Espaillat, Avila Chevalier spar over gentrification in Harlem church

At a National Action Network rally led by the Rev. Al Sharpton on Saturday, both congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier and Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the five-term incumbent she is trying to unseat, emphasized the need for Black and Dominican American communities to unite against a common enemy. But the two candidates had very different ideas of who that enemy was. 

For Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist, the enemy was those who weaponize identity to divide marginalized groups and prevent them from realizing their common material interests. For Espaillat, the enemy was the “gentrifiers” who make up Avila Chevalier’s base.

Avila Chevalier invoked her own Afro-Dominican identity to make the case that Latino communities in neighborhoods like Washington Heights and Black communities in neighborhoods in Harlem were not rivals.

“They have told us that we have to choose, that dignity for one community must come at the expense of another, that this community – where so many of us carry many identities that you could stack them like dominos – has to pick a side. I am both Black and Dominican, and I will not apologize for it,” she said, to applause from the congregation of Mother A.M.E. Zion Church in Harlem.

Avila Chevalier also defended her identity as a transplant who moved to New York City from Florida to attend college at Columbia. “I didn't have to be born here to belong to this fight, because this community chose me, and I am choosing it back,” she said. “I don't want power over you. I never have. I want power with you, power that lifts every family in Harlem, in Washington Heights, in Kingsbridge, power that keeps ICE out of our churches, power that makes rent something you can actually afford.”

In his own remarks, Espaillat suggested that Avila Chevalier was the cause, not the solution, of rising rents. “We need to be careful of fair weather friends that come around and say that the rent is too high – but they're the ones that are driving up the rent,” he said. “They are the gentrifiers!”

Much of Espaillat’s speech was focused on the past – he repeatedly lavished praise on Sharpton’s record of civil rights work – and the idea that hard-earned political alliances must endure.

“We have a historic coalition – a Black, brown, and labor coalition that was first put together by David Dinkins,” he said. “That is the Al Sharpton coalition. That is the coalition of Harlem and Washington Heights and the Bronx, and we're going to work together to ensure that coalition stays strong, and that coalition becomes and will continue to be the coalition of the future of this city.”

Espaillat offered his own vision of a politics that transcends race. He sat alongside Assembly Member Jordan Wright, son of his longtime rival Keith Wright, and even gave him a shout-out during his speech.

“We will work together, and I’m happy to have (support from) Assemblyman Jordan Wright – you know, for far too long, we should have been working closer together,” he said, seemingly burying the hatchet between his own Dominican American “Squadriano” and the Black Harlem machine led by the Wrights.

But Espaillat’s vision of cross-racial solidarity is narrower than Avila Chevalier’s: open to long-time residents, but not newcomers. “It must be in the deep roots of our neighborhoods that the strength and the change must come,” he said. “It cannot be parachuting in, in the middle of the night, by fair weather friends.”

Like Espaillat, Jordan Wright tailored his message to people who have been in the neighborhood for decades. “There’s people in this room – in this room, I’m certain – that have voted for my grandfather, my father, my uncle and now myself,” Wright said. I don’t view that as a bad thing. I view it as we know our community, and we’re here to keep on doing the work.”

Listening to their speeches, it was easy to see why both Espaillat and Wright endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo over Zohran Mamdani in last year’s mayoral primary election. Cuomo was a known quantity among older voters in the community, while Mamdani was the candidate of the newcomers. Unfortunately for Espaillat, Mamdani won the district, beating Cuomo by 13 points in the first round of voting.

Now the mayor of New York City, Mamdani was a guest of honor at Mother A.M.E. Zion Church on Saturday and encouraged the audience to support Avila Chevalier in the June 23 Democratic primary the way they once supported him.

“Today I ask you to remember the chance that you took on me, to remember the faith you once showed, to remember that before a movement becomes obvious, it is often called unrealistic, before a leader becomes established, they are called inexperienced, before change becomes popular, it is called impossible,” he said, before turning the microphone over to Avila Chevalier.

Mamdani didn’t stay at Mother A.M.E. Zion for long. He quietly left after Avila Chevalier finished her speech and didn’t stick around to hear Espaillat’s remarks.

Before heading up to Harlem, Mamdani voted at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, his new early voting location now that he’s living in Gracie Mansion. As an Upper East Sider, the mayor would have had only two races on his ballot: the race for comptroller and the congressional primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler. 

He hasn’t endorsed in either race, and he declined to say whom he voted for. “I’m going to be keeping my vote in this race between myself, the ballot and that incredible pen that the Board of Elections gives to every voter,” he said.

But he did take the opportunity to talk up the congressional candidates he’s endorsed in other districts around the city, including Avila Chevalier. “I do wish that every New Yorker had the chance to vote for Darializa Avila Chevalier, for Claire Valdez, for Brad Lander,” he said, “three Congressional candidates that I’m so excited to have endorsed who would be incredible partners in the fight to make the country’s most expensive city into one that’s affordable.”