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The daughter of a small business owner, a lawyer, and a former commissioner at NYC Board of Elections, Miguelina Camilo, initially threw her hat in the ring on Feb. 25, as the Democratic candidate to represent Senate District 34, the district currently represented by State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who announced earlier this year she was running for Congress.

 

As reported, the Democratic-controlled State legislature redrew and voted on the various electoral districts in New York State in February 2022, following the redistricting process arising from the 2020 census. However, as reported, a subsequent lawsuit mounted by Republicans meant those same State-approved maps were subsequently thrown out by a court, were redrawn, and the revised maps approved by a court-appointed special master in May 2022.

 

At one stage in the process, when a draft map was in circulation, Camilo, who told us she lives in Riverdale, said she would have ended up living in redrawn Senate District 36. However, in the end, she ended up in redrawn Senate District 33, and is now running in this race against the State senator for current Senate District 33 [until Jan. 1, 2023], Sen. Gustavo Rivera.

 

Redrawn S.D. 33 will broadly cover some or all of the neighborhoods of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham Heights, Fordham Manor, Belmont, Allerton, Tremont, Van Nest, Morris Park, Spuyten Duyvil, Fieldston, Riverdale and North Riverdale. It will also cover Woodlawn Cemetery and Van Cortlandt Park.

 

We asked Camilio what her top-three priorities were in terms of her campaign. “Number one, supporting our schools and seeking more opportunities for our youth to have mentorships, and to have career development so they can better transition from graduation to employment or secondary education,” Camilo said. The first in her family to go to college, Camilo said she lacked mentors in the earlier stages of her life, though she said she later encountered many who helped her. She said addressing mentorship early on was invaluable.

 

Acknowledging that it was a City issue, we asked Camilio nonetheless for her thoughts on the current fall-out with the City administration over the education budget, which some teachers and activists are insisting should be revisited and prevent cuts to what they say are essential programs. “Within the senate, we do have several committees that deal with education and with the budget, and just making sure that we’re allocating funds…. ” Camilo said. “I do think this was a historical budget, the last time, where billions of dollars were put into education, so my work on the Senate level would be to better support our schools with allocating for specific programming.”

 

She added that in her district, there weren’t a lot of afterschool programs, and said she would work with other elected officials and community partners to establish a stronger presence of such programming. Camilo highlighted the Saturday Night Lights program as one example, which, as reported, utilizes school gyms even when schools are closed to give youth a place to go as a heightened level of violence prevails on the city’s streets.

 

“I think I would just be an added partner and an added voice at the State level to make sure that we’re funding those type of programs,” Camilo said. Pushed on whether she feels the current school budget should be revisited, she agreed that it should be. “Any cuts to our programs for our youth and our schools are going to be detrimental, and have a longer impact,” she said. “So, I’m a strong advocate for especially targeting our young children and our high school age [youth], because they’re transitioning at that point in life. Whether they’re going to pursue further education, or whether they’re going to enter the workforce and start their own family, that’s where they need the most support.”

 

The lawyer said she wanted to be a face for those families who are like the one she came from. “Their parents aren’t educated, their parents didn’t have the means to really give them that guidance, even financial, but somehow you still make it, right?” she said. “It’s incumbent on you to spread that message to children that may be feeling the way I felt, that I wouldn’t have those opportunities. I just want to make sure that more children get those opportunities,” she added.

 

We talked about the importance of language access in this regard and what more could be done in that vein. “I think that’s where the support comes in for schools, because our schools, especially for our immigrant communities, are the only structures that families have contact with that then leads them to possibly referrals for any further needs that their children may have.”

 

She said immigrant families relied on the school system as a hub where they felt safe to ask for assistance on a myriad of issues. “Language access is pivotal to that continuing. I do believe our schools are doing that task, and need further support and resources so they can continue to do that as our communities keep growing and become more diverse,” she said.

 

She then talked about pending initiatives and bills to enable schools to have a social worker or a mental health advisor, and teachers who can communicate with diverse families. She added that the job of elected officials was to figure out how best to allocate those resources for schools.

 

We highlighted that there had been a lack of any real response from NYC Department of Education on a reported delayed evacuation from P.S. 20 in Norwood in March during the first of a series of bomb threats which, thankfully, turned out to be hoaxes but which, had they been real, could have had disastrous consequences. There were also reports of bullying allegations not being adequately addressed by the school. We asked Camilo for her thoughts on how such matters could be better addressed.

