A thousand problems in Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, New York is the only town in Westchester County that has two train tracks running its lengths. One, the Harlem Line of the Metro North, runs straight up the west side of it, along the Bronx River border of Yonkers. The other, the New Haven line, parts west in the top of the Bronx and weaves a wavy line through the middle of Mount Vernon, a four-square-mile city with — by 2013 count — more than 67,000 people, nearly 23,000 from out of country, with what is known to be one of the largest West Indian communities in the United States. It’s also extremely common to be told by a resident of any age, “I’ve been here all my life.” It’s a world unto itself, with its own politics, its own drama, and its very evident and ongoing hope that it could be the suburb, the peaceful but alive commuter city outside of the city, that it wants to be.
The Democratic primary for Mount Vernon is this week on September 10th, and five people, including a state senator, are out to unseat the four-but not consecutive-term mayor, Ernie Davis. Four of those opponents are fellow Democrats, and thus are competing for the primary. Technically, Deborah Reynolds, a city councilwoman, was also running as Democrat until some of the signatures she collected to be on the ballot were found to be false, leading to her removal from the party line. Undeterred, Reynolds came right back as a Conservative to compete in the general election. She was also removed by police from a budget hearing in January. The mayor had her removed for interrupting someone about children’s safety at the local YMCA. While two officers escorted her out and applause broke out, she shouted at the mayor, “You should be escorted out of here for raising our taxes!” Meanwhile, Mayor Davis is on a two year parole for two counts of tax evasion.
I went up to Mount Vernon last Saturday, three days before the last debate, taking the New Haven Line to the Mount Vernon East stop. Though the city has three railroad stations, none of them are directly in downtown areas. So the first thing outside the station is a huge parking lot and little to see save for the towering Department of Social Services building a couple blocks off. I walked down a desolate block with trees and bushes on one side and a nondescript brick wall on the other, over a rough, cracked sidewalk with grass growing through it. A lot, but not all, of Mount Vernon has sidewalks like this, especially on the south side, which has no immediately obvious borders with the northeast Bronx, except that here the street signs have numbers spelled out. But here is one of those odd sights that are very discreetly Mount Vernon. A small street called Cooley Place, where modest houses are perched on a cliff, overlooking a power plant, a school bus lot, and in the distance, a building in New Rochelle. This brought me to Third Street, a wide commercial strip that lacks commerce. Thus, the annual event, Arts On Third, a festival that would fill the street with music and thousands of people the next day, you just wouldn’t know it. The event is a huge hit in Mount Vernon and came about in 2000 under Mayor Davis, who first held office from 1996 to 2007. During the four years of the Clinton Young administration from 2008 to 2011, there was no Arts on Third. When Davis returned to city hall in 2011, the arts came back. But on a typical afternoon like this, there are more cars than pedestrians. Richard Thomas, the youngest candidate at 32 and a councilman who just dropped his job in the energy industry to run, had said in a debate he wants to “fill these vacant storefronts.” One place that looked vacant, a place called Mike’s Auto Repair Shop, had two signs on the door reading “Funeral”. At a close look through the glass, there were hearses in there. I continued down the strip, past auto shops, a car wash, a jerk chicken place and turned at Kingston Deli down South Columbus Avenue, a really quaint residential street where a voice wailed with a band from the Seventh Day Adventist Church, where some guys in their church suits were talking outside. On the lawn of a house across the street, were two signs for Maureen Walker, the city’s 20-plus year comptroller who’s run several times and lost the mayoral election in 2011 with 2,902 votes coming closest to Mayor Davis’ 3,003, and is from Guyana.
