Ours in the fight for New York: how an immigrant from Belarus promises to change the city

Maria Markh came to America as a little girl - she was barely two years old. Despite the fact that she hardly remembers her native Belarus, she managed to preserve the Russian language and the desire to stay closer to her own - for almost three decades she has lived in one of the favorite areas of Russian-speaking immigrants - Sheepshead Bay / Homecrest, and this year she made a decision run for city council from this county (48th New York District, Mary is fighting for the Democratic nomination).

As a candidate, Maria is participating in the elections for the first time, but she has been in local politics for over 15 years. It all started with the fact that the girl received a bachelor's degree in political science and journalism from Brooklyn College and a master's degree in politics from Fordham University. After that, she worked for almost ten years on the New York City Council, including two years as a public affairs manager.

Behind Maria's shoulders are such tragedies as Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath. At the time, she helped hundreds of families stay in their homes, earning the Queen of Lien title for this. In the midst of the COVID epidemic, she also did not stand aside - she provided the community with masks and successfully opened testing centers throughout the district.

On the eve of the primaries among candidates from the Democratic Party (they will be held on June 22) ForumDaily New York talked to Maria to find out how the young girl promises to change the area and why she needs big politics at all.

“The city now needs people who know what they are doing”

Maria, good afternoon! Tell us why you decided to run for the city council right now?

You know, to begin with, I think it is worth explaining how important the work of the city council is to New York. New York is the largest and most complex city in America. We have a lot of agencies that support the life of the city - for example, those that deal with transport, schools, and so on. In the city council, we draw up a budget for these agencies, pass laws, and we understand that our experience is being adopted not only by other cities, but also by entire states. I have been working in the City Council for many years, but all the time in the shadows. I worked with three different MPs and studied with them. And now there is such a situation in the city that from next year there will be a lot of new people in the city council. In New York, every deputy, mayor, president of the borough, and so on, has a clear term of 4 years. And they cannot stay longer than 2 terms. And many deadlines are coming to an end this year. This means that next year we will have a new mayor, a new controller, new presidents of the borough, and ⅔ of the city council members will also be new. This can be a problem.

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Why? What's bad about it? It is generally believed that, on the contrary, it is good to renew the government.

The fact is that the city has a huge budget - we are talking about billions of dollars. Now imagine - so many new people will come to the structure, even in the context of the coronavirus crisis. These people have never encountered this work - it is not just difficult, it is dangerous. It seems to me that this may lead to problems, and the opening of the city may slow down. I have already written laws, worked with the budget, solved people's problems. I don't need to study, I already know the whole “kitchen”, that's why I decided to run this year, because, as it seems to me, the city now needs people who already know what they are doing.

How many Russian-speaking MPs are there in New York City Council?

Now we have one person, I would say that he is already American, because he was born here, but he is Russian-speaking - Mark Trader. Now his term in the city council is coming to an end, but this year several Russian-speaking candidates are running, not only in Brooklyn, but also in other areas, for example, in Queens.

In terms of the mayor's office, who are your favorites?

It is very difficult to say, I look at different candidates. Someone understands the system, someone has interesting ideas. I don't know for sure yet, but I know for sure that there are very depressed candidates among the candidates - this is what I would like to avoid. In my opinion, the most important quality for the mayor of the city is the ability to find an approach to different people, this is my main requirement for the mayor.

Coronavirus: how to return the city to its former strength

New York is now, like the rest of the world, beginning to emerge from the coronavirus crisis, do you have any ideas on how to speed up the city's return to normalcy?

A lot of problems need to be solved in a complex. It is necessary to stop the departure of people from the city. Increase the flow of tourists to New York. It is very important to bring the children back to school. It's even not only about learning, but more about socialization, because children have lost their socialization skills in a year of distance learning. And, of course, we must help our small business.

When it comes to helping small businesses, how can the city help?

