By Kathianne Boniello
Hundreds of Bay Terrace residents packed the Bay Terrace Jewish Center Tuesday night as an impressive list of political candidates seeking posts from the mayorship to the 19th Council District seat courted the favor of the traditionally dedicated voters in the final stretch before the primary.
A largely Jewish, highly populated community of co-ops and condos, Bay Terrace is considered a neighborhood of people who get out to vote, making it an area crucial to candidates for the Sept. 11 primary.
A number of high-powered names turned out for the Bay Terrace Community Alliance’s second annual candidates night, including mayoral Democratic candidates Fernando Ferrer and Alan Hevesi, Republican mayoral hopefuls Michael Bloomberg and Herman Badillo, and several candidates for city comptroller and public advocate. In all roughly 20 political candidates attended the event.
All four of the candidates seeking to succeed Queens Borough President Claire Shulman — including former Board of Ed president Carol Gresser and City Council members Sheldon Leffler (D-Hollis), Helen Marshall (East Elmhurst) and Al Stabile (R-Ozone Park) — also attended.
Bay Terrace voters have been considered vital to the five Democrats running to replace City Councilman Mike Abel (R-Bayside), all of whom spoke during the candidate’s night this week. Republican candidate Dennis Saffran from Douglaston, a lawyer who will face the winner of the Democratic primary in the general election in November, also spoke at the candidates’ night event.
On the Democratic side in the race, community activist Tony Avella of College Point, labor leader Arthur Cheliotes of Bay Terrace, former teacher John Frank of Bayside, civic leader Jerry Iannece of Bayside Hills and activist Joyce Shepard of Bay Terrace all proclaimed their support for increased police presence in the Bay Terrace area.
Bay Terrace is under the jurisdiction of the 109th Precinct in Flushing but is close to the border of the 111th Precinct in Bayside.
The 19th Council District includes the communities of Bayside, Bay Terrace, Little Neck, Douglaston, College Point, and Whitestone.
While Shepard and Saffran supported the idea of having the traditionally undermanned 111th Precinct take over Bay Terrace, Avella and Iannece pushed for the creation of a new precinct for the Bay Terrace/College Point/Whitestone area. Cheliotes suggested creating a New York Police Department substation in nearby Fort Totten.
Highlighting the similarities between the 19th Council District candidates, Frank also agreed on the need for increased police presence in the area.
“We’re becoming a choir here,” Frank said of the candidate’s responses to the question. Frank was the only one to say he would like to increase beat officers, those who are given a regular patrol area.
While education was a hot topic among the big name candidates — with all of the mayoral candidates except for Bloomberg earning applause from the large audience for rejecting the notions of merit pay and school vouchers — the subject of the Bay Terrace Shopping Center expansion drew heavy attention.
All the 19th Council District candidates said they would work to ensure the proposed enlargement of the retail center did not overload local streets with traffic.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