The whole point of going this way was to visit Memorial Field. At the bottom of a residential street in the southeast corner of the city is this wasteland. Through the side of someone’s house the field of dirt can be seen. The 12-acre field, built in 1930 was a major recreation site and arena that became neglected over time. In 2009, the county allocated $9.7 million from a “Legacy Program” created in 2001 for recreation spaces, towards renovating the field. This allocation happened during the mayorship of Clinton Young, who is running for a not-consecutive second term with support of Samuel L. Jackson, who he went to Morehouse with. The field closed in 2010. In summer 2011, Young and other officials appeared at a groundbreaking and demolition began. The green turned to brown. In a debate, Davis said the field was “closed” when he returned to office. Young launched his campaign last June at Memorial Field to go big on the fact that the field languished under Davis. The mayor, with a background in architecture, said he didn’t like Young’s specific plan, because it involved destroying “iconic” materials. The county estimated Davis’ alternative plan would jack the cost up by $5 million and refused to fund the project until the city could pay on its end. Memorial Field is a sore part in the election. I found though, a tennis court in action on the edge of the field. It opened a few months ago. The Mount Vernon Inquirer said “it appears that only players from outside Mount Vernon are using the courts, since you have to pay a hefty yearly membership fee to use the courts.” I wandered onto the dirt field. There were trucks on it, but nothing happening. The bleachers alongside the dirt are glorious, with long, concrete steps. It really is a ruin. I walked up the bleachers and overlooked the splendor until a man from the tennis court said I had to leave.
Across from Memorial Field on Sanford Boulevard, a main artery running through the bottom of the city, is a Target, which houses the only Starbucks in Mount Vernon. The whole eastern part of Sanford has a very middle class look with a Best Buy, a TD, a CVS, a Stop ‘n’ Shop and other chains. From there one could see the mega buildings of Co-op City, part of candidate Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson’s district, which consists of Mount Vernon, a huge section of the northeast Bronx, and Norwood. In a strip-mall parking lot, a man of West Indian descent barbecued meat and corn, talking to a lady passing by. I went inside a deli and ordered some curry chicken and ate it at a table by the window. Near me were two girls at the register and a guy eating at another table. At the other end of the deli a scene broke out between a man and a West Indian woman over I don’t know what. The woman shouted obscenities. The man shouted, for some reason, “I’ve got a thousand problems! I’m from Mount Vernon!”
*
The other side of Sanford Boulevard is less glossy. A decrepit house had a For Sale sign and a Maureen Walker sign in the high grass. A guy was puking next to the fence. On a broken fence of a used car lot were signs for Thomas, Walker and Davis next to a broken pay-phone. On my journey so far I’d seen lots of campaign signs, on front lawns, on telephone poles and on storefronts. But so far, one candidate’s name was missing. Oh, where are you, Deborah Reynolds?
A kid on a skateboard went by with headphones on dancing and singing “Billy Jean”.
A woman sitting alone on some steps at a church that didn’t look like a church on South Third Street looked like someone who votes. She had a West Indian accent and said she’d lived in Mount Vernon for 15 years and will vote for Richard Thomas, that 32 year-old candidate, who, calls himself the “Millennial” candidate who will draw people into town; who, is listed as Democrat, Republican and Independent; who, went to NYU and the London School of Economics on scholarship and became director of an energy industry advocacy group; who, allegedly used the “N” word during an outburst this summer, though he denied those allegations. The woman said the former mayor, Clinton Young, “had the chance,” Mayor Davis “had many opportunities” and Maureen Walker “had many opportunities and we didn’t give it to her.” She said, “I think we need new thoughts and new brains.” She said, “We don’t have a movie theater, we don’t have a field, we don’t have a stadium, I mean, we barely have a block of shopping on South Fourth Avenue.” I told her I just came from Memorial Field. She said, “It is like a big lump of dirt.” She said Thomas “disagrees with the burned down building and raggedy look” of the south side of town. A man and woman came up to the steps for the church. They said they actually moved out of Mount Vernon because they had a bad landlord. The woman sitting interjected, saying, “The city let the landlord override the everyday citizen.” She said, “You must have rights!”
*
The bottom of South Fourth Avenue, which that woman mentioned, is pretty industrial and quiet so I was in my head when Richard Thomas’ giant face appeared right next to me on a billboard attached to the back of a truck. He’d said months ago that he had raised more than $30,000 for his campaign. The truck driver said he just drove the truck.