 

“Because education is a priority to me, I would be, as an elected, taking a close look at such situations, because this is one of those areas that is personal to me, and that I deeply care about,” she said. “Our electeds, they take on different committee roles, and they do take on different priorities, which is necessary [to] have a fully functioning legislature. We can have advocates on specific issues, and I will be an advocate in education.”

 

Asked if she was in favor of retaining mayoral control of the City’s public schools, she said she was, adding that it was afforded to past mayors and shouldn’t be any different with Mayor Eric Adams. “He is a strong leader and has taken on the City in a really difficult time, when we’re attempting recovery from COVID, our children going back to school up to two-and-a-half years after a hiatus. It’s not an easy job, and I think we need him and his partnership.”

 

Camilo’s second priority is economic development and support for small businesses, which she said was a key issue for her because she worked in the family store while in high school and college. “I worked weekends with him [her father]. It really allowed me to intimately understand the daily issues that a small business owner will have,” she said.

 

“Seeing throughout the city that about 40 percent of our small businesses have closed because of COVID, the attempts to try to afford them, even financial support, we saw that a lot of them didn’t have the basic structures in place, their formation, ownership rights, how they were managing staff, it was basic business literacy that they didn’t have in place,” she said.

 

She discussed various barriers to business owners, including cultural barriers, language, and lack of access to information. “The information is out there, but there’s no connection to these businesses on the ground,” she said. “I know firsthand the bridges that have to be built, and that’s where I will be focusing, on working with our small businesses and bringing more economic development to The Bronx.”

 

We talked about the federal PPP relief program for businesses and how despite the support by Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), which helped small businesses apply for available grants and funding at the height of the pandemic, the bureaucratic process still appeared overly complicated for small business owners.  A report later found that Bronx businesses received just 7 percent of the City’s allocation of PPP loans. We asked Camilo for her thoughts on how such processes could be better streamlined.

 

“Absolutely, my background is an attorney and as a daughter of a business owner, who, still to this day, I read letters for my dad and explain what correspondence means, that’s exactly how they feel,” she said. “They feel overwhelmed with these processes when they needed just immediate help.” Camilo did acknowledge that everyone was doing their best during the pandemic to figure out how best to assist and that it was a first-time experience for everyone.

 

“From the State level, I am able to have those eyes of someone that can speak about those personal experiences,” she said. “To me, it was always a matter of how do we get that personal touch? Who is that advocate for my family? And walk through these issues with my dad, with my uncle, with my family, families in business. How do we have the same sense of support for all our businesses? That’s what we have to figure out, and that takes partnership.”

 

She commended the approach of having small businesses more involved in the drafting of new initiatives by NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) which she said was doing a wonderful job. “So, they are getting that feedback. Let’s actually go to those people that are living through this, figure out with them what works, what doesn’t, and then on the State level, figuring out how can we facilitate those processes, so that we are better supporting the business,” she said.

 

Norwood News previously reported on the work of SBS in terms of bringing their services to the community during National Small Business Week. Camilo added, “And I think it’s representation. We need someone at the table, like me, who is an immigrant, who’s a doctor or a small business owner, who works in a small business, who has that experience that we need, that representation to really get to the core issue, and hopefully, help and bring more productivity to the district.”

 

We brought up that some other small businesses were simply not eligible to apply for funding/grants amid the pandemic, sometimes because they were too small and didn’t have any employees, or because the bank or financial institution the small business banked with was not on an approved list of institutions through which the businesses had to receive such grants/funding. We asked Camilo for her thoughts on how this could be managed better, taking into account the number of banks closing in The Bronx.

 

“Again, it’s about having representation. I do see that, firsthand, in the district,” Camilo said. “We need an elected who’s present in the district, who is being effective, affected by that type of issue, and then bringing that forward [in] Albany. It’s personal to me,” she added. “I will be a strong advocate for better expanding those services, so that our small businesses are not cut out because of a technicality.”

 

Camilo’s third priority is coalition-building and public safety, better supporting residents in finding a better quality of life. “That takes partnership with law enforcement, it takes partnership with local city government,” she said. She acknowledged legislative efforts in Albany to seek reform to ensure individuals were protected when going through the court system.

 

“I know, firsthand, how important that is because I did some criminal defense work and worked in the courts and know the limit of the resources that we have,” she said, in reference to public defense attorneys. “We have to balance that with what’s going on with the day-to-day, making sure that we are working towards that community, where we feel safe taking the train, going to work, going to school, and making sure that any reforms that we’re pushing forward are also representative of protecting the people in the district.”

