As the incumbent assemblyman representing Assembly District 81 since 1994, Jeffrey Dinowitz is both a seasoned politician and candidate when it comes to election campaigns. He has seen off a number of political challengers over the course of his political career to retain his Northwest Bronx seat and appears adamant to keep it that way.

Given his many years in office, and the countless pieces of legislation on which he has worked throughout his career, Norwood News asked Dinowitz if he could speak to what he felt were the top three priorities for his current campaign. “It’s really hard to narrow things down to three – it’s housing, health care and environment or sometimes housing, health care and crime, because the truth is, there are more than three issues,” he said, in part. On housing, the assemblyman said he has been a statewide leader, citing the various eviction moratorium bills, the Tenant Safe Harbor Act, more recent legislation that prevents landlords from charging legal fees without a court order, and laws relating to the charging of air conditioners.

“Those are all my bills,” he said. “And I’ve had others beyond that: the legislation which we passed not too long ago that mandates that when the court orders a repair of a building, it has to be done within a certain time period.” Dinowitz was referencing “Jashawn’s Law,” State legislation which was passed in 2020, almost 18 years after a tragic Norwood fire took the life of 9-year-old Jashawn Parker. The bill was put forward by Dinowitz in 2003 in response to the Aug. 6, 2002 blaze at 3569 DeKalb Avenue. At the time, the building had over 350 building code violations, and its owner had been ordered to make repairs by a housing court judge, but those repairs were never made.

“That took many years for me to get passed,” said Dinowitz, before adding that he’s probably lead more tenants’ legislation in the assembly than any other member. “I focus on housing issues, because we want people to be able to stay in their homes,” he said. “We don’t want to see people thrown out on the street, particularly during the pandemic.”

Dinowitz, whose son, Eric, is the councilmember for City Council District 11, which covers much of the same political jurisdiction as A.D. 81, said having grown up and lived in The Bronx all his life, and having lived in all types of housing, he has a deep understanding of housing issues, and how they are basic to people’s needs. “I lived in a rent-controlled walk-up when I was young. I lived in NYCHA public housing, I’ve lived in rent-stabilized housing, Mitchell Lama; I’ve lived in it all,” he said.

On healthcare, he said he has been a longtime advocate and co-sponsor of the New York Health Act, which aims to expand the scope of healthcare coverage in New York State. “It’s been years in the making. I think we’re getting closer to it, but we haven’t gotten there yet,” he said. “But to me, that’s very important. I’ve [put] a lot of focus in the area of vaccinations. I have been the foremost advocate for vaccines in the State legislature. A few years ago, just two or three years ago, I passed legislation which mandated that there will no longer be non-medical exemptions to vaccine requirements in schools.”

He said prior to that, many people were getting exemptions for their kids based upon what he believed were false claims. “The vaccination rates had gone down, and this was at a time when measles was on the upswing. So, we passed this legislation, and it was very controversial, but I got it through.”

He continued, “I’m absolutely convinced that this legislation, this law, has saved lives, and more recently, I’ve been a leading spokesperson, in terms of encouraging more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.” Indeed, as reported, the assemblyman received some heat from some parents and others within the local community who were very much against the COVID-19 school vaccine mandate.

Nonetheless, Dinowitz refused to back down, receiving widespread support from across the State for his stance on the issue, particularly when protestors showed up, displaying swastikas and yellow stars outside the Jewish assemblyman’s home and constituency office. He also backed legislation to prevent the use of fake vaccination cards.

“You’ve seen some of the opposition to my position at some of these disgusting displays of Nazi symbolism by vaccine opponents,” he said. “I’ve also got a bill passed just this session which mandates insurance coverage for colorectal screening for people aged 45 that was not mandated previously, and it’s very important that people be screened for that.”

He mentioned how the issue had received a lot of publicity after the actor, Chadwick Boseman, died of colon cancer at the young age of 45. “It was terrible. So now, that’s being mandated as part of insurance coverage. So those are just a few examples of some of my accomplishments with respect to health issues,” he said, while acknowledging that the pandemic had highlighted the grave disparities among people who had and did not have healthcare, and how race played a further role in this.

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More recently, in terms of one of his other priorities – the environment – the assemblyman was behind the passage of the Climate Change Superfund Act. Described as first-in-the-nation legislation, it will use the “polluter-pays model” exemplified by existing federal and State superfund laws to collect $30 billion over ten years for climate change adaptation from the parties most responsible for causing the climate crisis – fossil fuel companies.

On crime, Dinowitz said, “I think that people are very concerned about the fact that the crime rate has risen significantly in the past couple of years since the pandemic, and while it’s true that it’s nothing approaching what it was at the height of the crime waves of the late 80s and early 90s, it’s still a huge concern.”

He added, “Many people do not feel safe, whether it’s on the streets or on the subway, and we need to do more to address that situation. We, in the legislature, we passed a package of 10 anti-gun bills which I think is very, very important,” adding that he was very proud of the bills. “But that’s only one part of it. I think that we need to address many of the other issues.”