Farther up, a few senior guys were sitting out on lawn chairs by a wall. They were Mayor Ernie Davis supporters. “I just like what he values, trying to get business into the city,” Joe Drakeford, 79, told me. I asked if Davis had accomplished that. “Why would all these buildings be built?” He said, “I’m going to give him the credit for that.” He’d lived in the city since 1958. Willie Brown, who’d been in town since 1976 and co-founded the Mount Vernon Classic Car Show in 1982, said his friend was referring to places such as Target, Best Buy and Family Dollar. “All those stores came in under Mayor Davis,” he said. Drakeford pointed to a high rise building, called Randy Daniels Towers at Grace Plaza, and credited that to Davis too. I asked Drakeford if more should be done and he nodded, echoing the words back. Then a guy named Dennis James said, “I’ve seen this city at its best.” I asked when that was. He said the late 50s. “You could walk the street without worrying about being mugged. You knew the police and the police knew you.” And Davis is like a flashback to those days, because he walks right down the street in a sweatsuit and talks to people. He “knows everybody. He’s at every baby’s Christening, every church.”
At the end of that block, where South Fourth becomes more busy with stores and pedestrians, two women were yelling at each other. In the street by a car a whole group of people were having a loud conversation involving candidate Maureen Walker, the comptroller. When I asked to talk to them they dissipated except for Keith Brown, 47, who told me he sees in Richard Thomas, “new blood.” There were two women handing out Thomas pamphlets at the intersection there at Second Street. “Mount Vernon’s been shot to the dogs,” one of them, Yvonne Garrett, who’s been in the city for all of her 50-plus years told me. She said there used to be places to shop, go to the movies, or go bowling, but now one has to go to New Rochelle or Pelham for those things.
A guy came into Dunkin’ Donuts handing out Richard Thomas pamphlets to all the people sitting around. When I asked him questions, he told me the address of the Thomas campaign office, which I had walked right by on South Fourth. At the office, the two women from Second Street were there by a long table with literature on it and Thomas himself appeared, phone to his head. He recognized me from when I covered city council meetings there in 2012, a time in which I remember he and Deborah Reynolds getting into disputes all the time. He said it would be alright if I followed him around. Outside, I met Floyd Myers, a former Mount Vernon commissioner of recreation, and, he said, brother of Heavy D. When Heavy D died in 2011, the funeral service was held at Grace Baptist Church on South Sixth Ave, Usher, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Jay-Z, Queen Latifah and P. Diddy, also a Mount Vernon native, attended, and the Reverend Al Sharpton had the honored rapper’s daughter read a statement from President Obama. Myers said I was riding with him, which turned out to mean with him and Thomas, in a very posh car. After Thomas finished a call in the seat in front of me, he said he now had support from the police department. I acknowledged that meant police and fire. He said the firefighters “helped raise me.”
He said his top issue is public safety. The recorded number of violent crimes, including aggravated assault and robbery, between 2005 and 2014, mainly stayed in the 600s, but did fall after Davis returned by 2012, to last years count of 481. In that decade, the number of murders varied between 2 and 11. Clinton Young says he “reduced the murder rate in Mount Vernon by 87%.” To be clear, the number of murders in his four years were this: 11, 10, 3, 6. The year two murders happened was two years before he came in, in 2006.
On the sidewalk were a bunch of kids wearing RICH THOMAS shirts with campaign materials in hand. Myers said they were “local volunteers.” Thomas elaborated that “parents who sign our petitions offered their kids to help.”
We stopped by an apartment building on South Seventh Avenue near West Third Street. Some teenage guys were hanging around out front, one smoking a cigarette as Thomas walked by him. One asked Thomas if he were running for mayor. And one said, “Davis is a piece of shit. I need a job.” With no real response at the door we turned back and someone mentioned “Heavy D’s brother.” Myers turned back and had a conversation with the guys, giving his personal cell phone number.
