Topics included crime, housing, economy and President Donald Trump
A debate was held between Democrat Kayla Santosuosso and Republican George Sarantopoulos for City Council District 47 on Oct. 20, hosted by NY1.
The district covers Bay Ridge, Coney Island and parts of Bath Beach and Dyker Heights. Current Councilmember Justin Brannan is term-limited.
The contest is considered by the network as one of the most closely watched city races on voting day.
During the debate, moderator Bobby Cuza and the candidates discussed topics such as housing, crime, public safety, the economy and President Donald Trump.
Santosuosso, a former small business owner and chief counsel to Brannan, highlighted her problem solving experience in the community in her opening statement.
“I have worked in nonprofits where I fought poverty,” she said. “I’ve been a city attorney protecting taxpayer dollars from fraud and abuse for a number of years. I’ve worked for Councilmember Justin Brannan improving our neighborhoods and solving problems day in and day out. Now, I’m running for city council because I want to make sure generations of families can afford to stay and want to stay in southern Brooklyn.”
Sarantopoulos, founder of an ATM and credit card processing company, said that he beat cancer last year, motivating him to run in the race.
“When you beat cancer, it makes you want to do better for your community. I wanted to give back to my community,” said Sarantopoulos. “I decided to run because I felt I’ve been hearing too much from our neighbors for too long that they can’t afford to live here anymore. The economy has completely gone down. They don’t feel safe in our city and the political class, the democratic party which has held this city for a long time says, ‘trust us, keep voting for us.’ Well, it’s time for a change.”
Cuza brought up three housing-related questions that voters are considering ahead of their decision in November.
“They are intended to make it faster and easier to build new housing in the city — in particular, affordable housing — but the city council is very much opposed to it because they will lose some of the power they have over land use issues as a result,” Cuza said, then asking for the candidates’ response.
“We want input from not only the city councilmember who is elected, but we want input from the community board,” said Sarantopoulos. “We don’t want that to be pushed off into a mayor’s office that really doesn’t know what type of housing is needed in the actual community. I would like to see more varied housing.”
“The problem is it takes away the ability for city councilmembers to be able to fight for things like housing that is more affordable or housing that is built by people with a living wage,” said Santosuosso. “I think the districts wouldn’t want more of that consolidation into a mayor.”
Candidates were asked if they support The City of Yes, legislation which made zoning changes around the city to boost housing supply.
“I don’t support it,” said Sarantopoulos. “You want community input from your local community board and your city councilperson. It should not be passed off to city hall who doesn’t really know what the community needs and what type of housing needs it has.”
“As a city, finding these high-density places where it makes sense to build is important,” said Santosuosso. “For example, in our district, we have a large senior population that is getting priced out of rentals and is getting priced out of some ownership and we really need more senior housing.”
Crime and public safety were the next topics. Sarantopoulo said he doesn’t think locals feel safe.
“It’s death by a thousand cuts,” he said. “It’s the little crimes. It’s package theft, catalytic converters, muggings. People just don’t feel safe on the subway. We have no control of our subway system. It’s being overrun by emotionally disturbed people that are not only mentally ill but have addiction issues.”
Santosuosso said she hears constituents in the district want to see more patrols in their community and more cops on the beat.
“Of the two of us in this race, I’m the one that has to regularly work with these local precincts to work on issues of crime,” she said. “They say they want to be doing more but they say they need more resources and they’re tasked with too much. They get tasked to work with too many problems they really don’t have the ability to solve.”
When asked about pressing public safety issues in the district, Santosuosso said an issue that she’s heard from voters is street safety.
“That’s a pretty broad category which includes drag racing and speeding,” she said. “It also includes the loud illegally modified muffler noise that seems to plague our neighborhoods as well as modes that are on the sidewalk racing through the streets.”
Sarantopoulos brought up Debrina Kawam, who was burned to death at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in December 2024.
“Nothing has been done about it. To say you’ve been working with the precincts is laughable,” said Sarantopoulos. “Every precinct in our district is understaffed. Police officers from Staten Island who don’t really have the knowledge of our district and we are bringing them in because every precinct in our community is understaffed.”
“As for Debrina Kawam and the tragic incident that happened to her,” said Santosuosso. “I agree. I do think we need more of a police presence particularly in our subway systems. I’m calling for more safety.”
Another question for the candidates included why they thought the district saw a surge in people voting for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election compared to 2020.
According to Sarantopoulos, it was border control concerns.
“This was costing us billions of dollars,” he said. “I hear this from immigrants that have been here 15 to 20 years who have worked their butts off, saved every dollar they can to buy a home and to send their kids to college. Meanwhile we have migrants who are coming here to New York City that are staying in
luxury hotels. They are the maddest. The voters I think in the last election got fed up with the border not being controlled.”
Santosuosso said the economy played a large role.
“He was in the presidential race, highlighting the cost of living as the major concern,” she said. “A critique I had of my own party during this process is that we weren’t talking about it enough. I understand voters’ frustration when they were feeling that in their pockets, and nobody was speaking to them. Since then, I think people have realized that it’s not really his agenda at all. Things aren’t getting cheaper.” The full debate is available on YouTube. Early voting period starts on Oct. 25 and ends on Nov. 2. Election Day is Nov. 4. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. More information is available on the government website.