Search

Exclusive: 1-year-interview with Ariola

By Matthew Fischetti

mfischetti@queensledger.com

Last year, Joann Ariola comfortably sailed to victory to represent City Council District 32 – which stretches from Belle Harbor up to Southeast Queens nabes like Howard Beach, Ozone Park and Woodhaven.

The Queens Republican bested Democratic candidate Felicia Singh, capturing over 67 percent of the vote in a district previously represented by fellow Republican Eric Ulrich since 2009.

Although she was just elected to her first term last year: Ariola has been a long time presence in the community. A lifelong resident of the district, Ariola, 64, previously served the president of the Howard Beach Lindenwood Civic Association and as the Chairwoman of the Queens Republican Party.

Our paper dedicated to catch up with Ariola to discuss her first year in office as well as discuss upcoming initiatives.

“What surprised me most was [after my first year] how well, a body of 51 people who come from different backgrounds and ideologies can really pull together to make a better city,” Ariola said in a recent Zoom interview.

While Ariola is one of a handful of Republicans in the Democrat denominated city council, she said that she often takes a bipartisan approach to legislating, citing her position on the Common Sense Caucus – a group of conservative and center-leaning legislators, which include registered Democrats like Bob Holden and Kalman Yeger.

In her first year in office, Ariola has been the first primary sponsor of five pieces of legislation and two resolutions. One of Ariola’s bills, a law that requires the Fire Department to survey firehouses on whether they have gender specific bathrooms for female firefighters, was passed by the council and signed by the Mayor last year.

“And the mayor has already signed that into law and you know, that had widespread bipartisan support. Why? because it’s common sense. That’s how I approach things,” Ariola said.

Ariola also wrote a bill that would create an office of Marine Debris Disposal and Vessel Surrendering, which would be responsible for coordinating between federal, state and local authorities to remove debris from New York City’s shores; find ways to recycle and reuse the material; as well as developing new practices to prevent the act.

While the bill is still in committee, it has been sponsored by a majority of the council. Ariola told BQE Media that she expects the bill to pass before the end of February.

“We cannot win in this district, a Republican cannot win without Democrat and Independent voters,” Ariola said, who represents a district where over 50 percent of voters are registered Democrats.

“I ran on three major points to the platform: public safety, quality of life and education. Those are the three top subjects when we were knocking on doors – that’s what people cared about most,” she continued. “And that resonated with the voters. It didn’t matter their background – any type of ethnic background, religious background, or enrollment in a party.”

In respect to quality of life issues, Ariola said she has tackled the issue by funding additional cleanups in both commercial districts and residential streets in the neighborhood. While the issue has not fully been addressed, she said the city is in the procurement phases to get cameras to monitor chronic dumping areas throughout the district. She also emphasized working with the Queens Economic Development Program to clean up graffiti in the district.

While 2022 issues largely centered around public safety, Ariola said that quality of life issues and the economy. Specifically, Ariola said that she is looking into taxes and contributing reasons to why New Yorkers are leaving for other states.

Ariola exclusively told BQE Media that she will be sponsoring legislation that would require Deliveristas to have to register their vehicles and have them insured.

While Ariola is repping many of the same neighborhoods as previous years, her district lines have added slivers of Glendale and Woodhaven while losing parts of Ozone Park.

While Ariola hasn’t represented Glendale before, she said one of the local issues she would focus on would be monitoring the Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center, which has drawn the ire of locals.

“I will work as hard for the Glendale homeless shelter, the one that is just across the border in Woodhaven as as I do for the one in Rockaway to make sure that the people who are running the shelters are held accountable for their their population, and that their population is not an at risk population for our host community,” said Ariola.

In response to a question about representing the new areas, Ariola noted that despite being in different nabes, her constituents have similar issues across the district.

“I realized that there are some areas that are more specific in their issues than others, but they don’t want the loud noise from cars,” she said. “So it’s noise complaints. It’s garbage complaints. It’s the fact that construction may be being done on a school.”

CB9, electeds honor local veterans

By Alicia Venter

aventer@queensledger.com

Three members of Community Board 9 (CB9) had no idea when they sat down for their monthly meeting on Thursday of the heartfelt surprise waiting for them once the clock hit 7:15.

Joe Iaboni, Joseph Richard Smith and CB9 District Manager James S. McClelland were ushered to their feet to be recognized by their community and elected officials for their service in the United States armed forces. 

With Veterans Day only a few days after the meeting, Community Board Chair Sherry Algredo organized this surprise for her fellow community board members — and her friends.

The three veterans were provided official citations and awards from a number of their leaders. State Senator Joseph Addabbo, Councilwoman Joann Ariola and Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar each attended to celebrate Iaboni, Smith and McClelland. 

However, each of these officials are involved in Veterans Affairs within their political sphere, and made an effort to illustrate how the recognition of the service the men provided must extend beyond Nov. 11.

“We need to do what we can do for our Veterans each and every day. Every day is Veterans Day,” Addabbo said. “When we take care ofthese issues that face our Veterans every day — mental health, physical health and housing — we get to address the most serious issue, and that is the suicide rate.” 

By recognizing these veterans and all the veterans in Queens, the county that has the most veterans in New York City, Addabbo explained how that helps bring down the suicide rate among veterans.

