BOROUGHWIDE \u2014 Janine Acquafredda is the Republican and Conservative candidate for Brooklyn borough president. While many are focused on the mayoral race, borough presidents are also on the ballot. The 2025 election offers Brooklynites a choice between Acquafredda and the Democratic nominee and current Borough President, Antonio Reynoso.<\/p>\n
Acquafredda has lived in Brooklyn for 30 years. She is a graduate of Kingsboro Community College where she received an associate\u2019s degree in Broadcasting Communications before attending Queens College to get a degree in Media Studies.<\/p>\n
She then transitioned her career path to become a financial advisor after 9\/11, where she worked from an office in Bay Ridge until 2007, when she pivoted to real estate.<\/p>\n
Acquafredda believes her experience equips her to lead Brooklyn in the coming years, describing herself as a businesswoman.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michael N. Connors III, on behalf of the Brooklyn Spectator, sat down with Acquafredda at Bay Ridge\u2019s Offshore Diner on Third Avenue and 78th Street.<\/p>\n
Founded in 1934 in Bay Ridge, the Brooklyn Spectator is a weekly print newspaper whose motto is \u201ccovering conservative-based values and common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
What triggered you to run for office?<\/p>\n
The thing that sent me over the edge was the FARE Act because I could see as a real estate professional that it was not going to make housing any more affordable.<\/p>\n
I saw the unintended consequences of this legislation, but also that it would have a direct impact on my industry, my career, my livelihood and the rhetoric around the way these politicians were speaking against real estate agents and brokers and real estate professionals in general was constant.<\/p>\n
We are not the cause of the housing crisis, and I had to make the announcement.<\/p>\n
What is the difference between trying to represent Brooklyn and what people look at when they\u2019re looking at the Mayor\u2019s office?\u00a0 What potential conflicts are between what a borough president is aiming for and what City Hall may be geared towards?<\/p>\n
I think even in 2025, people consider Brooklyn second to Manhattan, which couldn\u2019t be farther from the truth. We are the most important borough. We are the most populous borough. We have the most registered voters. In real estate, I used to make the point that Manhattan doesn\u2019t have a view of the skyline.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn has been the leading borough in many ways for many years. I think that City Hall has its own agenda. They see Manhattan as the most important piece of New York City, but Brooklyn is so important \u2014 it was its own city at one time! I don\u2019t know why we joined forces with the rest of them.<\/p>\n
What is the difference between everyday concerns that people face \u2014 safety, transportation, price of living \u2014 versus ideology?<\/p>\n
I think this is the biggest threat, not just to Brooklynites but to all people who live and work in New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our elected officials are making decisions, sponsoring bills and creating legislation around the way they think we should be living versus the way people actually live, and it\u2019s positioned in a way to virtue signal and to say we know what\u2019s better for you.<\/p>\n
People are being emotional about things when they\u2019re not actually better for us but detrimental and not in our best interests. They\u2019re being done in the best interests of NGOs, lobbyists and special interest groups.<\/p>\n
There is so much money flying around buying these policies and buying people. You have to wonder who\u2019s getting paid because New Yorkers are not seeing an improving quality of life.<\/p>\n
What are some specific examples of these programs or the lobbying driving them \u2014 CitiBike expansion, for example?<\/p>\n
While it might not be that specific program, the groups pushing for things like congestion pricing, protected bike lanes and this supposed push to get rid of cars in New York City are corporations like Uber, Lyft, Amazon \u2014 people that benefit from them.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re having to get rid of our vehicles and clear the roads for rideshare companies. Since CitiBike has come to Brooklyn, the number of cars for hire on our roads has tripled, so in no way, shape or form has it decreased congestion<\/a> or improved the quality of air<\/a>. It\u2019s about money.<\/p>\n A lot of people operate under the illusion that certain political parties in New York City have more diverse coalitions than others. At your events, you\u2019ve got people of every race, creed, what have you. Tell me a little bit more about the kinds of people you\u2019re bringing together, particularly in South Brooklyn.<\/p>\n My campaign has been a reflection of my life.