 

We mentioned that some residents have called for more police officer patrol on foot in the neighborhood. “Right. This district does have a myriad of issues where a police presence is requested for local issues, like people double-parking or leaving abandoned cars, and noise complaints,” she said, adding that a lot of her campaign work had involved talking to local community organizations, and seeing on the ground what great relationships can be built with NYPD Neighborhood Coordination Officers (NCOs).

 

“People want to see a response and they want to see a presence [from] small issues and, of course, the bigger issues where there are crimes occurring and fatalities in The Bronx. We’re seeing young people on both sides of tragedy; young people being the culprits and young people being the victims,” she said.

 

“It’s a horrible thing,” she continued. “So, an awareness and an understanding that this is a top priority issue for us can bring our electeds together, and I think Albany’s doing that, standing up to gun violence, standing up against the NRA, making sure that we are reinforcing our gun laws when, nationally, we’re seeing so many tragedies. New York is leading the way on that, and I want to be in the lead in that also and ensure our neighbors and our district feel protected too.”

 

We mentioned that at some NYPD “Build the Block” meetings in 2020, in particular, police officers had highlighted how it was sometimes difficult to enforce the law, especially when it came to quality-of-life complaints like noise, and at the same time, not be perceived as attacking minorities or being heavy-handed. We asked Camilo what, in her view, could be done to improve community relations with police.

 

“They [police officers] understand that they have to do the job and officers that don’t do the job or commit atrocities, like in the George Floyd killing, they will be held accountable, so that is something absolutely undisputed,” she said. “That movement [Black Lives Matter] was occurring to grapple with such a tragedy, but finding a solution to having a better quality of life, those relationships with our local law enforcement, seeing their presence in a way that can deter those issues, small things like noise complaints and things like that, I think that’s manageable.”

 

She added, “And we see that although officers may say their hands are tied, they can’t necessarily arrest, their presence may bring a difference in activity and [at] the community meetings I’ve attended, that’s been the sentiment. People are just happy that they can call their NCO and say, ‘Listen, this is happening again down the block and it’s happening repeatedly,’ and people understand as well when officers say this is as much as we can do.”

 

Camilo added that there was a point where it was a matter of communication, of follow-up, showing up for people. “Being, hopefully, a senator, that’s what I have to do for the community, show up, show that I hear their concerns, make those attempts to bring a solution, and then work with who I need to work with in government, in partnership, to bring real results. So that’s what would be the task as a senator for the district.”

 

Asked what her view was on the progressive argument that addressing crime was about prevention through funding programs, so that people would be kept busy and discouraged from committing crime in the first place. “[On] the issue of the approach of the progressives, or the approach of taking money away from the normal pot [police budget], and reinvesting in other programs, the danger there is that any kind of cuts in programs – we just talked about cuts in education – when our schools are not doing well and money is being taken away, how can we expect them to do better?” she said.

 

“So, funding programs smartly, funding our law enforcement, and working with them to find the way that we can allocate resources in the best way for the community, that would be my approach,” she said. “Unfortunately, we’ve become so polarized and focusing on title [e.g. progressive v moderate] and trying to just debate each other, when we really should be working together.”

 

Camilo said, as a Democratic candidate, she would never stray away from the understanding that the priority is to advance justice for all, and to make sure that everybody is justly treated by the system. “Whether my approach be pragmatic, as opposed to someone who titles themselves as progressive, the end result is making sure that people are treated fairly or treated justly, and that any wrongdoing, people are held accountable for it.”

 

We later asked Camilo for a comment on the argument that some would put forth that she does not have the same experience as her opponent, Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who has been a legislator in the Senate for more than 10 years. “I don’t take away anything from my opponent, having the experience he has; that is undisputed,” she said, referencing his position as senator and chair of the health committee. “I have worked in the community, I have worked as an attorney, I am someone that is educated, and in a field where I am an advocate for people,” she said.

 

“It was my job to understand the law, and to implement the law when I was defending my clients or seek, at least, that the law was justly implemented. We are different, but am I qualified? Am I someone that is doing this for the right reasons, which, to me, is always just about the people? And am I someone that has taken on this campaign with the sole view of making sure that our priorities are aligned with the people of the district, and that their needs are preferred? That is who I am.”

 

Early voting began on Aug. 13 and runs to Aug. 21. The last day to apply in person for an absentee ballot for the primary is Aug. 22. Election Day is Aug. 23 and polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. The last day to postmark a primary election ballot is Aug. 23, the last day to deliver a primary ballot in person to your county board or any poll site in your county by close of polls is Aug. 23, the last day a primary election ballot can be received by the county board is Aug. 30.

 

Your poll site may have changed. Check your voting card before you go to vote.