I was born in Greenpoint. When I lived in England, I learned that a man has a voice in his district and that the district’s authorities respect him. I started attending the monthly community board meetings regularly. At one meeting, I decided to speak up; they told me there were always accidents. But I grew up here, after all, and I had never heard of a single truck before! As for the skyscrapers by the river, they threatened that the neighborhood would go downhill even more if they didn’t build them.

Born on Greenpoint

When I came back to Greenpoint, I realized that those who rented premises had a hard time because rents went up. Huge trucks raced through the quiet streets, also at night, because they returned to the film studios by the river. Bicyclists hid between the trucks and had accidents every day.

Community Boards

I started to check what I could do about it. In England, I learned that a man has a voice in his district and that the district’s authorities respect him. I started attending the monthly community board meetings regularly. The board influences liquor licensing, building conditions, the use of green areas, the width of balconies, and how companies operate. Advisory, but essential.

Any resident can come to these meetings and talk for two minutes about what is in his heart. I saw that our community board could be more active. There were mainly older people who ignored a lot of problems. They do not represent all ethnic groups. Most are white. Of the Poles, there was Artur Dybanowski, the owner of the funeral home. Most in the council are Hassids because they care. And we also have businessmen on this board who don’t live in Greenpoint, but they are developers and care about various construction permits. It has become very undemocratic. The worst thing is that ordinary people come poorly. And when decisions have to be made at meetings, there is no quorum.

At one meeting, I decided to speak up; they told me there were always accidents. But I grew up here, after all, and I had never heard of a single truck in the past! As for the skyscrapers by the river, they threatened that the neighborhood would go downhill even more if they didn’t build them.

Petitions to politicians

After returning from the meeting, I wrote a letter to all Greenpoint politicians. From the local ones up to Congress. I asked if they had plans for the G-train because there needed to be more trains, and it was impossible to get on the subway in the morning. Why are there trucks driving around all night, damaging the streets? Who permitted to build of such huge skyscrapers? To have cranes and dredgers making noise from the very morning? Their banging can be heard all over Greenpoint.

Everyone ignored me then, but a few weeks later, a young boy, twenty-six years old, was killed under a garbage truck. His name was Ramirez; he was our neighbor. After work, he would take his bike and ride around the streets. It happened on Milton Street, the truck driver left him on the road, and the boy died. The driver has not been arrested. He said the boy had headphones on his ears and couldn’t hear the honking. It was 2017.

This incident has just outraged the local community, so our councilman Stephen Levin called a meeting to let people know that he was doing something. The meeting was to be held at the Polish-Slavic Center building in Java. Everyone was upset.

Our district is number thirty-three and includes the neighborhoods of Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Dumbo, and Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Boro Park, major bridges, the waterfront. The district is so structured that there are few immigrants, few Spaniards, and more Jews. District boundaries are shifting every ten years, just as voters are moving. So in our district, there is no more Southside, Broadway Triangle. The area inhabited by Afro-Americans has been eliminated; instead, there are more people from Brooklyn Heights because they are rich white people. In a constituency like this, it’s easier for a candidate they like to win. Levin has been winning for three terms now.

Levin comes into this meeting for about five minutes. He did it for PR and left. Some people from the city’s transportation department gave us crayons and told us to draw on the map where it was dangerous. I began to laugh, usually, that this was disrespectful to the fifty people who came. The boy died, and you gave us crayons. And the specifics? That’s when I decided to run for the city council.

Run for election

I had to hurry because I had no idea where to start. For the whole campaign, I had two months and no money. And to collect four hundred signatures to register me as a candidate in only two weeks. But whatever, I’ve already decided. I told my parents at home, and they weren’t even surprised. They only asked if I knew that the chance for success was poor. I knew. They advised me to call the information for candidates running for office. There I learned that I could not run as a Democrat but only as an Independent candidate.

Campaign

At first, I started going to my neighbors, from door to door. “A new one is coming. It must come” that’s how I started when they opened their doors. I took my mother, father, and brother and sent them to the parks to stand in front of the subway entrance and the supermarket with the list to sign.

I argued that we should stop building these high-rise buildings because they would destroy our air and land for many years to come. Children will inhale it; you don’t know what’s under that ground. Millions of tons of oil are known to have been spilled into Newtown Creek. Towers don’t help keep things clean.