\u00a0 I have a very diverse group of friends and family.\u00a0 I am like a magnet. People call me a master networker, and I love bringing people together.<\/p>\n I know a lot of different people from a lot of different places and backgrounds, and that\u2019s what my life has always been about.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a very open-minded person, too.\u00a0 I like to have all sorts of different people around me to get different ideas so that I can form my own opinion. I like to think I\u2019m a critical thinker, especially since I\u2019m running as a Republican and Conservative, and oftentimes, we are labeled in disgusting ways.<\/p>\n Nobody called me names before, but since I\u2019ve entered the race, I\u2019ve been called a classist, a fascist, a racist and I\u2019m sure there are other things. It\u2019s refreshing and reinforcing that at my fundraisers, there\u2019s been such a good representation of so many people and groups.<\/p>\n Have there been opportunities for debates?<\/p>\n I challenged [Reynoso] to a debate as soon as he won the primary against Khari Edwards, an invitation which he ignored, and he declared himself the borough president for the next four years.<\/p>\n He\u2019s completely disregarding the fact that he has an opponent, and he was also invited to a debate by the Dyker Heights Civic Association at an event which took place a couple of days ago. I don\u2019t believe he even responded to the invitation.<\/p>\n If the people that you lead and govern matter to you, you should be showing them that by making an effort. If you\u2019re not even going to work to get the people\u2019s vote, what makes people think you\u2019re going to do any work for them once you\u2019re actually in the role?\u00a0<\/p>\n There have been a lot of top-down development projects being put forward here in New York City. Some of them lean progressive. Other things are more straightforward, like the Coney Island casino project.\u00a0<\/p>\n A lot of it seems like plopping things in people\u2019s communities that they don\u2019t necessarily want.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n What makes Brooklyn so special is its character and the uniqueness of its neighborhoods. There are certainly some areas that need to be invested in, but we have the money to do it without outside help. That was proven when we came up with $5 billion or whatever we came up with for the illegal immigrants as a sanctuary city.\u00a0<\/p>\n If we can come up with $5 billion for illegal immigrants, why can\u2019t we come up with $5 billion to invest in Coney Island?<\/p>\n We don\u2019t need outside money, and the House of Yes development that\u2019s been taking place has only made housing more unaffordable. We have the most robust housing market we\u2019ve ever had in the history of Brooklyn, and the rents are the highest they\u2019ve ever been, so housing doesn\u2019t necessarily correlate with affordability.<\/p>\n This is your wheelhouse because of your career, and people are complaining that some at the top of the ticket are just saying things about affordability without knowing what goes into it.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re building housing that is 90% unaffordable and 10% affordable, you\u2019re actually hurting the market 90% more. The reality is there\u2019s a supply and demand thing in play here.\u00a0 There\u2019s this concept that there\u2019s a lot of demand and no supply, but that\u2019s false.<\/p>\n We have supply. We have the units that we could move people into. It\u2019s just not happening because of policy, or because people aren\u2019t being held accountable to make repairs. Why are we building more when we already have tens of thousands that are vacant? Why don\u2019t we fill those first, then assess how much more housing we need to supply?<\/p>\n When you make large investments into communities, you actually gentrify those areas and displace people, so development has to be done very carefully and very conservatively. Unfortunately, conservative development is probably not going to make a dent in the supply, but these things have to be balanced out. I don\u2019t think any major city has been able to tackle this with 100% success.<\/p>\n What does Brooklyn look like after a couple of years of leadership of Borough President Janine Acquafredda?<\/p>\n I hope it looks more unified because right now, it\u2019s the most divided it\u2019s ever been in my lifetime, and it doesn\u2019t feel good. It doesn\u2019t feel like a community. It doesn\u2019t feel like a family.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The first thing I would want is to bring people back together. I want to be a borough president for everyone. Hopefully, by leading like that, I\u2019ll create a more unified Brooklyn.<\/p>\n Where can people find out more about you?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n