Queens community packs District 28 City Council forum

More than 250 community members packed Liberty Palace Banquet Hall in Richmond Hill on Thursday, May 22, eager to hear from five City Council candidates in the Queens District 28 race.

- By ARIAMA C. LONG

The forum was a mixture of intensity and levity, but above all, it showcased the commitment of the candidates and attendees to their community.

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams is the first Black woman to serve in that position. She is term-limited and currently running for mayor. Her council seat in District 28 encompasses the neighborhoods of Jamaica, Richmond Hill, Rochdale Village, and South Ozone Park.

The candidates vying to replace Adams include her chief of staff Tyrell D. Hankerson; the exonerated former Councilmember Ruben Wills; Japneet Singh, a young Sikh community leader; Latoya LeGrand, an aide to Assemblymember Vivian Cook; and real estate broker Romeo Hitlall.

District 28

This district is spotlighted, not only because of Adams, but because it is a culturally diverse Black and Brown (meaning South Asian and Indo-Caribbean as well as Hispanic) immigrant community that's split up among numerous city council districts due to redistricting. It's also bifurcated by the Van Dyck Expressway, said attendees, with mostly Little Guyana on the left and South Jamaica's Black community on the right. This feeling of segregation was highlighted in the forum numerous times, especially considering that the Liberty Palace venue, where the forum was held, was redistricted out of District 28. It now technically lies on the border of District 29 on Liberty Avenue.

Regardless of being split up, District 28 is a voting stronghold. Approximately 74% of roughly 90,755 registered voters in the district identify as Democrats, 5% as Republicans, and 18% are unaffiliated with any party at all, said APA VOICE.