We walked down the side of a low-rise but long apartment complex to a backyard area that had an above-ground pool, a volleyball court, tents, tables and a deck area where people were barbecuing and talking in the late afternoon. One woman called out, “I’ve got nothing but love for ya baby!” I wondered if Myers has had enough of that line by now. Thomas did baby talk with a baby. He also has a picture of himself touching his pregnant wife’s belly on his campaign pamphlet, and he mentioned that she was expecting to give birth in two weeks. In what felt like a long period of time, Thomas’ team fought for the support of five people. A woman named Coleen Fraser was really at the core of this. She wore a Thomas button but also a Davis button, saying she wished the mayor also swung by. Another woman said, “I don’t even know why Clinton signed up.” Fraser said the youth is her main issue, which, segued the conversation towards recreation. “Think about Memorial Field for a minute,” Thomas said. His plan involves using schools around the city to donate their fields while the project gets back together. The talk somehow organically moved towards economic stimulation. Thomas said, “I don’t want to have to move away from Mount Vernon because the park is closed and there’s no nice restaurants.” A woman said, “I hate Mount Vernon.” Thompson’s age came up. He referenced Martin Luther King Jr., who died at 39, and Jesus, who died at 33.
*
A couple days later, on Labor Day, the day before the final debate and three before the primary, I went back to Mount Vernon and got off the Harlem Line train at the stop in a northerly neighborhood called Fleetwood, where the sidewalks are smooth. I was hoping that, even for Labor Day, the campaign offices up here would be running anyway, but they weren’t. Davis’ office is next to a laundromat on Broad Street, part of a lower-key downtown area with small businesses and a big CVS and a Chase. Very few people were there in the sun but a man and woman who might have been in their thirties, who grew up in Mount Vernon, and who were African American, came walking by talking and the name Maureen Walker came up. “It’s been intense,” the woman said. I asked if she’d ever seen in Mount Vernon a mayoral election like this one. She said, “I haven’t.” The man said, “Not with this many candidates.” The woman said, “It’s five.” I reminded them Reynolds makes six. The woman counted on her fingers and still got five. I asked if she was leaning towards anyone. She said she wasn’t sure. The man said he was leaning towards Davis. Then the woman said, “I wouldn’t mind. I wouldn’t be mad if he won.” She said, “He understands the city,” and the man echoed it. The woman said, “I think some of the candidates are just hypothetical what they’ll do.” She said, “I think they’re not ready.” I asked about Hassell-Thompson. The man said, “As a state senator she hasn’t done much for Mount Vernon.” I asked if people were less aware of her. The man said, “Everybody knows Ruth,” and the woman echoed it. I asked why they were talking about Walker. “I think she has a chance,” the woman said. “I enjoy her because she hasn’t played a part in the mudslinging.” I asked if Walker had good ideas. “I’m sure she does,” she said. “I mean she’s been the comptroller for a long time so she knows the city. Some of the candidates don’t know the city because they haven’t been enrolled.” She said, “Even Clinton. He’s been mayor so-” The man then remembered Clinton Young and started counting to himself. “You’re not gonna’ get it right the first time,” the woman said, adding, “But they do have experience in the city: Maureen, Davis…” I asked if the council-members (Thompson and Reynolds) were the least qualified. “I’m not gonna say. I don’t know if they’re qualified,” she said. The man said, “Six.” The woman said, “That’s six?” The man said, slowly, “Clinton, Davis, Ruth, Maureen, Richard, and Reynolds.” The woman said, “The councilmen, I just think, they’re in more than what they think.” The man said, “Richard Thomas is the dark horse. He might surprise everybody.”
Up on Gramatan, which makes a T with Broad to form the shopping area, and later turns into South Fourth Avenue, was Hassell-Thompson’s campaign office in a storefront with the lights off. The state senator’s campaign website says she “made tough decisions to balance the state budget.” We all know what that means. It says she increased state aid to education and seniors and she worked towards the state’s 2% tax cap. She sponsored some big liberal pieces of legislation and opposed Stop-and-Frisk. VoteSmart.org says gun people don’t like her but labor, education and environmental people think she’s pretty great. Before the state’s 2011 gay marriage law passed she spoke out in favor of it, referencing her brother, who was gay. She’s had the seat since 2000. She worked as a nurse at Mount Vernon Hospital from 1963 to 1998. She specialized in substance abuse counseling and later got involved in consulting minority-owned and small businesses and promoting women in business. She has a bunch of awards, including one for helping people with HIV. Her committees are related to health and business but also crime and the judiciary. She came into this seventh term with 98% of the vote. Still, a district leader from Mount Vernon, Crystal Collins, who is running for the seat now, argues that Hassell-Thompson is weak on crime, unemployment and the cost of housing.
