StreetsPAC to Bay Ridge: Elect Andrew Gounardes over State Senator Marty Golden

Gounardes, a Bay Ridge native, is currently counsel to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. StreetsPAC endorsed him, citing his work on a Community Board 10 subcommittee dedicated to pedestrian safety, and working with Bay Ridge Advocates for Keeping Everyone Safe (BRAKES). His campaign includes a pedestrian safety platform.

The balance of power in Albany hangs in the balance. Currently, the Republicans control the chamber, 32 seats to 31, thanks to Democrat (in name only) Simcha Felder, who caucuses with the GOP. Defeating Golden would give Democrats control of the chamber — matching the party’s control of the Assembly and the Governor’s mansion.

StreetsPAC and other activists believe that Democrats would quickly expand the speed camera program and also create a congestion pricing system to lessen traffic and fund the MTA. Gounardes’s answers to Streetsblog’s candidate questionnaire during the primary suggest that he will be a strong advocate for reform.

I support congestion pricing provided that two important criteria are met. First, the funds raised from any congestion pricing plan must be dedicated solely and wholly to our mass transit system, specifically our subways and buses. Second, the proposed investments to mass transit must be definite, concrete, and immediate, and must include upgrades to the signaling network and making all subway stations accessible for all.

Golden serves as the Senate’s representative on an MTA oversight committee, but he has shown little interest in the agency’s poor service to his constituents. He blocked efforts to improve bus service in his district last year, helped his party cut MTA funding, and, of course, helped the GOP block speed cameras, which caught millions of speeders — including Golden many times — since being turned on in 2014. The city eventually went around the Senate and restored the cameras this summer.

“The New York State Senate is badly broken,” StreetsPAC’s Eric McClure said in a statement. “The Senate’s failure to renew the city’s speed camera program, which made the streets around city schools demonstrably safer, was a new low. While safe streets and better transit shouldn’t be a partisan issue, Republicans in the State Senate have made it one, so it’s imperative that we flip the Senate to Democrats who will make these issues a priority. Electing Andrew Gounardes to the Senate is key to making that happen.”

Asked to comment, Golden issued this statement through his campaign spokesman Michael Tobman: “The StreetsPAC endorsement, and the unfortunate political turn this has taken — exceptional even in an election year — does the issues discussed an enormous disservice.”

StreetsPAC-endorsed candidates dominated the primaries last Thursday, beating several members of the Independent Democratic Conference, which, until it broke up earlier this year, caucused with the Republicans and enabled the GOP’s rejection of critical street-safety measures.