbolic vote on a complicated issue. In fact, the plan did pass with a large margin in the Council, and would have passed with or without my vote, and ultimately did die in the Assembly. B”h, this vote did not hurt anyone in the community and allowed me to continue to get important resources for the community. Making difficult decisions is about doing the right thing for the community, not doing what will make me popular for one day.

VIN News: What did you accomplish in the past 7 years in the City Council for the Community?

Simcha: While I was in the City Council, I have consistently brought home the resources that this district needs and deserves, including a hundred million dollars to build new playgrounds, renovate playgrounds, and support the neighborhood charities like Yeled V’yalda and Shomrim, we depend on. I secured a previously unused city property for a brand new garage and headquarters for the Boro Park Hatzolah. My office has been open and I’ve been available to help countless people in the community with their problems in the neighborhood, while seeking legislative solutions to recurring issues, such as limiting the number of hours that Sanitation agents can issue tickets to homeowners and leading the fight to issue fines to advertisers that throw unwanted fliers on people’s property. These are the accomplishments people should come to expect from their elected officials.

VIN News: If you win the State Senate seat, do you have an agenda that you plan to take on to help the Community, and what issues?

Simcha: I would focus on non-public education funding, something that I have been fighting for in the City Council, but due to restrictions in place by State Law, I haven’t been able to accomplish everything I wanted. It takes State Law to bring about the changes we need. We’ve heard about movements to bring us support like education tax credits. This is essential support that Yeshiva parents deserve, considering how much of their tax money goes to public education. But that’s just the beginning. State law currently mandates that the city fund items and services like textbooks, nurses, school lunch and transportation. This is important funding that has helped generations of children in New York City, but this law needs to be brought into the 21st century to include funding for new needs in technology—such as laptops—and security in nonpublic schools. We also need state laws to improve some of the services that the city already provides, like transportation. Right now, the city pays for bussing for children in nonpublic schools all over the city, but many Yeshiva students don’t benefit from this service, because the city doesn’t provide door to door pickup and refuses to extend the hours to accommodate Yeshiva students who spend longer days studying. The result is that parents end up paying for something that they’re already paying for with their tax dollars. This isn’t fair. We need the state law changed to mandate school districts provide either buses and/or transportation vouchers for students that need door to door pickup and in schools with longer hours. These are the issues that I think about while I run this campaign, and the possibilities are very exciting.

VIN News: How did Mayor Bloomberg get to like you, and how did you get to be so close to Mayor Bloomberg?

Simcha: Maybe it’s because I always bring him good rugelach? Seriously, I was an early supporter of him, when he wasn’t as popular as he is today, because I saw the good he could do for New York City. Also, perhaps because we are both independent thinkers who do what’s right instead of what’s easy. You’ll have to ask him the answer to that question, but I just did what I thought was right, and the Mayor respected me for that.

VIN News: How can you assure that you are the best candidate for the community not playing the fact that you’re Jewish? People like to vote on accomplishments.

Simcha: I happen to be Jewish, and I am very proud of it, but that shouldn’t be the reason to vote for me. When you buy food, clothes, or cars, or when you hire a plumber or electrician, you compare the options and see which one is the best. Right now you are not getting your money’s worth with your current State Senator. I bet a lot of people don’t even know who the current State Senator is. I beg everyone to look at my record: a hundred million dollars for parks, playgrounds and community organizations, important legislation cutting down the number of sanitation violations issued, fighting advertisers that throw fliers on your property, passing legislation to suspend of alternate side parking on Purim, keeping garbage trucks off our streets during the busiest times of the day. These are some of my accomplishments, and this is the record you should use to make your choice.

Simcha: I would like to thank VIN News for giving me the opportunity to discuss these issues with your readers. I urge everyone to go out and vote Tuesday September 9. I would like to wish all VIN News readers a Ksivah V’Chasimah Tova