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Mark Gjonaj only got that seat in 2018, so it's not like he's been there forever.
CD 13 thanks to way district is drawn largely falls within heavily minority areas of Bronx (something like 52%), with only a small slice of better areas.
These progressives are dangerous and they will destroy the middle and upper middle class neighborhoods in the Bronx.
Destroy by design. It's the deBalsio playbook. Infect middle and upper middle class neighborhoods with stuff like homeless shelters and hopefully those productive people will flee. A poor city is the progressives dream. Dependent ignorant people dependent on the democratic party for everything.
You can thank Gjonaj himself.He was such an obvious in bed with developers crook and turned off so many people with his Albanian mafia/ family protection rackets that he wasn't going to get re elected. He left the district open to an insurgency. Voila.
Dinowitz has been office for 25 years and does nothing. Time to go.
If politicians want their "kind" to keep control they should realize when their time is up and groom a replacement instead of stubbornly hanging on to power waiting to be given the heave ho.
Why do you slander his ethnic group? Albanian-Americans are hard working law-abiding people. To the leftists anyone with an Italian or Albanian name is suspect.
Why do you slander his ethnic group? Albanian-Americans are hard working law-abiding people. To the leftists anyone with an Italian or Albanian name is suspect.
I am not slandering the whole group but I am a white male who has lived in Pelham Parkway for almost 15 years and I have eyes and see what is going on. There is an Albanian mafia just as there still is an Italian mafia and there was an Irish mafia and a Jewish mafia. The Bronx Albanian mafia is centered in this and surrounding neighborhoods and Mark Gjonaj ( and many of his relatives) are very much associaited with it. When Mark Gjonaj got elected he made it very clear almost daily whose interests he he was serving and it wasn't the wider community. He focused on serving a very specific part of the community( mostly real estate and development interests who are related( cousins) of his.
I live and work in The Bronx. I interact with many hard working law abiding Albanians every single day.
Mark Gjonaj is not one of them.
Also, the Republican base in the district is largely Albanian and it is shrinking as the older Albanians are dying off and the younger ones are moving out.
We obviously experience a different reality as I interact with Albanians in the district on a daily basis and am friend with some of them.
My block and the ones around have a constant flow of younger Albanians replacing older ones. The area is full of 20-something with thick accents, who all moved here between 2 and 10 years ago.
Also I don’t know if you’re familiar with the areas real estate but they are literally buying up Morris Park, Van Nest, and to a lesser extent, Parts of Pelham Parkway and Pelham Bay.
Just talk to the restaurant workers on Arthur Avenue they will all tell you they moved from Kosovo, Albania or Montenegro a few years ago, they all live in Morris Park or Pelham Parkway, and like this young guy told me “they buy up property in Morris Park and Pelham Parkway and they only rent to Albanians” (also confirmed by a friend of mine who is a realtor in the area).
As a matter of fact most of the 20-something Albanians I know moved here very recently.
The only demographics that is shrinking is the Russian-Jewish one. Also many Puerto Ricans and Dominicans moved out and now Yemeni people are “replacing” them.
And for a district that is so little conservative, how do you explain Mici got 45% of the votes? He didn’t get 45% of the Albanian votes, he got 45% of the district’s votes.
We obviously experience a different reality as I interact with Albanians in the district on a daily basis and am friend with some of them.
My block and the ones around have a constant flow of younger Albanians replacing older ones. The area is full of 20-something with thick accents, who all moved here between 2 and 10 years ago.
Also I don’t know if you’re familiar with the areas real estate but they are literally buying up Morris Park, Van Nest, and to a lesser extent, Parts of Pelham Parkway and Pelham Bay.
Just talk to the restaurant workers on Arthur Avenue they will all tell you they moved from Kosovo, Albania or Montenegro a few years ago, they all live in Morris Park or Pelham Parkway, and like this young guy told me “they buy up property in Morris Park and Pelham Parkway and they only rent to Albanians” (also confirmed by a friend of mine who is a realtor in the area).
As a matter of fact most of the 20-something Albanians I know moved here very recently.
The only demographics that is shrinking is the Russian-Jewish one. Also many Puerto Ricans and Dominicans moved out and now Yemeni people are “replacing” them.
And for a district that is so little conservative, how do you explain Mici got 45% of the votes? He didn’t get 45% of the Albanian votes, he got 45% of the district’s votes.
Albanians are famous for moving alongside and or buying up areas once dominated by Italians. This happens all over, but has been going on on SI for decades. In addition to areas mentioned above and SI there's Bayridge and a few other areas of Brooklyn as well.
Huge numbers of Italians can no longer immigrate easily to USA, but Albania for various reasons is a different story.
This being said given close proximity between two countries for ages there has been mixing between Albanians and Italians. That follows here in USA where you again often find the two groups living side by side in same areas. They know and marry each other as well. Several Italian guys in my HS graduating class all married Albanian girls.
As far as District 9, Farias, in the primary, beat William Rivera, who faced two accusations of funneling city council funds into his own non-profit. Four years ago, she faced, but lost to, Ruben Diaz, Sr, who basically ran for almost everything, including Congress in 2020, in order to keep his political career running.
As for District 13, yes, the demographics are changing, from the mostly Albanian to an increasing Latino and South Asian population. That's why Gjonaj dropped from the race, which enabled Velasquez to run and win.
Observations....For the reasons stated, above, the two districts elections had nothing to do with "woke politics!"
And a prediction......Marjorie Velasquez will be a mayoral candidate. She ran a very good campaign, yes, she's good looking, charismatic and very likable; not as polarizing as, say, an AOC.
I wonder what kind of absurd and ridiculous policies these new leaders will introduce?
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