He commended the anti-gun violence, anti-gang, and drug counseling work carried out by Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, based in Norwood. “I just got them a quarter of a million-dollar grant to work with teenagers,” he said. “It’s the things that we want to keep young people away from. I don’t think police are the answer to everything, but I think those who call for the defunding of police are way off base. I’m pretty sure I’m the only candidate running in this race that doesn’t want to defund the police.”

Asked for his view on whether police should be present when dealing with people who have mental health issues, he said, “Well, I think everything has its time and place. There will be some instances where having a mental health counselor may be the right answer, but if you have somebody who can be an immediate danger to either themselves or other people, and the police are there, it may not be advisable for the police to wait for a mental health counselor. Sometimes the police have to try to address the situation. So, it really depends on the individual situation. We have to do things in a smart way.”

We put forward the view to the assemblyman that there are those who would say some of the recent legislative wins could have been achieved earlier had the assemblyman pushed for them harder and earlier in his career and that this is why some people feel perhaps it’s time for a change in representation in the Northwest Bronx.

“Well, if you want change, you should vote for me, because I’ve been putting forth change as long as I’ve been in office: good change,” he said. “There are many people in various jobs that have been there for a long time, not just in elected office. You know, what if a teacher has been doing a great job? Even to say that after an excellent review, they should no longer be a teacher, that just doesn’t make sense. If somebody does a good job, they should have the opportunity to continue at that job.”

He added, “So, as far as change, yes. Many of the things we just talked about are that change, making good things happen. That’s positive change, and I’ve been doing that as long as I’ve been in office.”

In terms of campaign contributions, we put it to the assemblyman that there are voters who may feel it’s preferable to vote for the candidate [Jessica Altagracia Woolford] in the Assembly District 81 race who does not appear to be beholden to any special interests, and who has committed to only accepting small-dollar donations from individuals.

Dinowitz replied, “Well, she could say that, but we really don’t know where all of her contributions came from, because if you look at her disclosure statement, some of her contributions aren’t itemized.” He added, “Every last one of my contributions are itemized. I have 100 percent transparency. She does not.” Norwood News reached out to Altagracia-Woolford for a comment on the point about her contributions not being itemized. She responded, saying, “That’s the comparison that a nearly 30-year incumbent… taking that scale of money from corporate PACs, questioning the small-dollar donors that we didn’t itemize, you know? To be clear, we follow the law, we follow all the rules with all of our filings, and I don’t take corporate money. I don’t take money from Pfizer. I don’t take money from the real estate industry.”

She added, “I’m also really proud of the fact that I’ve gotten a number of donations from folks that I’ve worked with deep in the trenches. I worked at an international labor union, I’ve worked for the 2016 Democratic National Convention, supporting Hillary Clinton to make sure that she had a platform and a vision that was clearly conveyed to people.” (Altagracia-Woolford also acknowledged the latter campaign was not ultimately successful.)

The challenging candidate concluded, “These are who my friends are: people that I’ve worked with, that I organized with here in New York and across the country. But we can look at who his friends are, and they’re corporations.”

The assemblyman added, “But I’ll say two things. First, I believe I have a very small number of contributions from some corporates, including Pfizer, the manufacturer of the vaccine that saved millions and millions of lives, probably, and the contribution was a mere $500. So, to say, ‘Oh, he takes corporate contributions,’ is really disingenuous because I have a lot of contributions. I have a significant number of contributions from individual people in my district.”

He continued, “She has just a tiny number of contributions from people in our district and in fact, I believe the majority, or close to the majority, of contributors are from out of state. What is it that is motivating people from places around the country to give her money for her campaign, but not people from the constituency that she’s going to serve?”

We also asked the assemblyman about his past endorsement of Sen. Jeff Klein, who as reported, headed up the Independent Democratic Caucus, an entity which blocked progressive legislation from being passed in the State legislature for many years.

“Well, we don’t really know what could have happened,” Dinowitz said. “To the people who want to harp on about a single endorsement out of hundreds of endorsements I’ve made over the years, that took place four years ago, I would suggest that we would be better off if people would look in front of them rather than behind them,” he said.

“You know what I’ve told my grandkids when they’re running and they like to look behind to see if their brother is getting close? Look in front of you. When you look behind you, that’s when you trip and fall. And for the people who could only look to the past, that’s really regrettable on their part. My record stands for itself. That was a single endorsement.” He added that perhaps with one exception, he generally endorses all his colleagues in office. “Elections are not about the past,” he said.

Assembly District 81 includes Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Van Cortlandt Village, Kingsbridge Heights, Marble Hill, Norwood, Woodlawn and Wakefield, and its borders are not affected by redistricting in the upcoming 2022 primary or general elections. New York State assembly district lines will be redrawn in time for the primary elections in 2024, according to a recent court ruling dated June 10, as reported.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.