Editor’s Note: On Friday April 11, Councilmember Helen Diane Foster—whose 16th District includes Highbridge—sat down for a one-on-one interview with the Horizon at her district office.

Among the many topics touched on during a nearly one-hour-long conversation were: The trial of officers charged in Sean Bell’s killing (“If we see another acquittal in this city,” Foster said two weeks before the verdict was announced, “it will be a sad day for all of New York City, and how we are looked at [not only]by ourselves but by the country”); the reasons she’s decided to run for Bronx Borough President in 2009; her feelings about current borough president Adolfo Carrión; the criticism she received in the media for missing the congestion pricing vote; and the impact that major development projects such as Yankee Stadium and the Gateway Mall could have on Highbridge residents.

Excerpts of that interview ran in the April issue of our publication, with more excerpts set to be published in the May issue.

However, in order to give readers a much fuller sense of the sweep of the interview, we are publishing a much larger portion of the interview below.

Highbridge Horizon: I know that after going to that meeting [a Feb 7 gathering Foster held with her constituents] and talking to you afterwords on the phone, you seemed to be leaning very strongly in favor of running for borough president. But it seems like you hadn’t officially decided. So I just wanted to check in with you about where you are in your thinking about that

Helen Diane Foster: Well, I officially decided that I am running for borough president. I haven’t officially announced it, meaning our official announcement press conference.

HH: When would you anticipate that would happen?

HDF: Sometime probably in the next 2 or 3 months.

HH: What are some of the deciding factors in determining when, exactly, that press conference would be?

HDF: Just time. Waiting ‘till after the budget. Making sure I get things done in terms of my city council job, that I don’t take time away from that.

HH: At the meeting I was at, there seemed to be a few different options under consideration, whether it be running for public advocate or running for borough president. Or, I know you said you were enticed by the prospect of taking a job in the Obama administration if he wins. What were some of the key factors that tipped the scale in favor of Borough President?

HDF: Well I think that the number one thing was that I knew I was going to run for public office. And I think that often times as elected officials, we forget to talk to the people who put us in office. And so I very much wanted to make sure there was a desire on the part of the constituents as well as the support being there for me to run for another office, period. And then to hear what the feedback was about public advocate versus borough president—as you know from that meeting, it was very clear that people were looking and expecting me to run for borough president. And so following the lead of the people, that’s what I guess was the tipping of the scale. But equally as important is making sure that whatever I do has the support of the constituents. It can’t be done alone.

HH: Would it be accurate to say that you went into that meeting leaning towards running for borough president?

HDF: No, I think it would be accurate to say I went into that meeting very open to hear what people wanted me to run for. It’s not Helen Diane Foster, it’s about a movement. It’s about a group of people. It’s about us working towards a common goal. And so I needed to hear from that group.

HH: What were some of the things as far as what you were hearing from people that night, or from what you’ve heard more generally from your constituents, that kind of pushed you in that direction?

HDF: I think clearly that they wanted me to focus on the Bronx, be in the Bronx, and run for borough president. The significance of being Black and being a woman and running for the highest position as borough president of the Bronx. But I think equally as important that was heard that night is that everybody wants to be a part of it. And in years past, there has not been that inclusive feeling for the Bronx borough president. It’s seemed and felt very exclusive.

HH: Can you elaborate a little bit what you mean by that?

HDF: There hasn’t been a feeling that the community has been involved. When we look at the Yankee Stadium vote, it was clear that the community board voted against it. The response by the Borough President wasn’t to hear what the community had to say, the response was to push it anyway and then take everybody off Community Board 4 that voted against the stadium. That’s just one example of how the borough has been very divided in terms of what the community wants versus what elected officials are saying you’re gonna have. And I think people are looking for leadership that isn’t controlled by county organization, isn’t controlled by interest groups, and isn’t controlled by corporate entities. What we’re looking for is leadership that’s controlled by the people.

HH: Given what you just said, how would you describe— during the time you’ve been on the City Council and he’s been the borough president—what your relationship has been like with Adolfo Carrion?

HDF: I think it’s cordial. I don’t have any ill will towards him. I think the defining moment for me and our relationship would be around Yankee Stadium. That hearing that was held at the courthouse where community people were kept out, the dismissal of community board people who have served and volunteered their time for years. I think that’s a defining moment, for me, about his leadership.

