By Joe Anuta
Republican Alex Blishteyn hopes to provide parents with more education options and defend NYPD tools like stop-and-frisk if he is elected to the City Council in November.
The Fresh Meadows lawyer will compete against the winner of the Sept. 10 Democratic primary in November to replace Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows), who is term-limited out of his seat. The district includes Briarwood, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Jamaica Hills, Jamaica Estates, Pomonok, Electchester and a portion of Jamaica.
“I see this as a way to give back to the place that has given so much to me,” said Blishteyn, who immigrated to Queens from the former Soviet Union in the late 1970s.
The married father of two grew up in Jackson Heights before settling in Fresh Meadows about 20 years ago, but a dissatisfaction with the city government led him to seek office this year.
Blishteyn said he sees the city’s finances slowly spinning out of control, and if elected plans to advocate for reining in so-called legacy costs, which include pension and health care payments for union and public sector workers, which are eating up a more significant slice of the budgetary pie every year.
“The city can’t afford to continue on the path it’s going on,” he said, adding that he has not taken campaign donations from unions like other candidates vying for the seat and thus could be trusted to act in all of his constituents’ best interests.
Blishteyn, if elected, would like to sit on the Education, Public Safety and Governmental Operations committees and also aims to give more school choices to parents with school-aged children.
A voucher program, where families are given money or tax breaks if they send their young pupils to private school, would be one way to open up options, he said.
Blishteyn’s position on charter schools had not been fully formed, he said, but he does support some of the institutions and in certain instances their co-location within public schools.
Another important issue to the community is safety, he said, especially in light of the recent Community Safety Act, which would allow lawsuits against the NYPD in connection to stop-and-frisk and install an inspector general and was recently passed by city lawmakers.
“I think the current Council is playing politics with public safety and it’s disgusting,” he said.
The conservative, who is backed by the Queens Republican Party, said he does not believe paid sick leave needed to be codified into law. He is also opposed to fining small businesses, and commissioners and the mayor imposing restrictions like the Bloomberg administration’s ill-fated soda ban, which he said was pushed down New Yorkers’ throats without any votes from elected officials.
Democrats greatly outnumber Republicans in Queens, but Blishteyn said he is running because he believes in giving taxpayers a choice and says he would be not just another cog in the machine.
“We need that opposition. We need people voicing different views on things,” he said. “Otherwise, what’s the point?”
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
