Local challenger runs on practicality over ideology

Labeling herself a pragmatist, a former congressional staffer and parent is seeking to unseat Sunset Park’s progressive incumbent in the upcoming primary.

Council District 38 representative Alexa Avilés, a Democratic Socialist, faces off against challenger Ling Ye in the June 24 primary election.

Ye, who immigrated from China’s Zhejiang Province at age 14 with her mother, recalled living in a basement apartment that violated city housing codes when they first arrived in Sunset Park. At one point, she and her mother had to use the landlord’s kitchen and shower because theirs had been removed to comply with regulations.

She identifies affordable housing as one of the neighborhood’s biggest challenges, saying she would work with developers to negotiate a balanced rate of growth that would increase the housing inventory and create union construction jobs for local residents.

Ye said Avilés has often stood in the way of development under the banner "Sunset Park is not for sale." "It’s one thing to protest," Ye said. "It’s another thing to be constructive, to move something forward and get something done. When you let perfection be the enemy of good, we get nothing done."

She accused Avilés of demanding 100% affordability for all new housing, a claim Avilés denied.

"I’ve never denied a project over 100% affordability. I would love 100%, but that’s rarely viable on private land," Avilés said. "It becomes more viable on public land, but we don’t have much, if any, in Sunset Park."

The Real Estate Board of New York, a pro-development trade group, backed Ye, spending over $171,000 on mailings, leaflets, text blasts, and a campaign website through its political action committee, Jobs for New York, from April 27 to June 1, according to the NYC Campaign Finance Board.

Ye said the support had no influence on her platform. "I didn’t promise anything to anyone other than what I truly stand for," she said.

Ye believes many of the neighborhood’s social ills stem from the housing crisis.

"I see people dying year after year because of lack of housing," she said, referencing the hammer attack in summer 2023 at Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street. Two families and two roommates were living in the same apartment. The accused allegedly bludgeoned and strangled a 43-year-old mother and critically injured her 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. The families had previously argued over living conditions.

"We can talk about mental health all we want, but if people continue living under these conditions, tragedies like these will repeat," Ye said.

Ye was working as a senior field representative for Congressman Dan Goldman at the time. She said she fought to make the case a priority, claiming she covered a year of housing in an Airbnb using personal credit cards before being reimbursed by a GoFundMe trust she helped establish.

"[Avilés'] office never helped that family," Ye said.

Avilés responded that the Parent-Child Relationship Association created the GoFundMe and her office helped set up the trust for the donations.

"The claim that I did nothing is a lie, at best," Avilés said. "At worst, she wasn’t working with others and doesn’t know what roles different people played."

If elected, Ye said she would work closely with the NYPD and maintain regular communication with the 72nd Precinct to ensure crimes are investigated. She described Avilés as someone who wanted to cut $3 billion from the police budget. "She’s always preaching to the choir of out-of-touch gentrifiers who are more affluent and don’t rely on city services," Ye said. "They want to help, but they often don’t understand what low-income residents need."

Ye argues that for working-class families, practical help matters more than politics.

Avilés supports reallocating NYPD funds to social services and community-based programs, which she believes would have a greater impact on public safety.

"There are places in the NYPD budget that scream inefficiency," Avilés said, pointing to the department's $1 billion in overtime spending last year. "We keep throwing police at every social problem."

Ye said her engineering degree from Cooper Union would help her run a data-driven, efficient office and, if elected, she would assign staff to specific city agencies, track and follow up on all 311 calls, and create a predictive system to anticipate and address problems early.

"It’s not about ideology," she said. "It’s about management."

She cited Avilés' decision to suspend participatory budgeting in 2023 as an example of poor oversight.

Avilés attributes the pause to a loss of outreach funding and growing community dissatisfaction with the expense and slow pace of capital-funded projects.

"People were frustrated that it could take a decade for a project to be completed," she said.

Despite her criticisms of Avilés, Ye maintains that her message is ultimately focused on finding common ground. She said she decided to run after the last presidential election. For her it was a personal call to action.

"We need to stop the fighting and focus on making things work again, regardless of politics," she said. "That’s how we bring the community back together."

She recalled feeling embraced when she first arrived in the city. Neighbors assured her she was an American. "It was a time when we were less divided by ideology," Ye said.

Since then, the atmosphere has changed. She described being verbally attacked as a Chinese-American for issues ranging from the Tibet-China dispute to Covid 19, drawing parallels to the discrimination faced by Muslims, Jews and immigrants.

Following the launch of her campaign, she said, she has been shouted at and insulted on the subway. She contrasted that hostility with her experience of riding on the MTA when she was a child and the freedom she felt in exploring the city. She wants her daughter to be able to enjoy that freedom as well.

"It’s my community," she said. "I want to make this city better for my daughter and for people like her." Early voting begins June 14.