HH: Getting back to your own future plans: What are some issues that you would see presenting themselves very early on if you do win the borough presidency?

HDF: I think, again, that the Bronx is not a borough where we have the luxury of just one issue. And I think very early on, it has to be a balance of development, as we’re seeing around Bronx County – the balance between development and preservation of livelihoods of people who have invested and lived in the community. And I think that there’s a way to do it that it’s a win-win situation. And if nothing else, we’ve learned from Gateway and Yankee Stadium and even the water filtration plant that those are exactly the ways not to do it. And so I think that the first thing is letting the people know that whatever you’re feeling, I’m feeling too. So it’s not a “we” and “they.” It has to be an “us.”

HH: Let’s take the Yankee Stadium example. Had you been borough president at that time, how would you have handled the situation?

HDF: I would have liked to handle it where it could have been a win-win for the Yankees and for our community. I think that from the start, the city agencies needed to be told how it was gonna progress. I think the prime example was DOT and their survey. They only surveyed Yankee fans, they didn’t survey the community. The process started from the point where the community was disrespected. And I would have made sure that community voices were heard. And when I say heard, it’s not enough to hear it and then ignore it. I would have had some concerns that the attorney for the stadium was also one of the attorneys who works very closely with the Bronx County Organization. And I would have had conversations early on to see what we could have done with the Yankees, and Related in terms of the Gateway project, to build things to the south of the current stadium instead of the north, where you are much closer to residential facilities.

And then I would have called on elected officials like those on the West Side of Manhattan, like those who said, “A stadium isn’t appropriate for us, we don’t want it,” and ask them to join in the fight with us so that we could have created somewhere that it could have worked better and been a win-win. And also pointed out to the Yankees that it’s not sufficient to say “We’re gonna be good neighbors now,” when you need something. And really put your money where your mouth is. Prior to throwing crumbs from a community benefits agreement, what is your good faith effort?

And I just don’t think the leadership from the borough president was protecting or looking out for the interest of the Bronx and its residents. It seemed somewhat like the DOT study – the foremost was the Yankee organization. And I understand, you get caught up in the hype in terms of this is the Yankees and what has been done. But we have to separate the organization and what it’s meant to live in this community around Yankee Stadium versus being the team and a Yankee fan and wanting them to win.

HH: In a way this relates to a larger question: Obviously, there’s a lot of major economic development projects right now in Highbridge and the surrounding areas. What are some specific concerns you have, particularly in relation to the people of Highbridge ,about how these development projects could affect residents of this area?

HDF: Well I think one of the major ones that I’ve been talking with agencies that they need to do is just the transportation issue. If you’ve ever waited for the 13 bus, you might as well call it – it’s like government cheese line. Everything that’s been done in terms of the South Bronx Empowerment Zone and study and Yankee Stadium, has been done for the benefit of south of the stadium or east of the stadium and forgetting there’s people that live Ogden, Woodycrest, Summit. So the big concern is transportation and accessibility. When we were having this Yankee Stadium discussion, I wanted them to do renovations as far up as the Summit Avenue bridge, to look to purchase or find out who owns the parking lot on top of 167th and Ogden, renovate that into a park. There’s a lack of green space. We feel the impact like anyone else, maybe more so, and especially when that parking lot goes online, anyone who lives on Summit, University, Woodycrest will never be able to get off the Major Deegan at 161st Street exit to get up the hill, because that’s gonna be the one exit for the parking garage.

It’s not some invisible wall that you put up acting like this side of the Bronx— when it comes to Yankee Stadium or 161st Street and the development— doesn’t exist. Prime example: What’s gonna happen in a couple of days with the Pope’s visit? They have almost 900 buses coming in for the Pope. And of course it’s a once in a lifetime [event] and it has nothing to do with his visit, it has to do with the impact on the community and what type of notification has been given. And I’m sure – and maybe I’m wrong, but I’m sure – that a whole bunch of planning and conversations go on with all those buildings on 5th Avenue when they get ready for parades. What makes us any less deserving of that type of respect?