American capitalism

I like European democracies, where social programs systemically support the weakest. Here in America, we don’t have that, just rugged capitalism.

I wish there were something like Europe here, i.e., rights for women, trade unions, workers, the right to education discounts, and hospital subsidies. I belong to the Democratic Socialists of America. We are not radical; instead, we are like liberal Europeans. But people call us communists. They don’t understand anything.

When I started collecting these signatures, I found out that the office staff, who are supposed to be registering candidates with the Board, are doing everything to throw you out of the pool. Unless, of course, the candidate hires an advisor – an attorney designated by the Board of Election, who will check every letter of all those signature sheets.

My feet and shoes were destroyed, and I had abrasions from walking, but I collected more signatures than necessary. We’ll see how it goes; I thought I couldn’t get an attorney, I had put my $2,000 into the campaign, plus the six I had raised. That’s not much for a campaign. And the next day, I got a letter saying there were errors in my application. I can go to court and argue. Do you know what I did wrong?

Each page should say in the top corner that the application is for 33 District. No one said where the District number should be written, but they assume you need to know these things.

The clerk called me and told me to get an advisor and to go to court to appeal this decision. What to do? My mum knew a judge from Brooklyn Heights. This judge advised me, It’s a waste of $5,000 for a lawyer, and you even don’t have this money. Then they called me from this Board of Election to make sure I got this letter from them. I confirmed that I did get their response.

I stared at the wall and got depressed. And you know what happened? They called me again, and the guy said: I shouldn’t be doing this, but I don’t want you to feel bad. You still have a chance. If I were you, I’d go to that courthouse. Tell them you have fifty-three cards, which is more than you need. Eight of them have no number. Ask them to reject those eight cards which don’t suit them. You have enough signatures anyway. It will be OK.

I asked: And how does not every sheet of these good cards have ten correct signatures? He replied: There’s a rule that if your opponent doesn’t report something wrong with the signatures, all cards have ten signatures. Me: Doesn’t it matter any longer that I don’t have an adviser? He answered: I won’t say anything more; there was no such conversation. There are still kind people in the world.

Court hearing

I went to this hearing with my mother in a couple of days. God, how scared I was. 38 Broadway, it was the address of this board of election office. I was sure these electoral matters are considered in a small room because it is not spectacular at this stage. That there will be a judge, a lawyer, and me.

I entered the building on soft legs. I pressed on the handle, and it turned out to be a massive room with ten judges, a long table, and ten attorneys with papers and laptops. A camera, a person writing, candidates from all, literally all of New York.

Districts. And observers. We were staring at each other. They were supposed to call out one by one to all those who, like me, had made mistakes. This is how I prayed: I don’t want to be. First, I don’t want to be.

It started. We sat down with my mother, and they immediately called me. First, they asked: Who represents you? I said that I was expressing myself. Don’t you have a lawyer? – they replied. Well, I don’t – I answered. We’ll see what happened there – then they stated. They read what errors I had and asked: Where are the signatures? I replied: You don’t have their copy? Then they said to me: Go, sit down and wait and we’ll look for a copy. And they called the next candidate.

I waited there from 9:30 in the morning until four in the afternoon. I watched—every minute the judge took the gavel: candidate out of the ballot. I froze with fear. People were crying, challenging the judges, and being escorted out by security. They had stupid mistakes, such as names messed up with surnames. Some people were managing, and I listened a little to their arguments. And so the time has come for me to go last. I said my argument, and they asked: OK if you throw eight cards, how many are left? I answered: Just as much as you need.

And for another half an hour, they argued. The Republican judge with a bow said that I couldn’t pass because you have to respect the rules; the Democrat said: Give her a chance; it’s a stupid rule. And I stand in the middle. It’s my fault – I apologized.

They finally agreed to ignore the eight cards. And then they said: Now we’ll see if she has ten signatures per card. I raised my hand: What do you want? I replied that no one had reported a problem with my candidacy, meaning each card had ten signatures. This is what I remembered from that conversation with the clerk. That’s the law – I said. They looked at each other and stated: Yeah, she’s right. So she passed? Yes, she passed. Goodbye.

When we left the building, only then I started to enjoy it. And I understood why this our democracy is so ossified. First of all, getting on the list of candidates is very difficult. So that only a few can run in elections—those who know all this or have support, like Levin.