I was then surprised when I saw Thomas’ other campaign office there on Gramatan. I saw it on Saturday, but I hadn’t realized that Sunny’s Sushi Bar had closed.
At that point, I called Coleen Fraser, the two-button woman. She said she was still undecided between Thomas and Davis. “I’ve been supporting Ernie for many years,” she said. But Thomas’ emphasis on young people, making sure they have jobs and positive things to do, speaks to her heart. For a while I kept asking her about this because it felt like something was missing and she would only tell me that she has nieces and nephews and that young people “have nothing to do.” So I moved on to Mayor Davis. “The one thing that Mr. Davis has, he has a great personality, he’s a people’s person. And he will win people over because of his personality. He’s very approachable.” I said other people said the same thing but I wasn’t sure how those attributes materialize into quality of life in the city or into policy. She suggested that if Davis sat down with younger people he could make “the city grow.” I asked why Thomas went to see her on Saturday. She said, “My son was shot a few years ago.” In April, 2007, Fraser’s son, Adrian, who was 16 at the time, was shot in the arm and the leg. “It was a disease, of young people dying within our city, and when something like that actually happens to you personally, you look at things differently. Because we, as people within the city, have expected a lot of these things, to be the norm.” I asked why she spoke in the past tense. She said, “It is basically the same. It makes you question our leadership. Like I said, my loyalty has always been with Mr. Davis. But we’re doing something that’s definitely wrong.”
*
I walked down Locust Street, a block removed from the western edge. Here, as in much of Mount Vernon, the houses and the streets are peachy. I saw the Horizon, a chic mid-rise. The developer, who’s said he grew up in Mount Vernon, took on the project in 2010 during Young’s term. A previous developer ditched it in 2008 because of the Financial Crisis.
MacQuesten Parkway on the edge of town is deceitfully named with industrial zoning on the outside by the rails and houses on the inside. Where it meets Mount Vernon Avenue, I saw that a corner lot with make-shift walls had a to-be-developed sign for something called The Modern. The project took off late last year under Davis, the only candidate with campaign signs on the site.
*
The Journal News and the United Black Clergy of Westchester hosted the final Democratic debate at the Friendship Worship Center in the middle of town. The hall is one of those big, fancy rooms with high-end carpeting and golden hues and a giant chandelier. I estimated about 200 people filled the chairs and stood in the back. From left to right in the panel were Comptroller Maureen Walker, the incumbent, Mayor Ernest Davis, former mayor, Clinton Young, State Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson and Councilman Richard Thomas. I looked around for Councilwoman Deborah Reynolds. The moderator from the Journal News said that the primary is considered the final election in the highly Democratic city.
During opening statements, Young said Mount Vernon was “respected” during his term. In a calming speech, Davis said that under Young “people had lost hope.” He said, “Were you happy when former mayor Clinton Young was in office?” Members of the audience moaned in understanding. Walker said Mount Vernon “could be a bustling city” and that “we are so strategically located in Mount Vernon that we could utilize our potential.”
Davis, who had a number of interesting phrases, said the “tax cap is a gimmick that was created by the government.” Young said taxes went up 30% under Davis these last four years. Thomas, in his turn, said he did the calculations and taxes also went up approximately 30% under Young’s single term. The audience made an “ooo” sound. Young said Thomas as a councilman had supported 94% of Davis’ agenda and Thomas said that was misleading.
Walker’s whole angle on crime is to focus primarily on schools so young people are less likely to get into trouble.
Hassell-Thompson said to the first hundred days question, “The fact that I show up the first day will make a difference.”
