Queens Courier: Dromm Will Fight for More After-School Funding

From Queens Courier:
by Claudia Cruz

If the turnout at the fourth District Council 25 candidate forum is any indication, the district’s primary election could be one of the most exciting in the borough.

As the available chairs quickly disappeared, a crowd packed into the Diversity Center of Queens to hear the four candidates – Daniel Dromm, Stanley Kalathara, Alfonso Quiroz and incumbent Councilmember Helen Sears – respond to questions prepared by community organizations.

Dromm, who highlighted his 25 years as a teacher, said that he would fight for after-school programs and, in Spanish, that more money should allocated to teach English.

A representative of Make The Road New York, a social justice community organization, asked about the tenant-landlord issues as related to Vantage Management and Apollo Investment Corporation, support of tenant associations and the preservation of affordable housing in Queens.

Having recently marched with Make The Road against abusive landlords, Dromm said he has organized tenants and been a member of a tenant association. Kalathara said that abuses continue because there are no regulations. Quiroz said that it was important to fight how landlords treat people. “People [have] the right to keep and stay in their houses,” he said. Sears said that “bad landlords had no right in New York City.”