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CityAndStateNY.com
Queens is both a machine stronghold and the most progressive place on the planet. And one borough president hopeful thinks he can have it all.
Can Donovan Richards find himself? by J E F F C O L T I N
portraits by S E A N P R E S S L E Y
D
ONOVAN RICHARDS STOOD near the altar of the Macedonia Baptist Church in Arverne, in the Rockaways, while a handful of attendees at the forum for Queens borough president candidates heartily booed at him. This was a black church in a majority-black neighborhood that Richards, who is black, represents in the New York City Council, but that didn’t seem to mean much to the boo-ers. One of Richards’ opponents in the race for borough president, former New York City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, had just criticized him for taking campaign donations from “Big Real Estate,” and, already testy from previous attacks on his record, he had responded with what some in the crowd apparently considered a low blow.
In a mocking tone. Richards referred to her loss in a 2017 reelection campaign. He jabbed, “If she did such a great job, she would have got reelected to her seat many years ago.” Then came the boos from the crowd, so distracting that Richards just gave up on trying to make a further point, and instead dismissed those jeering as Crowley plants. “I know she brought a few people,” he said. That wasn’t the only time Richards got attacked by opponents at the debate, and it wasn’t the only time he snapped back. The other candidate there, retired NYPD Sgt. Anthony Miranda, had just teased Richards for being a career politician who’s already had a chance to fix the problems he said he’s
