BHB: The reality is that the Brooklyn Heights Library has a major and perhaps fatal flaw— decrepit infrastructure.

DB: This goes back to the P.S. 8 overcrowding issue and the special interests that control our interests and neighborhood. That property has been targeted for a long, long time. The City gave Forest City Ratner, back in 1986—and Michael White talks about this—gave them the development rights. [FCR] controls almost half of the development rights there. And Michael White in “Noticing New York” about how capital budgeting programs for our most vital institutions like the Library, have been cut, and cut, and cut, almost to back-calculate the outcome they want.

Let me make one last point; back to the overcrowding of P.S. 8: if you deplete the tax base with all these abatements and tax breaks…. In aggregate, you’re talking millions of dollars over decades that could easily fund ALL the libraries.

BHB: Do you feel like residents of Brooklyn Heights will respond to your appeal?

People are outraged. I’ve walked every neighborhood, the voters are outraged.

DB: The trigger is now. People are outraged. I’ve walked every neighborhood, the voters are outraged. Everybody. Every demographic. Homeowners, renters, people who’ve been here all their lives, people who have been here the last few years and are trying to put a family together, put roots down. People are outraged.

We have to get people back to voting and to controlling their destinies. Machines like it when voters turn off, because they bring out their voters, they stay in power, and the voice of the community is cut out. A very small percentage of mostly outside interests and special interests control our neighborhood.

BHB: You feel that these issues are enough of a wake-up call to the community to generate support for your candidacy.

DB: My message is resonating with whomever I talk with. It’s rare that I encounter somebody who’s apathetic about this.

BHB: But how does your message reach a wider audience?

DB: We’re raising money. Social media, emails, all that. We’re gonna do mailers. All that’s going to happen.

Debates—that’s a huge problem, Where have the debates been? Why are they happening a couple of days before the election?

BHB: Let’s switch to election reform. If you are elected, how many terms would you expect to serve?

DB: I’m for term limits, absolutely. In fact, I’m the only candidate [in this race] who has written an op-ed on election law reform, about how it’s abused, and how it protects the politicians. I wrote this years ago in the Brooklyn Paper. I’m the only one who tries to educate the community on these very important and now, as we see, dangerous consequences of these people staying in power.

BHB: is there anything else BHB readers should know about your candidacy?

DB: I’m born in Brooklyn, I go way back, I’ve spent most of my life here. I really care about these communities.

I’ve been getting custard ices from Court Street Pastry Shop for as long as I can remember. To the point—and this is what really matters—I’m not supported by the corrupt political bosses, the lobbyists or the special interests. These new lobbyist machines, the BerlinRosen model and the WFP, and the Data and Fields, and the old party political machines, like the Frank Seddios and the Frank Carones and Jo Anne Simon, have control over every important issue in our community. The parks, the libraries and the hospital, decisions should be made about what’s good for the community, not those who are trying to make a profit out of it. That’s what distinguishes me. My campaign is about restoring power back to the community so that we, working together, can make our own decisions based upon what’s good for the community, not for profit.

BHB: In 2010, when you first ran for this seat, you suggested that because of family concerns, that would be your last run for office. Why the change?

DB: It [running for office] is incredibly taxing to run a campaign, especially on my family. This has all been confirmed by all the voters I’m talking to in the neighborhood, everybody is so disgusted with [what’s happening with] the hospital, the library and the park, my wife and I felt that it was incredibly important that I through my hat back in the ring and fight for what’s right for the community.

BHB: So your wife supports this candidacy?

DB: She does. When it gets tough she says “Doug, you’ve got to see this through.” It’s important for our kids, for our friends kids, neighborhood kids, our future. It’s our lives, that’s why people come [to the Heights]. They don’t want a place that’s a pass-through.

If I were my opponents, I would avoid debating as well. They’re relaying on untruths in printed mailers that are designed and paid for by the money dumped into their campaign committees by their special interests.

Without these debates [NY 1 Inside City Hall on August 25, Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council on August 27; BHB Candidates’ Forum on September 2; Brooklyn Independent Media Debate on September 3 ] the claims they make on the mailers go uncontested and the special interests continue to control our neighborhoods election after election.

PHOTO CREDIT: Biviano Campaign