“My opponent told me last year that ‘people should just leave Gaza,’” says City Councilmember ­Alexa Avilés, who represents Sunset Park and Red Hook. “I was shocked,” Avilés tells The Indypendent. 

Neither challenger Ling Ye nor her campaign team responded to The Indy’s multiple requests for comment. But an extremist position on Gaza corresponds with Ye’s support from numerous pro-Israel hawks. 

Avilés’ race in District 38 resembles the contest in the neighboring council district of Park Slope-Kensington, which is also witnessing a clash over the genocide in Gaza. Solidarity PAC — a ­pro-Israel group — is backing challenger Maya Kornberg against incumbent Shahana Hanif in District 39. The same PAC endorsed Ye’s campaign against Avilés, one of two democratic socialists in the city council. 

Ye, who immigrated from China at age 14, spent the last two years working as a senior field representative for Rep. Dan Goldman, a consistent opponent of a ceasefire in Gaza. As of late April, Goldman has yet to formally endorse Ye. 

But in addition to receiving over $9,000 from Solidarity PAC as of early March, Ye’s campaign filings show that she has collected over $6,000 from the PAC’s leading contributors. The city’s 8–1 matching funds policy means that she has hauled in more than $50,000 from pro-Israel donors.

Unlike Park Slope or Kensington, neither Sunset Park nor Red Hook has large numbers of Jewish or Muslim voters who are paying especially close attention to the Gaza crisis. Sunset Park retains a small number of Palestinian Americans (whereas many other former residents moved to Bay Ridge). Avilés’ position on Gaza — that “Palestinians deserve equality and liberation” and that “the violence on all sides must end” — is likely in sync with most liberal voters in the district. 

Closer to home, Avilés says that in her first four years in office, she has paid close attention to issues including the need for upgrades to NYCHA housing in Red Hook and improved public parks throughout the district.

Avilés cites the renovated playground at Fourth ­Avenue and 59th Street in Sunset Park as just one success, calling it now “a bustling place.”

“We’ve got four other locations under renovation, many with $8–10 million each in city funds that I secured,” she says. 

In Red Hook, according to Avilés, her office has worked closely with NYCHA residents, addressing area concerns including trucks idling near parks and the need for environmental remediation.  

Ye echoes the pro-NYPD views of Asian ­elected officials from South Brooklyn. She recently ­posted a photo of a van with a broken window on X, claiming that the random incident proved that Avilés’ support for defunding the police was wrong. Avilés, meanwhile, continues to support reallocating funds from what she calls the “bloated” NYPD budget to mental health interventions. “If we are serious about crime, then we seriously need to invest differently,” the council member told BK Reader. 

In early April, Avilés and local State ­Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes joined their DSA comrade Zohran Mamdani at a pro-rent freeze rally in Sunset Park. The event was organ­ized by CAAAV Voice, a long-standing working-class Asian activist organization, with moderators translating speeches for both Mandarin and ­Cantonese-speaking attendees. Ye’s website makes no mention of the rent hikes that the Adams administration has imposed on the city’s rent-­stabilized tenants over the last three years. 

Avilés currently chairs the city council’s Committee on Immigration, which oversees City policies regarding ICE enforcement. “We will resist participating in mass deportation,” Avilés declared at a recent CUNY Graduate Center event. Ye’s platform makes no reference to ICE. 

In early April, many voters in the district received a hand-addressed envelope from Ye’s campaign. In it was a printed letter from Ye’s mother describing her understandable pride in her daughter’s accomplishments. Yet while the missive assured voters that Ye would “stand up for our residents,” it made no mention of ICE, a rent freeze or Gaza. 

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