Primary guide: City Council District 24

As the clock ticks closer to city primaries on Tuesday, September 10, The Courier would like to provide you, the reader and the voter, with a fair, detailed guide of who is running. Here is a list of the candidates in City Council District 24 (Briarwood, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Hillcrest Estates, Jamaica Estates, Jamaica Hills, Kew Gardens Hills, Utopia Estates, and parts of Forest Hills, Flushing, Jamaica and Rego Park), who they are, what they stand for and what they want to continue to do if they go on to the general election in November.

Name: Rory Lancman

Party: Democrat, Working Families

Current Occupation: Attorney

Personal Info: Prior to being elected to the New York State Assembly in 2006, Rory Lancman served on Community Board 8 for 16 years. For five years, he chaired the Queens Hospital Center Community Advisory Board, during which time he led the community’s successful fight to rebuild the hospital and stop its privatization. In the Assembly, Lancman chaired the Assembly Subcommittee on Workplace Safety, and his legislative agenda in the Assembly focused on issues related to workplace safety, homeland security, public safety and government reform.

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Issues/Platforms: The city faces enormous challenges in keeping the American Dream alive here in New York. Residents confront a rising cost of living and a hollowed out job market that leaves regular New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet, a hit-or-miss education system that leaves too many kids unprepared for college and the 21st century workplace, and an across-the-board increase in crime after two decades of falling rates. After six years in the State Assembly, and 16 years on the local community board before that, passing important legislation and delivering for constituents, Lancman can help meet these challenges.

Name: Andrea Veras

Party: Democrat

Current Occupation: Legal support staff at The Legal Aid Society

Personal Info: Andrea Veras arrived in the U.S. in 1990, and raised and educated three children as a single parent. After her children became independent, she followed her lifelong passion for social justice and became a paralegal in 2004. Last year, she received a Master’s Degree in Urban Affairs.

As a grassroots community organizer, she has already made an impact in her community and has a proven record of producing results. Since 2010, she has brought the issues of public safety and environment to the forefront. As a direct result of her involvement, the 107^th Precinct increased patrols in the neighborhood. In 2012, Veras was awarded with the John and Yolka Linakis Scholarship for Outstanding Community Service.

Platforms/Issues: Veras would fight for higher wages and work to find community-based solutions to health care needs. On education issues, she supports emphasis on increased parental involvement, the expansion of Pre-K services and will motivate high school students to learn different trades. She will work to foster economic development through the expansion of tax credits to businesses and the creation of job opportunities. On affordable housing, she is committed to fight for rent regulations and create incentives to first-time home owners.

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