HH: Looking beyond even just the Yankee Stadium construction but to the development more generally with things like the Metro North [station] and the Gateway, obviously a lot of people in Highbridge are concerned—and I guess we can already see this happening – that all this development is going to push up the rents to the point where it’s going to price out a lot of people, like what’s happening in Harlem and other places. What do you feel in your current position on the city council, and going forward, if you were to win the borough presidency, you could do to protect people in Highbridge form these kind of things?

HDF: First of all, I think there has to be an inventory of city-owned property. Because what ended up happening, obviously, under the Giuliani administration, is so much city-owned property was sold for a dollar… We have what we have in Harlem, Washington Heights, and we know it’s gonna come right across the bridge. So there has to be an inventory of city-owned land that as much as possible we can look to the City Council. which has ultimate jurisdiction over it, to regulate the type of housing that goes up so that we can have a balance. We also don’t want to become the dumping ground for the shelters or only low-income housing. Because there is a correlation, obviously, with housing and school performance. We want to have multi-use, so that we are bringing dollars into the area.

If you look at Harlem and Washington Heights, you have Starbucks, and Chinese restaurants and things like that that we don’t have. Of course you have the places where you can get four wings and fried rice, but we don’t have an Empire Schezuan and somewhere you can go and sit and have food delivered…But also to make sure it’s realistic. Because a lot of this new housing that you find developers building is for the tax incentives and the apartments are like one bedroom and you can’t fit a bedroom set in the bedroom. So it’s a balancing act.

HH: Being on the City Council, the bulk of your political activity is on the local and citywide level. But obviously, we’re living in pretty historic times nationally. You’ve got the Iraq War entering its sixth year, and just within the last couple of days, there’s been these reports in the AP that administration officials all the way up to Cheney were having meetings authorizing torture. How do you see your role in the context of, on the one hand, being a politician on the city level, but also being shaped by these times that we’re in nationally?

HDF: Well, I think the first thing is being vocal and I think the problem is and has been that some of our elected officials aren’t vocal enough on the things we need to be talking about. We need to end this war. We need to bring our men and women home. But we also need to take care of our veterans who are already home. We need to say that our government was very complicit in the Iraqi War, and we knew there were no weapons of mass destruction. Having conversations that deal with truth are difficult. But they’re ultimately healing. It’s when we continue to sugarcoat things and say everything’s ok that the problems come. It’s not OK. We are facing very hard times in terms of the economy, in terms of Bronx County alone in terms of our health or lack thereof and the disparities that grow along with health. The fact that Black and Latino women’s AIDS rate is going up in our community. Young people, we need to start addressing this. We need to start talking to parents and saying “Your kid doesn’t need you to be their friend. They need you to be their parent.” And then you allow to raise tv to raise your child. Videos, BET. Don’t be surprised with the results you’re getting.

HH: This reluctance you’re talking about on the part of politicians to speak out on these issues- where do you think it comes from?

HDF: You can’t be everything to everybody. And we spend so much time as elected officials not wanting to step on so and so’s toes, and trying to be politically correct that that term has kind of become politically incorrect. Because to be correct is to speak up. And of course, it doesn’t mean to be offensive. It doesn’t mean you are attacking someone. It means that you are having conversations, and you’re expressing concerns that many of your constituents feel.

HH: Recently, the New York Times in particular was highly critical of you for missing the congestion pricing vote. I know you’ve talked about this, but as an elected official, shouldn’t you have taken extra steps to make sure you were present at that vote?

HDF: Such as controlling the weather?

HH: Explain what you mean.

HDF: I was out of the city. I was with family in Las Vegas, because someone was being honored, which was scheduled long before the City Council… congestion pricing vote. I got a call at 6am West Coast Time that we were gonna do the vote some time that day. It rained all day in New York, so much so that the home opener for the Yankees had to be cancelled. And there were tornadoes in the Midwest. So I couldn’t get a flight out. And that’s the bottom line. I did interviews with tons of newspapers and sent out a press release. The New York Times’ Ray Rivera told me if I didn’t tell him what flight I was on, who was being honored, and for what, he was going to write this piece so that it was bad for me. And I don’t take well to anybody threatening me and being a bully.