Financial assistance, free consultations, settlement of problems with homeowners. For example, I see that many of our agencies issue very serious fines to small businesses. Some documents are hanging in the wrong place - a $ 1000 fine! There was a case when a beauty salon was fined 15 thousand dollars, because, allegedly, one woman came there to get a manicure during a lockdown! One woman! It seems that it was not even a client, but a friend of the owner, but even if it were a client - is it conceivable - to write out such a fine? This is a complete disgrace! Fines here, fines there, I see it everywhere. Therefore, many businesses are still unable to open. We must help them, to make sure that fines are not issued immediately, so that the system of first warning is in place.

Do you have any ideas on how to counter the crime crisis in New York? Especially considering that now there is a very difficult attitude towards the police in society.

I think it is very important when the population is on good terms with the police. It seems like the police are trying to improve relations with the population, for example, there is a Community police program, this is when there are special meetings where people can come and talk with the police officers who work in their area. I think when people understand that they can just come and tell the police about their problems, it's great. So, I think humanizing the police is something that needs to be implemented in our country, and it will help fight crime. In addition, there is another big problem - often the police have to work with mentally ill people, and the police do not have the knowledge and qualifications for this. In my opinion, we should either completely remove the police from such work, or involve medical personnel who understand how to professionally help people with mental disabilities.

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“The main thing is to respect the difference of the other”

Moving away from urban issues, I would like to know your opinion that now everyone is hearing about the conflict in Israel. It is known that he also led to a surge in anti-Semitism in the United States. Do you see any way out to overcome this?

It is scary to look at this conflict, both in Israel and in New York. Because usually in New York all nations and religions are very friendly, Muslims live next to Jews and so on. But now everything is changing. For example, in our district, very bad and terrible words were written on the mosque, and they wrote them during one of the most important holidays in the Muslim calendar - it's terrible that people came to pray on a holiday and saw this inscription. On the other hand, Jews are beaten in the streets. I have never before seen people beaten for belonging to any nation. We must educate children so that from an early age they know about different religions, about different nations, teach them to respect different cultures. I think when people live nearby, it is easier for them to perceive this difference, because they look at them as neighbors. This is my neighbor, we may have different religions and cultures, but still this is my neighbor and we need to live in peace.

The Russian-speaking community in the United States, including New York, is not too tolerant and fair. We often see in the comments to our articles a lot of racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and even dislike for other Russian-speaking immigrants. Do you notice this? And do you have any ideas how to fix this?

I believe that the most important thing is education. So that people know that they are all different, because it helps. One of my best friends is a Muslim from Pakistan. And, perhaps, we look at some things differently, but we are friends, because I understand her story, and she understands mine. We respect each other, and this is the most important thing. We do not have to be the same, but we have to accept our difference. When we understand each other, we are on the right track.

Housing, flooding and the impact of COVID are top issues to be addressed in South Brooklyn

Imagine you won the election. In your opinion, what kind of help from the local authorities do the Russian-speaking New Yorkers most need?

People need information. There are many programs that can help residents, from teaching English to free food, freezing rent, and so on. And many people are unaware of these programs. In addition, of course, we must develop schools and support business. Every group of people has something different that is important to them, no matter what language they speak.

In terms of your community, there are three main issues that need to be addressed first.

The first is to get out of the coronavirus crisis. It's not just businesses and schools. For example, it is very important to support people who have been ill but are still suffering from the effects of the virus. There are a lot of people in New York who don't have health insurance. There is NYC Care that I helped open in Brooklyn and Staten Island, and now it works everywhere. It is not insurance, but it is very close and it allows people to be treated for almost free, so it is very important that people who have the consequences of the coronavirus can go to the doctor.

Another problem is that our area is very close to the ocean, and it is very important for us to protect our homes from potential hurricanes, such as Sandy once was. And the last one is housing. Now a lot of people want to live in our area, because here they know each other, understand the language, there are kindergartens and schools with their native language. As a result, now many people cannot pay their rent, because everything is very expensive, and they are forced to leave the area. It is very important that we have more housing. We need to build more apartments for retirees, affordable housing. Because now a lot of people simply cannot afford to have an apartment in our area.