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It’s been 16 years since someone not named Barron represented the 42nd district. Charles Barron was the Councilmember from 2002 through 2013, when his wife—then a member of the state Assembly—succeeded him. Charles then ran for and won the Assembly seat. The district encompasses much of what is considered East New York, which of course, was the scene of the de Blasio administration’s first neighborhood rezoning. Most of the East New York rezoning fell to the north of Barron’s district. However, if the rezoning has wider effects, they’ll surely be felt in District 42. As you’ll read below, the real-estate market in the area is clearly in transition, with high vacancy and low prices but a lot of building going on.
Neighborhoods (Map)
East New York, New Lots, Remsen Village, Spring Creek, Starrett City.
Incumbent
Inez Barron
—Democrat
—First elected in 2013
—Seeking reelection
2013 Election Results
Primary
Inez D. Barron 43%
Christopher W. Banks 25%
Regina Powell 9%
John C. Whitehead 8%
Nikki Lucas 7%
Sean K. Henry 6%
Prince D. Lewis 3%
General
Inez D. Barron (Democratic, Working Families) 96%
Ernest Johnson (Conservative) 4%
Active Voter Registration, 2017
Democratic: 75,328 (83.09%)
Republican: 3,211 (3.54%)
Conservative: 143 (0.16%)
Green: 54 (0.06%)
Working Families: 418 (0.46%)
Independence: 1,375 (1.52%)
Women’s Equality: 31(0.03%)
Reform: 0
Other: 3 (0.00%)
Blank: 10,094 (11.13%)
Total: 90,657
Demographics
Brooklyn Community Board 5 covers most of the Council district, with Boards 16, 17 and 18 splitting up a small chunk at the western end.
—Board 5 is 49 percent Black and 40 percent Latino, and those groups have increased very slightly their share of the population over the past 15 years.
—Compared to the rest of the city, the area has the second-highest rental vacancy rate, the lowest rate of housing price appreciation and in 2016 had the highest number of residential units authorized by new permits, 823.
Campaign donations
New York City Campaign Finance Board data is organized geographically by ZIP Code, and ZIPs 11207, 11208 and 11212 are the ones that overlap most with Council District 42, and vice versa. Here are the top five recipients of contributions originating in those ZIP codes as of August 4 during the city’s 2017 election cycle:
