Election 2013: Republican mayoral candidates

John Catsimatidis: John Catsimatidis, the CEO of Red Apple Group and Gristedes, immigrated to New York City from Greece as a young child, settling in Harlem. After graduating from Brooklyn Tech, he enrolled at NYU, working at a small grocery store on nights and weekends to help his parents with the bills, but dropped out to work full time.

By the time he was 25, he had 10 Red Apple Supermarkets along Broadway on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Forty years later, the Red Apple Group has holdings in the retail, energy, aviation and real estate sectors. He currently serves on the Board of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and the Hellenic Times Scholarship Fund.

As mayor, Catsimatidis would like to reduce the dropout rate by increasing career and technical education in the New York City public school system. Funding for these programs, he says, can be done through “partnerships with the private sector that can ‘adopt’ a school or sponsor programs.”

Catsimatidis believes that “small businesses are the life-blood of every city neighborhood, providing jobs and economic advancement.” If elected, one way he would help small businesses would be by creating a small business advocate for the city that would act as an “ombudsman” for the small business community and answer directly to the mayor.

Editor’s Note: Request for information from the candidate’s campaign was not received as of press time; therefore, this information was retrieved from the candidate’s campaign website.

 

Joe Lhota: Joe Lhota, whose last position was chair of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, said that he is running for mayor because he wants to see the city continue to progress.

“I have the vision to move the city forward, the principles, as well as the experience at executive levels in city government,” Lhota said, adding that he served as the finance commissioner, budget director and deputy mayor for operations during the Giuliani administration.

Lhota added that his experience working in the private sector will help “move the city in the right direction.

“I will focus on making sure our economy expands, by creating really good paying jobs in good industries,” he said, adding that Mayor Bloomberg already “planted seeds” with new college campuses popping up all over the city, including NYU and Polytech’s applied sciences campus in Downtown Brooklyn and Cornell University’s new campus on Roosevelt Island.

“I want to reform the public school system,” Lhota added. “It’s better, but we have a long way to go, making sure our children are properly educated to survive in the 21^st century.”

Lhota said he would also continue enhancing the city’s quality of life, by keeping “the city affordable and have the crime rate drop and not allow it to go up.”

Joe Lhota spoke with this paper over the phone.

 

George McDonald: George McDonald, founder of the DOE Fund, said that he is running for mayor in order to serve communities that have been neglected during the current administration.

“It’s time to bring some economic opportunities to those areas,” he said. “Principally, the places where you take a map of poverty, unemployment and crime, turn out to be all the same communities.”

McDonald said that he has had 25 years of experience, “working with people at the bottom of the economic ladder.

“The tide rises and certain person’s boats are anchored to the bottom,” he explained. “They don’t have the benefit of economic recovery that we cycle through. They always stay at a relatively depressed economic state.”

If elected, McDonald said that he would focus first on public safety.

“I already know who I would select as police commissioner. The day after the election I would begin a top-to-bottom review of personnel needs, policies and procedures,” he said. “We need to determine whether or not we need more police officers. There’s lots of rhetoric about that.”

McDonald also said that he would use the “purchasing power of New York City to create jobs” and create a housing plan.

“I have an eight point plan on how we can build another 150,000 units of new affordable housing. In addition, I have a plan to build 75,000 units of efficiency apartments with 275 square feet of a unitized kitchen, bathrooms and closets,” he explained. “That’s for people who are just getting their start in New York.”

As for education, McDonald said he would implement a plan that is already being used in San Francisco.

“Every child who registers for kindergarten would open up an account with Citibank and $50 would be put in. If they qualify for free lunch, $100 would be put in,” he explained. “The city matches the savings of every parent and child over the years and at the end of the process there’s also a philanthropic element. It would help people sponsor classes and schools.

“This is a mechanism where people can actually contribute and help this problem of affordability for college,” he went on, adding that the money can also go to vocational or technical training. “It’s a way of showing each and every child that we value them.”

George McDonald spoke with this paper over the phone.