From the beginning, everything came easily to him: he comes from a wealthy family in New Jersey, has an uncle in Congress, and he entered politics naturally. Levin from our district had no other candidates.

He could be lazy: coming in late, leaving early. He started being a council member when he was twenty-eight, now he’s thirty-six and running for a third term alone. And now I could scare him a bit.

So that people know that some things need to be put in order and that the councilors are not only for one group. For comparison: I was like a small fly, and he was like a roller. But I knew I had to get him out for a debate. Everyone wanted to see our discussion.

Debate with the opponent

I persuaded one well-known reporter, who agreed to moderate the debate and find a room. And we invited Levin. I sent a private invitation and called his office to ask him to the discussion. He promised to check the calendar to see if it would work. And then silence; he did not speak again. He knew he would win anyway, so he didn’t need to talk to me. We waited two weeks. So I wrote on social media that candidate Levin didn’t want to meet with me, but the debate would take place anyway, even if I had to be alone.

I wrote to all the journalists on Twitter, on the Brooklyn pages, to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Brooklyn Downtown Star, and bloggers. Only then he called me back, accepted the invitation, and we arranged a debate. I didn’t have much time to prepare. I read from morning to evening, and there was so much of everything.

The day came October 29. There was terrible rain, and I thought that no one would come to the Commons Cafe, then I took my mom and dad to do the crowd.

I entered the room, and it was full of people, some even sitting on the armrests of the chairs. All the local people I was shocked. My friends, acquaintances, and colleagues came too. They were waiting for this: to be able to ask Levin a question, and so he couldn’t run away from the answer.

He was not very well prepared for this meeting. Everyone was against him; it was clear that he had never been in such a situation before. A couple of times, I caught him lying: Hey, that’s not true because you used to say otherwise. He was replying: I don’t know where that information came from. It’s wrong. Then I: Listen…  And I read where I got this information from.

Disputed points

The biggest problem was the construction of giant skyscrapers. Developers buy a library from the city and, in its place, build a tower with many apartments or offices, and downstairs, they say, they promised to arrange the library. Only when they made this building was no library, and the area was all ditched.

Those councilors, who support developers, call themselves progressives. They promise to feed children and help the poorest. Everything looks excellent on Twitter. They sign a permit for developers, and these developers build massive towers that cause the most impoverished people to move out of the district. This neighborhood is no longer theirs.

Many older Poles bought houses in this area because they were cheap. My parents bought the house in 1986. And they rented it, which was the custom, and they took a small rent. It was accepted that if you had minor problems, then fix them yourself.

After 2005, once they started building houses near the river, prices went up in Greenpoint. And developers began coming with a bag of money to these Polish landlords. And they even showed them half a million dollars. As they had never seen such money before,  they took it immediately, not knowing they might want more.

Some people left on their own because they saw that new, unpleasant people were moving in here who no longer had respect for emigrants. Those who kept their houses increased the rent because the land tax increased. The district has become fashionable. Some of the new residents wanted to get rid of the Poles. Now it has improved a bit, but that’s because there are fewer and fewer Poles in the district.

Those, who are left with these houses, are already elderly people with many problems. Sometimes they don’t speak English at all. Usually, they have one house and don’t have much money. And the developers know this and are already starting the harassment process.

They call, leave information, knock on the door, and call again. If that doesn’t help, they buy a terraced house next door. And they demolish it because they only need a plot of land anyway. When they destroy, the house of the other ones sits on its foundations. On Freeman Street, I saw a whole window detached from the wall; there were holes. The homeowner is in Florida.

Why don’t they go to court? But what do they win? How do you prove in court what it looked like before? If you don’t have a lawyer and an engineer to report it, you can’t prove it’s the developer’s fault. If you don’t speak English, it’s a flop. Then the house loses value. And the house owner sells it, because what should he do? Only already at a new price.

I didn’t win the election; I knew it would happen. But something changed; people started saying that something big had happened, that we finally saw real problems. I got more than two thousand votes.

Link to Radio RAMPA interview by Victoria Cambranes, candidate for District 33 Councilor on the New York City Council: https://radiorampa.com/victoria-cambranes-kandydatka-na-radna-nyc-w-dystrykcie-33-wywiad-w-j-polskim/

For more details regarding Virtual Campaign Launch In Support of Victoria Cambranes for Council (Q & A): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVmgVtYeun0