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Helen Marshall:
Energy, Pride And A Bit Of History

By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

She was better than I expected — a lot better. It’s not that my expectation was low; Helen was simply relaxed, knowledgeable, dynamic, forceful and quick.

I thought, before the interview, that it was unlikely Helen Marshall could chat with me for almost two hours — on my turf — and overcome our differences.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like Helen — a lot. I’ve felt a strange kinship with the woman I met some forty years ago. Sometime, in the early sixties — I’ll have to check my ancient history — my father became principal of P.S. 143 in Corona. Helen became the PTA president. Dad involved the family in the school and I was there on many occasions sharing them with the kids, staff, dad and Helen. She and I reminisced briefly about being at the ribbon cutting of the first Langston Hughes Library together.

All of that in the past, I watched as Helen toiled in the civic and political field and when the 1980 redistricting opened up a new Assembly seat, Helen won it and I was delighted. And a decade later, charter revision expanded the new City Council and I was happy when Helen joined that body.

Then recently, two referendums and term limits later, I found myself disappointed with the Council and Helen. The Council, which had never distinguished itself in my eyes, had reached a new low. The self-serving members who were trying to void the will of the people and overturn term limits were involved in as reprehensible an act – disguised as good public policy – as this writer has ever witnessed. And sadly, Helen Marshall was one of the leaders.

After a half an hour of chatting and agreeing about much in our borough, I said to her, “Helen, I have two words for you . . . term limits.”

Helen explained, “I did not take it [overturning the law passed by referendum] lightly. Term limits was not a carefully thought-out act. [Its creator and funder Ron]  Lauder was angry after losing to [Giuliani] and used his money to change government.”

“Thank goodness fourteen members will still stay on,” Helen commented on the effects of term limits. And then hammered home, “It wasn’t the will of the people; it is extremely destructive.”

“But Helen, the people voted for it — twice,” I thought out loud.

“I will disagree with God if I think I’m right,” she said with a smile.

Perhaps, I can understand Helen taking on religion, but violating the will of the people? Hmmm!

We moved on.

Helen prides herself on the quality constituent service she provides her district and would bring a “cracker jack team” to Borough Hall to serve the entire borough.

Insuring quality education while addressing overcrowding; providing affordable housing without destroying the ambiance of the neighborhoods; and addressing the transportation needs of Queens, led her list of priorities.

I was surprised that Helen resented the intrusion by Bryan Pu-Folkes and his coalition of 24 immigrant groups who have offered a plan to improve government access.

“We do it already,” she insisted.

“In principle [what they want] is admirable, but I don’t know where they get there information from and he [Pu-Folkes] knows nothing of our community,” she said.

“But I take pride in my ability to bring people together,” she added.

She spoke with concern, knowledge and pride about higher education, the Council Committee which she presently chairs. Helen, a strong supporter of public higher education, favors a recent modification allowing limited remediation (as opposed to none) for students at CUNY’s four-year colleges. A product of Queens College, Helen will be there for CUNY.

On the Mayor: “Rudy has reduced crime, but others also deserve credit. While he’s improved the City, he’s mean.”

Helen is an organization Democrat, reluctant to criticize her colleagues. In reference to abuses of public resources for campaign purposes she said, “I don’t believe it’s right.” But, “it’s been going on all along.” When asked specifically about Council Speaker Vallone’s use of City funds for his mayoral run, she said, “If I disagree [with what he is doing], I will tell him privately.”

While praising the performance of Claire Shulman, who has endorsed her, Helen did, however, criticize the Beep’s actions of following the Mayor on major Board of Education conflicts and abandoning the Queens Board members she had appointed. 

Helen said of Shulman’s relationship with Giuliani, “Claire has lived with an outside force that dominated her life as Borough President.”

Queens Bd. of Ed. Member Terri Thomson “did the right thing,” in disagreeing with Shulman and opposing the Mayor’s choice for Board President, said Helen.

Likewise, Marshall applauded the independence shown by former Board of Ed. Prez Carol Gresser, one of her opponents for Borough President, in standing up to Guiliani over the choice of Chancellor.

We reminisced about when Malcolm X moved to Corona. “I saw his development,” she said.  “He didn’t understand how I embraced integration.”

Al Sharpton, she thought, has come a long way, but she did not support him when he ran for Senate. “Gerry [Ferraro] was a better candidate.”

What did Helen think of possibly making history and becoming the first African American Queens Borough President? While her eyes conveyed her pride, she insisted, “Race is a divisive factor. I am not a black candidate.”

Helen represents all the people equally and her anger shows, should you suggest anything else. She is proud, she is focused, and she cares.

