East 27 February commemorates the Independence of the Dominican Republic. And this community here in the Big Apple has many reasons to celebrate the national holiday, and one is having managed to increase its political power in New York. Since last January 1, six Dominicans occupy six seats in the Municipal Council, 13 have a seat in the Assembly New York State, a former councilman of Quisqueyano origin is the new president of the Brooklyn borough and Mayor Eric Adams has at least four high-profile officials born on the island in his government team, including the new Transportation Commissioner.
But beyond the above equation, derived from the logic of the largest Latino immigrant community residing in the Big Apple, in the voices of this representation in legislative and executive powers, there is a sealed commitment with the the poorest and the minorities of an entire city and a state, regardless of their ethnic origins.
In the complicated political landscape of the Big Apple, for example, Councilwoman Pierina Sánchez, of 33 years, who represents the District 14 of Salsa County, including the neighborhoods of Kingsbridge, Fordham, University Heights, Mount Eden, and Mount Hope.
This local legislator, who calls herself ‘Afro-Dominican’ and was born and raised in the Bronx, studied in public schools and rose academically at the universities of Harvard and Princeton, and today he has the daunting task of chairing the Council’s Housing Committee, at a time when the Big Apple faces one of the worst affordable housing crises and the displacement of the poorest in its neighborhoods.
“We were elected for a change and for defending a very clear agenda of public policies for the benefit of all, absolutely all, our communities of color, the working class and immigrants,” Sánchez underlines.
Brake Let’s stop evictions
The councilwoman, who from a very young age joined community boards until she became a specialist in urban planning, since she was elected has made it a priority to promote the draft legislation ‘Good Cause Evictions’ (S2022 ) that would avoid disproportionate increases in rent and judicial processes of vacating, without a compelling reason.
“ Those of us who assume positions of this type must do so with great integrity to pave the way for the next generations of immigrants. It is a double commitment, with our roots, but mainly with an entire city”, he highlighted.
With a pandemic scenario, violence and an unstoppable rise in rent prices, Sánchez has as a goal to add her shoulder to create protections, which, as she defines, manage to “stabilize communities”.
“We observe that in the current rent increase scheme, at least 100, families in the Bronx could in the future be at risk of be evicted. In addition, everything has been more exposed with the fires registered in January. There is a maintenance and security crisis that hundreds of buildings have. In this we must act”, said the councilor.
If any immigrant community in the Big Apple has suffered in recent decades from displacement within neighborhoods that have traditionally been their home for decades, it has been the Dominican.
In fact, this Caribbean group, since at least the year 2010, has been reporting that they have had to abandon their rental apartments in Upper Manhattan to look for cheaper rental spaces in the South Bronx. Now, they fear that due to the sustained process of gentrification, they will also have to leave these neighborhoods.
A matter of cultural understanding
The state assemblywoman Yudelka Tapia, born in the Dominican Republic, just started in this 2022 her functions as state legislator of the District 86, serving the towns of University Heights, Morris Heights, Mount Eden, Kingsbridge, Tremont and Fordham in the Bronx.
This Quisqueyan voice in Albany comes from struggles for women’s rights and access to education, both on the island and in the poorest neighborhoods of the city. And she assures that she lived on the edge of fear of losing her home when she had her young children.
“It seems to me that being Dominican gives you a cultural competence to interpret more clearly what the social agenda should be that we must promote, because the problems that Dominican families have, all poor families in New York have”, he clarified.
Tapia ponders that at this moment when discussions on the budget of the fiscal year 2023 in the state of New York , there are reasons for some optimism, at most, to start a path of changes.
“We are observing that the budget put on the table by Governor Kathy Hochul has advantages to advance in some social struggles”, he considered. .
The legislator considers that the challenge of the Dominican political power in New York is to improve the quality of life of families poor living below a salary of $15,552 year. Well below the national average.
“From our position we must encourage children to go to school to receive a quality education, but also work to reduce the deficit of 300,000 affordable housing. But, attention, we must clarify that this road is long, but we are fighting and we must encourage the population to participate”, he concluded.
Power in the Bronx
Among the five counties that make up the Big Apple, the Bronx is increasingly a center of power for Dominican elected officials.
The Dominican population has grown steadily over the last decade, with 701,188 Quisqueyans now living in New York City, which represents the 8.3% of the population, surpassing Puerto Ricans, according to Census projections 2020.
In the Bronx, they occupy the 27% of the population, more than any other Hispanic group but specifically in the District 000 of the Municipal Council, Dominicans represent approximately 40% of the population. This electoral circuit is also occupied by the Dominican Oswald Feliz, a lawyer who for years had stood out as a defender of tenants who suffer unfair and abusive evictions.
In recent weeks, knowing from the inside the ‘ monster’ of the housing crisis, is part of the group of councilors who, from the Big Apple, are moving all the possible pieces so that laws are approved in the State that prevent exorbitant increases in rents and evictions without just cause.
“We have legal initiatives that, if approved, could stop evictions. We urge that the ‘Evictions for Good Cause Law’ be a tool to stop thousands of families from staying on the street,” said Feliz in an action last week that launched an emergency call from the Bronx in the face of the drama of housing in the Big Apple.
Dominicans in power:
- 6 first generation Dominicans of immigrants or born on the island occupy 6 seats on the Municipal Council, out of a total of 51 electoral districts, especially concentrated in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan.
- 1 son of Dominican immigrants made history by being elected last November as president of the borough of Brooklyn. Former Councilman Antonio Reynoso now fills the position previously held by current New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
- 1 Dominican, Ydanis Rodríguez, was appointed commissioner of the Department of Transportation of the city of New York (DOT), being the first time that a Latino holds this position.
- 4,1152,792 New Yorkers are registered to vote in New York City elections, including more than 300, Dominicans, most concentrated in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx .