On the Candidates: Ken Diamondstone

By disposition and inclination, I love working with those falling through the cracks, with those who really need my help.

Ken Diamondstone sits, his tie slightly undone, at a round table clutching a cup of coffee.

“You know, I’m older than I look,” he says, smiling wryly. “And I’ve probably done more for more people in every single community in this district than anybody else combined.”

Rightly so. His list of carefully-chosen community causes, membership to neighborhood organizations, accomplishments and merits—not to mention local government offices for which he has run—is nearly as long as the sprawling 33rd district he seeks to represent: he is running for city council.

From negotiating a deal with Chrystler Motors to secure a donation of 30 electric cars for a variety of Brooklyn-based non-profit organizations, to serving as the chairman of the Brooklyn Solid Waste Advisory Board, to working tirelessly with communities suffering from AIDS and HIV, to founding a music scholarships for musically-inclined, high-achieving and underprivileged high school students and chairing the Health and Social Services Committee on Community Board 2 for ten years, it seems Ken Diamondstone has truly done it all. A civil servant and community activist, throughout his career Diamondstone has displayed a social conscience sometimes unique to the political game, and as councilmember, he intends to maintain his sensibilities, and his no-strings-attached commitment to positive and healthy neighborhood development.

“I’m the best suited to do constituent services, it comprises more of what a councilman does than pretty much anything else. So when the candidates talk about what they’d like to do or what they’ve done for their employers—all of this has been done on my own as a private citizen,” Diamondstone said. “Talking about reform is easy, it’s only when the rubber hits the road and you’ve got to take a risk for your views, do you really get tested.”
In addition to his commitment to progressive waste management strategies, including extended use of ports and waterways, Diamondstone believes the city should work with developers to create units of affordable housing in the blighted buildings along the Greenpoint/Williasmburg waterfront, and demand more parks and open space for our communities.
“We need the affordable housing, and we’ve got a golden opportunity for it right now. I want to see the city enter into short sales with the developers or lend them the money to finish their projects with the agreement that 50% must be used for low and middle income families and individuals, the backbone of our city,” Diamondstone said.
Diamondstone also remains committed to creating a green workforce, and weatherizing all city buildings by installing green roofs, solar panels and the like, while creating green work training programs through which to employ hundreds of unemployed New Yorkers.
In terms of rezoning and land-use proceedings, Diamondstone is vehemently opposed to the process by which the Broadway Triangle rezoning plan was developed, and maintains that community-based planning is a crucial step in building sustainable neighborhoods. And, as one of the founding members of the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Task Force, Diamondstone insists that his experience in bringing about community-driven plans qualifies him to work in, and for, the constituents of the 33rd district. Diamondstone is also something of a one-man affordable housing organization: Over the years, he has turned over more than 250 dilapidated units and turned them into livable and affordable apartments for community members in need.

But more than anything, Diamondstone is a progressive, “by record, not by statement,” and believes it’s time for real change in how local government functions.

“There comes a time when people say, well this is how it is so, this is how it should be,” Diamondstone said. “I don’t think that’s how it should be, and I will speak out for what’s right.”