[Rivera responds: "I'll let the story speak for itself, but the notion that Councilwoman Foster was threatened in anyway is plain wrong. I called her simply to find out why she had been the only councilmember to miss what was no doubt the most important council vote of the year. Her answers were sufficiently vague, I did what any reporter would do, I asked for some basic details that would help verify her story, like her flight information. She was given ample opportunity to provide that information and declined to do so." Rivera added that he had told Foster the issue of her missed vote would be a "non-story' if she simply provided the requested information. "The tenor of our conversation was there was no reason for her not to provide this information," Rivera said.]

And anybody who knows me knows I’m not like many members of the Bronx delegation who said they were voting against congestion pricing and got down there and voted for it. I always was against it. I always have been against it. I don’t understand how a city, a Mayor, and elected officials—especially those from Bronx County—can be concerned about congestion and asthma and they weren’t concerned when they voted for Yankee Stadium. They weren’t concerned about asthma and they weren’t concerned about congestion.

HH: So when did you become aware that the vote was going to be on that Monday?

HDF: Monday morning.

HH: When was your original understanding that that vote was going to take place?

HDF: Sometime next week. [The week of March 31-April 4]

HH: Was there an argument to be made for flying back that Sunday in case they had that vote on Monday?

HDF: There’s an argument to be made, yes. I mean, I’m not gonna make it. But there’s an argument to be made. I think we’re missing the point that I was never a “yes” vote. The issue really has to do with the fact that the speaker and the Mayor threw around weight to get people to vote yes for something that was never gonna go through in the Assembly, and it was simpler in this situation to make me the scapegoat. My being there or not being there has no bearing on the fact that, number one, I was always no [vote]. Number two, if there were a way I could come back, why wouldn’t I come back? What was I conspicuously trying to avoid or miss? I mean, if we look at the voting pattern with the City Council and the Bronx delegation, it would have been more to my benefit to be there and go under the radar had I voted yes.

HH: Is there anything that you would have handled differently about that situation if you had it over?

HDF: Yeah, I wouldn’t have returned his [Rivera’s] call.

HH: But as far as the scheduling?

HDF: I don’t think the issue lies with my schedule. I think the issue lies with the Speaker and the City Council’s schedule.

HH: So they shouldn’t have had the vote on Monday?

HDF: No, they could’ve. But there was a whole delegation that was in the Dominican Republic. I guarantee you that many of those people knew the vote was happening Monday morning before 6am, which was 9am New York time. I guarantee you.

HH: To the best of your memory, what were Ray Rivera’s actual words ?

HDF: That whole “Helen, I’m trying to help you out.” The press is not my friend. Let’s not play. And he wanted the answers to the questions, and I told him I wasn’t giving it to him.

HH: When you say in general “the press is not my friend,” it seems like you’re talking about well more than just this one incident.

HDF: In general, your job is not to be – like I know you, I don’t consider you to be a confidante, a friend. I think you do a very good job reporting. But it would be foolhardy of me to talk to you as though you are not the press, and you are not here to write an interesting article. So if I said something totally off the wall and it’s in the paper, I can’t get mad at that because this is your job. So when I say the press is not my friend, we don’t have this relationship where “Let me let my guard down and say whatever I’m thinking or feeling.” So I don’t mean that in a negative way. I mean it in “it is.”

HH: So that wasn’t so much a commentary on how the press covers you?

HDF: Oh no, no no. Jobs. It’s people’s jobs.

HH: In that same article it says your attendance record is 72 percent -

HDF: I actually got a printout to go through it because I disagree with it. This [printout] goes back to 2002.

HH: So from the printout you’ve gotten, what would you say –

HDF: I just got it. And I think you know there are nuances. I, like everyone else, am on six committees. I’ve had three committees at one time, and try to check into all of them, but it doesn’t always happen. And there are times, and I’m sure other councilmembers experience it, that my priorities [are] in the district. But I question that percentage.

HH: So with this vote having failed, what do you see as the most sensible plan going forward as far as, on the one hand reducing vehicle traffic in the Bronx and in the city, and on the other hand providing transportation to people in your district?

HDF: Well, I think the first thing is we have to hold MTA accountable. And that doesn’t really happen – in terms of promises to upgrade systems. I also think it would be helpful if the MTA board were made up of people that actually took mass transit, so they can experience it first hand. I don’t ride the 13 bus, but I know enough people who do, and I’ve seen the lines to know that it’s crazy….Prices go up, but is there a correlation between the increase in prices and the services?

