Whether in rain or shine, Shirely Aldebol is out talking to voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first-time Democratic candidate is hoping her ground game will be enough to get her a seat in office.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The first-time Democratic candidate is hoping her ground game will be enough to get her a seat in office
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In February, Shirley Aldebol left her executive position at 32BJ to run for office
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Republican Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato flipped the seat two years ago amid a backlash to a new housing project<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s important for people to be heard and seen because there\u2019s a lot of hopelessness out here,” she said.<\/p>\n
In February, Aldebol left her executive position at 32BJ to run for office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Council District 13 covers parts of the Bronx, such as Pelham Bay, Morris Park, Throggs Neck and City Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The district is known for its opposition to development, including affordable and supportive housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The district was set to house the formerly incarcerated through the Just Home Project but was blocked at the last minute.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aldebol said she would be different.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think upzoning is a bad thing. I just think that we have to be mindful of the community it’s built in, and we also have to make sure that the housing is really affordable,” she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no easy answer. I don\u2019t always start with a no. Tell us what this is. We need to resolve some issues, and if you don\u2019t do that, you\u2019re really squandering your leverage as a City Council member.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the lack of transportation in the area, Aldebol said,\u00a0\u201cIt may require a\u00a0 redesign of transportation because we may have the same bus lines running and there\u2019s been changes in the population of the district. Where are people needing to go.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aldebol is not only looking to unseat the incumbent but to flip the district blue. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly four to one.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople crossed over party lines to support me in my first election, and I feel confident that they\u2019re going to do it again this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato flipped the seat two years ago amid a backlash to a new housing project.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She remains a strong opponent of new projects, including the newly approved Bally\u2019s casino.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, jobs are a good thing, and construction jobs as well, but there are people who invested in this community who say they never had a say,” Marmorato\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, Bally\u2019s financial position is on point and where it should be because I\u2019m reading a lot of stuff that it’s not. So I don’t even know that they can get to that position,” she continued.<\/p>\n
Bally\u2019s chairman Soo Kim has told NY1 that they are financially sound.<\/p>\n
Marmorato is against the housing ballot measures that would diminish local influence over projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s going to be the end of the picket-fence neighborhood,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whether in rain or shine, Shirely Aldebol is out talking to voters.\u00a0 The first-time Democratic candidate is hoping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[109,114,25,128,111,6348,9,24,12,63,87,129,131,130,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-27559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-local-elections","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-bronx","12":"tag-decision-2025","13":"tag-kelly-mena","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-the-bronx","20":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","21":"tag-the-bronx-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}