Representing Greenpoint and Williamsburg for almost half a century, Assemblyman Joseph Lentol faces one of the few primary challenges in his career from Emily Gallagher, a local activist and member of Brooklyn Community Board 1.Â
In 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a young, progressive upstart, defeated Joe Crowley, a career politician and longtime U.S. Congressman, to win a seat in the House of Representatives representing Queens. Echoes of…
8
Free to read, funded by readers. Join as a member and get a free gift.
Greenpointers has covered Greenpoint & Williamsburg since 2007 — community boards, rezoning fights, local businesses, and the people whose lives and work give the neighborhood its character. Local news is collapsing across the country, but we're still here: independently owned, no corporate backing, no paywall. 18+ years, 280k+ monthly readers and followers, funded by the community we serve.
Why your support matters
Joe Lentol is the leader we need right now in North Brooklyn. He fights for everyone with a sense of urgency that I’ve never seen. Vote Joe Lentol in the primary this month!
I called Lentol’s upstate office and Brooklyn office 6 times in March before the state budget was passed to ask for rent relief. I spoke slowly and clearly and left messages. Nobody ever picked up and even now in June nobody from Lentol’s office has contacted me regarding my concerns about eviction and homelessness.
Very troubled that the interviewer had to correct him on whether or not rent relief has been given. More than 80% of the district are renters. They’re well aware it hasn’t happened.
North Brooklyn would be shortsighted to vote out a representative with Lentol’s track record, seniority and responsiveness to local issues.
He has been in office for almost 50 years. Of course he has a record. But we needed him to be outspoken against the Amazon HQ. We needed him to be outspoken in favor of cancelling rent. But he wasn’t.
I know Joe’s work very well, because I’ve lived in the Greenpoint community all my life, 62 years. I’ve been very intimately involved with environmental, parks, and waterfront issues because my entire family’s medical health has been overwhelmingly impacted by the toxic environment. Joe’s experience as a leader and knowledge of the community is so important to this community particularly during a pandemic. In addition to all the work he and his staff did on ensuring we get every drop of open space we can, he also was there to ensure we got as much actual water access as possible. Joe has done a lot of environmental work that hasn’t been as visible to the community, because of not being fun or sexy topics. For example, throughout the sewage treatment facility upgrade which has being happening for well over 20 years, Joe and his staff attended meetings and were there for the community in preventing harmful chemicals to be emitted permanently into our air, halting remediation that was causing odorous toxic vapors into our air, working to ensure promised amenities actually happened, forcing agencies to use polymer blocks to dull the daily pile driving. Years ago, there was no such thing as mitigating noise. Pile driving was just excepted, period. Joe and his staff were there to force contractors to use polymer blocks. A step that many other projects then were forced to use or find alternatives. He and his staff aren’t only trained regarding the advocacy. They are fluent in all the technical details and the institutional memory. We need him.
Is he going to have the position for life? Isn’t 50 years enough? And this assembly seat has been held by a Lentol since 1918. Why? Are non-Lentols not capable of doing the job?
Joe Lentol is an effective and respected community leader. I have relied on his wisdom and support for multiple organizing efforts and he has consistently been a thoughtful listener and astute advisor, drafting legislation and reaching out to support our work. He has connected community activists to elected and appointed leadership with his characteristic grace and hospitality, making everyone feel comfortable even when discussing controversial issues like public school co-locations and rezoning. Joe Lentol is the first person I would go to for any issue related to state policy or law, and as chair of the Codes committee he is one of the most powerful legislators in the Assembly and one who is in an excellent position to enact progressive reforms now that the roadblocks of the IDC have cleared. I wholeheartedly support Joseph Lentol for NY State Assembly!