HH: So, are we talking two additional bus lines? One?

HDF: I think that is where tangible studies by DOT that make sense need to happen. Not ones where we ask fans how long does it take you to cross the street from the parking lot to get to the Yankee game. But where we actually survey the people that are riding the buses and who are using the services to say what it is.

HH: So was it that you opposed Mayor Bloomberg’s particular version of congestion pricing but you agree that there needs to be some sort of –

HDF: It’s the right problem. It’s the wrong solution. Because there was nothing to prevent the congestion from bottling up in the Bronx, where you would have Westchester and Jersey drivers parking in our neighborhoods and then taking mass transit. We know better than anyone else what happened during Yankee season in terms of where cars park and kind of the carte blanche. When we were talking about having residential stickers during the Yankee negotiation, they looked at me like I had 5 heads and how it didn’t work in Boston at Fenway park. The people I know who live in Boston says it works very well. But yet, all the sudden for congestion pricing, we can entertain the notion of residential parking.

HH: Zooming back out again to national issues. A week ago was the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. That same year, 1968, is considered by a lot of people to be the height of resistance movements against white supremacy and the Vietnam War. To look at some of the same issues that were hot button issues in 1968, where would you say we are as a society – including in the Bronx – on those issues today?

HDF: I think the racism of 1968 isn’t as overt today. But I think a lot of the social problems still exist—many of the disparities and where Dr. King was towards the end of his life in terms of us as a country having to address the issue of poverty, his stance against the Vietnam War. I think very much those issues correlate to now in terms of what this country need to be doing in terms of addressing the working poor, and the poor in this country, and that there is a correlation between the poor and the lack of services, and the poor health and the poor education…. The American dream for many poor people has been just cut off, in terms of the lack of quality education, the ability to make it. And it has always been that education is the root to that… But those issues are still alive and well. And of course, with this war, we’re seeing more and more young men and women dying. And if polls are correct across the country, it’s the one thing that blue states and red states and the Midwest and all of us kind of agree on is the need to end the war and support our troops, both the ones that are there and the ones that are not. And I think we have a long way to go because we have many people that want to believe that racism is not alive and well in this country.

And even as we talk right now, police officers are on trial for the execution of Sean Bell. And throughout history in the Black community, we have seen our men die at the hands of the police. And this could be 40 years ago. We have not progressed that far.

HH: That’s actually one thing, the Sean Bell trial, that I wanted to ask you about, because in general around the issue of police brutality and in particular around the Sean Bell case, you’ve been very outspoken. Do you have any comments on how the trial has gone so far or how the media has covered it?

HDF: As a former prosecutor, I don’t envy the DA’s office having to take this case. It’s like the [Amadou] Diallo case. It’s a hard case to present because they’re already climbing an uphill battle. They’re dealing with police officers and the killing of a Black man. And the reality is in this country and this city, we don’t value the life of a Black man. We are gunned down all the time and it’s like [voice lowers] “Another Black kid is killed. Oh well.”

There is more outrage over the torturing of animals than there is over the fact that another Black man is killed at the hands of the police. So it’s an uphill battle. I think at the end of the day, from what I understood and read in the media, the prosecution did a good job in presenting the case. And I do believe as an attorney, everybody has a right to a defense. So I don’t have any problem with the defense attorneys. They’re doing their job.

I think when the verdict comes out, once again like the Diallo case, this city will be looked at and judged on what that outcome is. It appears that we keep going back to Dread Scott, where a Black man has no rights that a white man has to respect, including his own life. And if we see another acquittal in this city, it will be a sad day for all of New York City, and how we are looked at [not only] by ourselves, but by the country.

HH: What do you anticipate might happen if there is an acquittal?

HDF: I think there’s gonna be outrage. I think there is going to be [pauses] a reinforcement of the fact that Black men can be killed in this city by the police. And we will go deeper into justifying that by saying ‘I fear for my life.’ Because all a police officer has to say is that you are Black and you are a man, and so I feared for my life. And we are beginning to let that sick attitude penetrate every area of our existence .Not only in this city but in the country.