The political leaders were friends with the veterans long before Thursday night. Ariola knew Iaboni for many years, and they are neighbors.

When I go down 157th Avenue, I see [Joe’s] flag on one of the tallest poles you can legally have on your front lawn waving so proudly,” Ariola said “As I go by, I always say God Bless America.”

 

 

 


Any tips about whats happening in Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Ozone Park or Southeast Queens? Email me at aventer@queensledger.com!

Ariola right choice for D32

Political upstart Felicia Singh has made a significant impact in her candidacy as a Democrat for the City Council in the 32nd district, which includes the neighborhoods of Woodhaven, Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Broad Channel and Rockaway.
The Ozone Park native is running on a platform focused on the issue that the district is underfunded. Her progressive approach towards governing fits into a global and citywide narrative that is gaining momentum in the City Council. We believe we will see at least a dozen new progressive representatives in the legislative body this next session.
If she wins this seat, in all likelihood each City Council seat in Queens will be filled by a Democrat, with the vast majority likely to push a more progressive agenda.
Joann Ariola, a Howard Beach resident and leader of the Queens Republican Party, is our choice for the seat. If we are serious about diversity then we need a voice that differs from the rest in the City Council.
Ariola is more aligned with the constituency over the entire district and appeals to even Democrats in the district. We know her agenda is more about her neighbors than an ideology, and her leadership skills are apparent.
From Woodhaven to Rockaway, Ariola knows the district, and we believe her office and staff will be much more accessible to meet the needs of the residents of the district.
Ariola’s support of public safety, true infrastructure issues, school choice, and willingness to advocate for the small businesses community make her our choice to replace Councilman Eric Ulrich.
On November 2, cast your vote for Joann Ariola.

Will Queens go all blue this November?

The general election later this year probably won’t excite many voters.
The Republicans won’t be fielding many competitive candidates in the numerous City Council seats that will be open this year thanks to term limits. The Democrats who won their primaries will likely have a cakewalk into office.
As for citywide races, there are Republican candidates for mayor, public advocate and comptroller, with mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa enjoying the greatest name recognition.
However, as we pointed out last week, Eric Adams is basically being treated like the next mayor of New York City already, so it’s unlikely the Guardian Angels founder and radio show host is going to stand much of a chance in November.
Although, perhaps voter apathy will help the GOP. Given the overwhelming advantage Democrats have over Republicans in registered voters, Democratic voters failing to show up to the polls because they think the race is already won might be the Republicans only chance at victory.
Doubtful, but it’s a longshot.
We caught Tony Avella at an event recently during which he referred to Assemblyman Ed Braunstein as his “colleague in government” before rightfully checking himself. Avella only won the Democratic Primary for his old City Council seat in northeast Queens, and as such isn’t in government yet.
Avella actually has a Republican challenger in Vickie Paladino, who knows how to run a competent campaign and has already been engaging with voters because she actually had a challenger in the Republican Primary.
But while Avella was in office, he appealed to voters of both parties because he focused primarily on quality-of-life issues facing his constituents and steered clear of party politics, that is until he joined the Independent Democratic Conference in Albany, a group of renegade state senators who caucused with Republicans.
That decision became part of his downfall when progressive groups campaigned hard against him and helped get John Liu elected.
Now that he has won the primary, he is out there focusing on the issues that always helped him get elected. He recently called on the city to fix the roads in College Point, the LIRR to shut down a noisy Bayside rail yard, and we hear he is going to be calling attention to a controversial land issue soon.
If he sticks to that playbook, it’s going to hard for Paladino to make any headway with voters.
Another race worth paying attention to is in south Queens, where Councilman Eric Ulrich – the lone Republican elected official left in the borough – is term-limited out of office.
Felicia Singh won the Democratic Primary, and she will face off against Joann Ariola, who is also chair of the Queens County Republican Party. The district leans conservative, and some voters, even Democrats, might see Singh as too progressive.
There are pockets across Queens where Democrats have no problem voting for a Republican if they prefer the candidate, and south Queens is one of them. Ariola could benefit from that tendency.
But there is a monkey wrench in the race. Kenichi Wilson was kicked off the ballot in the Democratic Primary after a supporter of fellow candidate Mike Scala challenged his petition signatures.
The Board of Elections validated his signatures and said he could remain on the ballot, but the same supporter filed a peremptory lawsuit with the state before that decision, which kept him off the ballot for good.
During the whole process, Wilson incurred tens of thousands in legal fees, much of which he paid with matching funds from the city. If he didn’t run in either the primary or general election, he would have to pay all of that money back.
So partially to stay out of debt and partially to run for the seat he intended to from the start, he formed his own third party. Wilson will run on the Community First line this November.
Remember when we said conservative Democrats could be persuaded to vote for Ariola? That might not be the case with Wilson on the ballot. Those votes could go to him instead, hurting her chances.
As for Singh, some Democrats who don’t necessarily care for her but would never vote for a Republican, might instead vote for Wilson, which would hurt Singh’s chances.
It’s going to be interesting to see which candidate is effected most by Wilson’s decision to stay in the race.
And if Ariola and Paladino both lose, it means Queens will be all blue.

Fill the Form for Events, Advertisement or Business Listing