I felt our discussion was pretty probing and comprehensive. Helen apparently wasn’t satisfied and called me from her cell phone on the way to her next stop.

“Mike,” she said, “we didn’t have the time for me to tell you about my vision for Queens.”

I replied, “Helen, yes we did. And you did it very well.”

Kathryn Freed:
'One Of The Good Guys'

Kathryn Freed just left my office. She’s a puzzlement.

She’s another quality candidate in a quality field of Public Advocate wannabes who relies on her liberal roots to proclaim her independence, but believes change comes most effectively from within the system.

Don’t get me wrong . . . she is concerned, capable and hard working. She understands the process and the City, while taking pride that her roots are as a community activist.

She may not be as far “inside” the system as many Council members, but she sure ain’t as far outside the system as some of her opponents.

Last Tuesday was my first meeting with the Councilwoman from Chinatown, the Lower East Side, SoHo and the bottom portion of that borough on the west side of the East River. She is certainly one of the more committed, involved members of the mediocre Council that just could never accept term limits.

Although her name was on the bill to reverse term limits, Freed ultimately voted it down because it was just too “divisive.” Sadly, this self-made champion of the people explains away her support of the bill by claiming, “the issue needed a fair hearing” and she did not believe it was going to pass.

Kathryn  Freed & Michael Schenkler

Freed portrays her record with pride, citing her background as a neighborhood activist as the basis of her expertise on zoning, traffic and pollution. A self-proclaimed environmentalist, she opposed the spraying of malathion to fight West Nile, advocates banning trucks from Manhattan during peak hours, wants buses and City vehicles to use lower sulphur fuels, and originally had a staff member request directions by train to our Fresh Meadows office. (Take the local from Continental east towards Bayside).

No, she’s not Manhattan-centric, but this writer is always a bit uneasy when the outer boroughs exist for Manhattan politicians basically as campaign stops or speaking engagements.

Kathryn spoke of her work to bring a library to Chinatown. I responded with pride, talking about the phenomenal, culturally rich, new Flushing Library serving our Asian population. I cited its architectural credentials and suggested she visit it as a model for other libraries. She bragged on about her Manhattan branch.

Her willingness to stand up to political heavyweights is admirable. She took after Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver whose Lower East Side district overlaps her own.

“The commuter tax was bad enough,” she criticized Silver’s political deal that costs the city $400 million annually, getting nothing in return. “Then they stole more money from us,” she continued to chastise the Speaker.

“How come Yonkers still has a commuter tax?” she demanded.

“He [Silver] is not representing his District.”

Peter Vallone, her Speaker from the Council, was treated with more deference, but not too gently.

“His use of campaign staff and mailings is on the edge. While it’s a gray area, no elected official should do that type of thing,” Freed insisted. “Perception is a big enough problem already,” she added, “I don’t approve of what the Speaker is doing.”

Her fighting spirit took us to Chinatown sweatshops and her insistence upon union-made goods for City uniforms.

Coincidentally, I spent Saturday walking the streets of Kathryn’s district — Chinatown and SoHo — with Lil and Allison (my wife and daughter for newcomers to this space).

I remarked on the impressive effort of the SoHo Partnership since I witnessed a number of uniformed workers keeping the area efficiently spotless. She accepted the compliment with pride and cited additional effective neighborhood achievements.

However, when I asked about the seemingly hundreds of booths that lined a garbage strewn Canal Street, each of which sold knockoffs of Breitlings and Rolexes ($10 - $75 – tell them Mike sent you), the counterfeit new N’Synch album Pop, and Louis Vitton, Kate Spade, Gucci-lookalike bags . . . all in clear violation of the trademark laws . . . Freed reacted, “they don’t do enforcement.”

“We can only do what we can do,” Freed said, suggesting that City agencies should deal with this problem.

“I’m really effective,” Kathryn  insisted, “I’ve gotten things done.”

And our brief check of her record bears out her claims.

“Unlike others in the Public Advocate race, I just don’t rant and rail,” she noted.  “In addition to being an ombudsman, the Public Advocate must reach out and show people the system will work for them.”

She describes her campaign as a street campaign, crediting its effectiveness to her grass roots organizing experience. She was firm in her belief that she differed from the field of candidates in that she was a coalition builder.

Freed was born to a blue-collar family. She was the first of her entire family to attend college and she put herself through College and law school. We were surprised to hear that she was the first and the only female attorney member of the City Council.

Her environmental theme and her commitment to people and their neighborhoods were a consistent thread throughout our two-hour chat.

She looked in our eyes and spoke from her heart, proclaiming:   “I’m one of the good guys.”

She convinced us.

Not4Publication.com by Dom Nunziato

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Michael Schenkler can be reached at: MSchenkler@QueensTribune.com

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