HH: Both in terms of shootings like Sean Bell, and—I talked to you a few weeks ago about the issue of students feeling that School Safety agents were harassing them, and we also did a story about stop- and frisks, and as I’m sure you know, in 90 percent of these cases, they [police] find nothing, according to a study that the NYPD themselves commissioned— both in your current role in the City Council and going forward, what do you think you can do to protect innocent people from being victimized?

HDF: I think it’s a number of things. First of all, we’ve gotta understand that the Black community is the only community we have to be told and taught how to interact with the police. NAACP actually has little palm cards to give out to tell people what to do when they are stopped by the police. Which is (pauses) sad. We are the only group, almost as if we’re trained animals, that have to be taught what to do when stopped by the police. I think we have to have a police commissioner, because it stems from the top, that [says] “Racism is alive and well, and even in my own police force, it’s alive and well, and in fact there is racial profiling.” And as long as you have the head man denying it and acting like it doesn’t exist, it’s giving his subordinates a reason to act like that. And we need to start integrating – more so- the good cops, because there’s more good than bad, into the community and vice-versa.

HH: There’s a couple other issues that are kind of particular to the Highbridge community that I wanted to ask you about. One is the middle school issue, which kind of relates to some of the development and larger overcrowding issues. What needs to happen to make a new middle school in Highbridge a reality and what do you view as a realistic timetable for that?

HDF: Well, first of all, I am so proud and I applaud the parents and the community activists that didn’t let this die, and brought it to DOE [Department of Education] and made sure that other elected officials and city councilmembers on the education committee knew about it and held DOE’s feet to the fire. The first thing is getting a commitment to get it done. And that is and has been –as everyone knows – my capital priority. In terms of the time frame, I’m sure I’ll be way out of office before the doors actually open and only because with SCA, [School Construction Authority] we do the scope and design and then it goes out to bid and then we’ll need the actual construction. So it’s not a process, obviously, that would go up as quickly as the new Yankee Stadium... I think the important thing is we get the commitment to get it done, and then make sure the Coalition has been staying on top of things, and making sure –which they’re doing an excellent job—at every turn all of us are in it together, so there is no divide and conquer. It’s a united force saying to DOE. “This is what we need.”

HH: Do you expect that this will happen? That there will be a new middle school?

HDF: Yes.

HH: What primarily gives you that hope?

HDF: Because I’m a very optimistic person and that’s what I want and that’s my number one priority.

HH: This is a big issue in Highbridge- the ACS. As of a year -and -a half ago, I think, Highbridge was ranked near the top if not at the top of home removals. I want know what you think about this issue.

HDF: It’s very complicated, because you don’t want to not intervene and then something happens. But also, we’re hearing too many cases of intervention that probably isn’t [necessary]. This is something that we need ACS on.

HH: What role do you see yourself playing as far as increasing trust within the community of ACS?

HDF: See, that is gonna be difficult. It is. It’s the same way with creating trust between the community and Yankee Stadium. When you’ve been burned enough, that’s not something as an elected official that I can actually bridge. I think that it’s a matter of just treading lightly. Because I think it would almost be presumptuous of me to go in and say “Hey, let’s trust them [ACS]” when it’s not my kids being removed and my family being torn apart. So that’s why it’s a tread lightly situation.

HH: I know you have a reputation for taking positions a lot of people on the City Council disagree with and that are unpopular. And you’ve said this yourself. Do you ever feel conflicted about whether you could be more effective at effecting the kind of change you want actually working outside of the system and outside electoral politics?

HDF: All the time. All the time. On my bad days, I always say when I hit megamillions, I”ll just be a philanthropist and write checks to effect the change I want to see. Yes, but of course.

HH: I know that you’ve been involved with Obama’s campaign in this period. For our readers, could you briefly describe what you’ve been doing to help out on the Obama campaign?

HDF: Oh my God, so much! Whenever they need speakers to represent him at events, I’ve done that .Right now, there’s such a huge chance that we can win Pennsylvania. The numbers are closing and he’s gaining momentum. Finding volunteers for the Monday and Tuesday, the 21st and 22nd, to go down to Philly to make sure we get those necessary votes out of Philadelphia, notwithstanding the Mayor of Philadelphia endorsing his opponent. And just making sure that his message is getting out there.