The Journal News moderator asked where Mount Vernon falls into the national conversation on race issues and policing — but it spiraled in a different direction. Davis said, “We don’t have enough money coming into this city to provide services” to prevent those issues and that Hassell-Thompson should try to get the state to stop “sucking money from this city.” He said, “We don’t need the senator as mayor. We need the senator as senator.” A collective “Mmhmm.” Those two went back and forth at each other while people hollered in between. Hassell-Thompson eventually said, “There are local initiatives that do not originate with the legislature. That it comes from the people. You see you’ve lost such touch with the people that you don’t really understand…” Big applause and hollering. Davis said, to the electorate, “If you insist on not understanding how things work you will have people who will say these things and you will clap for them. That is idiotic.” People made made a lot of noise. Young stood up and told everyone to be respectful. He went on until the moderator took over.
A similar thing happened with fire. Thomas said he would hire more firefighters though it is already in the budget. Davis said the department was well-equipped and he was interrupted by a man, identified as the department’s union president, shouting, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, don’t say that!” Davis said, “This is a union strategy to get overtime from the taxpayer.” He said, “Mount Vernon is good to the firefighters but we will not be ravaged by their greediness.” After Thomas’ rebuttal, Davis said, “You’re clapping for — You say you want taxes to be reduced. But you don’t want to do the things that cause taxes to rise. It makes no sense.”
Maureen Walker accidentally said, “In my first one hundred years as mayor.”
On term limits, Davis said, “We already have term limits. I lost the election in 2007. My term was over.”
On development, Hassell-Thompson said Walker’s term, “metropolis” is a buzzword, that people “come to Mount Vernon because of the way it was planned.” She said Donald Trump destroyed the Upper West Side. She said, “Mount Vernon is a city of homes. Now it’s a city of jumble because anyone could build anything the way they like.” The moderator put it towards the Millennial candidate in terms of “gentrification.” Thomas said, “We’ll get back our housing authority” to “diversify the types of housing so we can grow into the future.”
The moderator said “Memorial Field” and the audience went “MmHmm.” The mayor suggested that the tennis operation at Memorial Field is significant, and that there’s talk of bringing Serena Williams to town, that he invited everyone to go see all the good progress down there, that the county is holding the money. Thomas said locals can’t afford to play tennis there. Young said, “There is no excuse. Absolutely, positively, no excuse.” Thomas said the county doesn’t trust the city with the money.
And that brings us to corruption. Young said he would bring back the position of inspector general that existed during his term. “Under the circumstances in which I came to office, there was scandal. There was no inspector general. I brought an inspector general in during my four years. There is no scandal. After I leave office there is no inspector general and there is scandal.” Walker said the IG led to higher taxes, that Young hired his sister as a commissioner, which he did, and that “the inspector general was hired specifically to go after Maureen Walker.”
The moderator asked if Davis had nice words for Young. Davis said, “Frankly, I love Clinton.” He said, “I wanted to groom him to be mayor. But he didn’t finish the course. I wanted to groom Councilman Thomas but he flunked the course.”
*
When the crowd got going, some of the candidates were having conversations. Hassell-Thompson actually approached me and I admitted I was just trying to eavesdrop on her. So she explained that she was talking about an issue involving Con Ed. A West Indian woman with a Thomas button hugged her and I pointed out the button. Hassell-Thomas said, “That doesn’t mean that people don’t like me.” I asked what she thought of Davis conveying her as a good legislator lacking what it takes to be mayor. She said, “I present the greatest threat to him,” and that, given her experience, “this is not an experiment for me.” I asked why, considering the size of her district, she wanted to focus on Mount Vernon. She said, “This is my home. My parents came here in the early Twenties. My parents put down roots here.” Clinton Young hugged her. She said, “Even my opponents like me.” She said, “I don’t have animosity in this race.” I asked her what truly motivated her to run, if it was because of incompetency in government or because of other issues. She said, “It’s about competency about the way government is run.” She talked about her “tough choices” such as cutting funds for education. “We weren’t happy,” she said, “but we closed prisons and we created alternatives to incarceration.” I said, so it’s about the budget. She said it’s about the budget and trust. She said she’d learned a long time ago that children respond to actions, not words. And that people are the same.
