Voters in State Senate District 25, which includes Bedford-Stuyvesant, Clinton Hill and Brownsville, have two Democratic candidates to choose from in the June 23 primary election: State Senator Jabari Brisport, who has held this seat since 2021, and longtime community leader and former Our Time Press journalist, Marlon Rice.
Both participated in a debate at the Magnolia Tree Earth Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant on May 30 in front of a packed room to talk about deed theft, the needs of the Black community, and support for small businesses.
When asked about deed theft, a decades-long problem across the city, Brisport said a bill he sponsored, S7491A, which temporarily lifts the statute of limitations on whether legal action can be pursued beyond the current five years, passed the state senate and is waiting on a signature from the governor.
"We have ways to go," he said, pledging to continue to pass legislation that will fight deed theft for Brooklyn residents next session.
While there are laws in place to prevent deed theft, Rice said there is not enough real estate education workshops for homeowners.
"What we have to do is create a real comprehensive educational plan, door to door," he said. "I've worked at [Bed-Stuy] Restoration for five years. We've been working on deed theft education and workshops for five years. The Stop Deed Theft Coalition began with education and workshops and restoration. The laws, the bills, the criminalization, that's to protect us, but we are responsible for protecting ourselves."
When it came to the needs of the Black community in D25, Brisport said there's an urgent need for funding additional workforce initiatives, including job fairs and connecting residents with union and corporate apprenticeships.
Meanwhile, Rice brought up the displacement of 200,000 Black residents in New York City over the last decade, and compared it to the 1857 displacement of Black families in Seneca Village to develop what is now Central Park. He called for increasing rental vouchers and fixing the New York City Housing Authority.
Small business support was another major topic at the debate. Rice said rising energy costs on aging infrastructure is hurting the development of small businesses. An energy cap, as well as commercial rent stabilization, is needed, he added.
Brisport agreed rent stabilization was needed, and mentioned both Assemblymember Emily Gallagher and State Senator Julia Salazar have introduced bills calling for that, which he fully supports.
In conversation with BK Reader, Brisport said he chose to run again because his work is unfinished, particularly when it comes to funding public schools and fighting gentrification.
"We can still do better by our schools," Brisport said. "We can still do better by our tenants and our community members, and of course I've gained the new goal of passing universal child care."
On Brisport's campaign website, taxing the rich is one of his top issues.
"It is the bedrock of so many things," he said, as higher tax revenue funds public hospitals, food aid, schools and building affordable housing.
When it comes to education, the former public school teacher wants to hit the class size mandate, even though a two-year extension to the mandate was just approved.
As for Rice, his top issues include preserving home ownership, fixing NYCHA and preventing deed theft, part of a larger Black policy agenda.
Rice said he is disturbed that 56% of the people in New York's shelter systems are Black, and that Black median wealth and overall health rank lower than other races.
"When you look at the fact that home ownership rates for Blacks are decidedly lower than for other races, what you see is that the inequity in the black communities are building now," he said. "Every piece of my platform is designed so that the least of us can benefit from the policy and agenda. I believe strongly that if we work on what the least of us requires, everyone else will prosper from that same policy leg."
When asked why voters in D25 should choose him, Rice said it is necessary to have someone who knows the community.
"The person that you want sitting in the seat of state senator for District 25 is a person that has an intimately rooted knowledge of community: they know the blocks, they know the businesses, they know the community-based orgs and the nonprofits, they have active communication and active institutional relationships with these people and a level of transparency, so that these conversations can be had, and we can get to a perfect solution for one another," Rice said.
Brisport pledged to continue the work he has been doing, which includes fighting for expanded childcare options, like advocating for the new 2-K spots that will open in Ocean Hill and Brownsville this fall.
"In my past six years I've been fighting for new affordable housing opportunities like the new development we're building at 1024 Fulton [Street] in Clinton Hill, and so much more. And I was elected on a mandate to tax the rich and invest in our community," he said.