*
The night air felt good outside and I walked west down Lincoln Avenue, a residential thoroughfare that runs along the bottom of the north side. I walked past Hartley Park with its gate and its gazebo, to the traffic circle at Gramatan. In the middle of it is a fountain with a statue of a Spanish-American War soldier. Mayor Davis had it built a decade ago over budget at $2 million. It’s pretty glamorous, with water rising musically and lights changing colors.
Gramatan from here on down is all business and neon lights at night. People were working out on machines in the Xtreme Gym. Some were having drinks in a fancy bar. One barbershop had no customers. Another had some, one with a blue braid and a tight shave on one side. Some people were getting slices in the dim red light of Pizza King.
In the Dunkin’ Donuts, a young guy behind me said, “I believe it will be between Davis and Thompson.” These were two men and two women in their twenties. I pulled up a chair. One of the girls, in blue, showed me a post on the Mount Vernon Republicans Matter Facebook page declaring “Our candidate in November, Rich Thomas, embraces our values of slashing taxes and smaller government.” That put her off. The other girl, in a sweatshirt, said Thomas might switch parties if he loses the primary. A guy in a white t-shirt kept saying small government means “cutting programs.” He was the one saying it would be Davis and Hassell-Thompson in the end. He was undecided. He said Young “proved to be ineffective,” and was “not visible for most of his term. He really didn’t make his presence known.” He said, “What difference did he make in this city?” The girl in blue firmly supported Hassell-Thompson. She thought Thomas should be more public that he’s also Republican. The guy in the white t-shirt said, “Personality-wise, he is easier to gravitate to.” The girl in the sweatshirt brought up Thomas’ alleged outburst with the “N” word, and a recent debate when Thomas said he “wouldn’t hire a pizza man to be a water commissioner,” which people took as a derogatory remark against Anthony Bove, the water commissioner who had owned a local pizza place. The girl in the sweatshirt said she was “still debating” but it’s “probably gonna be Ruth.” She said, “At the end of the day she’s the only one who has receipts,” with major accomplishments in her career. The guy in the white t-shirt said, “Ruth Hassell-Thompson has a following.” The girl in the sweatshirt said the senator’s backing from the unions was a good sign. She said Young’s whole spiel is Memorial Field. The other guy who was there said he supported Davis but didn’t say much and then left. The guy in the white t-shirt also left shortly after. I asked the two women if they planned to stay in Mount Vernon. They said “No.” I asked what they thought of Thomas calling himself the Millennial candidate. The girl in blue said, “Not this Millennial’s candidate.” I asked if they thought a “Millennial candidate” existed. They said it was just age, not generation, which I think means no. The girl in the sweatshirt admitted she believed Thomas “is the only one with a concrete plan.” She said, “No one else has a legitimate plan. That’s what bothers me.” I asked about Walker. The girl in the sweatshirt said her mother would possibly vote for her. I asked if her mom was West Indian and she said no, but her mom appreciates Walker’s financial experience. When I got up to leave, the girl in the sweatshirt told me to be safe.
The area where Gramatan turns into South Fourth Avenue, at the bridge over the New Haven Line tracks, was quiet. It was around 10:25. I crossed the bridge and walked west down First Street following those tracks across the street. Down at Scout’s Bridge I crossed back over to Mount Vernon Avenue where a swath of sidewalk at the corner looks like a tank ran over it next to a vacant lot full of grass. I got water from a deli that was open late with Latin music playing. It didn’t have a sign with a name. Down at the bottom of the street near that new development project I was suddenly afraid of rats because there was no lighting except for a patch of red light made by neon flames in the window of a tattoo parlor.
Up on the Mount Vernon West station platform I sat on a concrete bench next to a poster for the U.S. Open with a picture of Serena Williams on it. There weren’t any people around. I faced east, towards an open garage and a wall with graffiti. I could hear a cricket chirping and cars whooshing down the Bronx River Parkway. I thought about how the girl in the sweatshirt said Young’s whole thing was Memorial Field, which seemed so far away on the other side of town. An express train came from the north blowing my notebook pages. Some people speaking Spanish or maybe Portuguese walked by. Some other voices were down the platform. I thought about how the girl in the sweatshirt said to be safe.
Update: Richard Thomas was elected mayor of Mount Vernon.
