Northwest Bronx Democrats say Riverdale likely in political club trouble

By Anthony Rivieccio

The Ben Franklin club, the Riverdale based political club, has been going through a political and cultural revolution in recent years.

The once mighty “club membership mechanics” are trying to stay strong despite many things taking place in recent years:

Riverdale today, is , what some have called, a slightly minority based district today. As with much of the North Bronx the last 30 years, many conservative ” whites” have either: moved out of the area, said hello to the good Lord up in heaven or moved further up the Riverdale hill- while many minorities have moved in – further down the hill
In the last 10 years, many new groups, including our own , have had political discussions with both, the Ben Franklin establishment & the new Riverdale liberal younger Democrats , who seem now, want to make their mark in what they consider ” their hood”
The Ben Franklin membership has changed very dramatically over the last 10 years, with the older members- getting older- and membership deceasing about 30%
Ms Biaggi’s run for Senator a few years ago has opened up a whole can of worms for the old leadership. Many new members have joined. The Ben Franklin club in recent years , now some would say , there is a solid 60-40 old/ new membership presence.
Along with Ms Biaggi, Jamall Bowman recently won the Riverdale Congressional seat against Eliot Engel
As a matter of fact, The Ben Franklin Club has lost ” 2 State Senate & 1 Congressional seat” in the last 5 years.

So in simple turns, The Ben Franklin club only controls 2 seats left in their neighborhood: The State Assembly seat (held by Jeffrey Dinowitz) and the City Council seat ( with the term limited councilman Andy Cohen).

So in 2021, almost 60 years after it’s existence, there is a strong possibility, that if Ben Franklin does not correctly pick their City Council candidate, they could not only just lose this seat- but in essence, lose their political ” edge” in what appears to be a new Riverdale hood.

Of course this did not happen overnight. Some may not know, or forget , that because of gerrymandering, Assemblyman of the 78th district, Jose Rivera in the 2000s, for example, representated ” the below the hill ” area of Riverdale (now called Kingsbridge) until 2010 when the powers at be gave the below the hill area back to Jeffrey and the 81st Assembly district.

Of course, our club will be participating in this historic Ranked Choice Voting City Council race by choosing 2 candidates of this crowded field. While we are currently still examining choices, we have already chosen one: Van Courtlandt resident Dan Padernacht.

Sadly some of the candidates are turning this race into a “race bait” situation. For example, candidate Marcos Sierra , in discussing his campaign at the recent virtual Ben Franklin club 11th CD debate” ( and our organization) has suggested 11th council residents and businesspeople should vote for him, solely because he represents what is now, in his words, “a majority/ minority district”.

While in some ways we do not wholely disagree with him, we also do not believe, especially in this age of COVID and the destruction of city agency services, that “minority representation” is of the upmost importantance right now. Not when areas such as: Sanitation, Parks, Crime, Quality of life elements, now in this era of COVID should be of primary discussion.

Other candidates in this race besides Dan and Marcos are: Mino Lora, Abagil Martin, Clearance Buckley, Eric Dinowitz ( the son of Jeffrey Dinowitz) and Jessica Haller.

It sure looks like, as we start the 21st Century, that lovely old Riverdale, now seperated into Riverdale and Kingsbridge, could be in for a revolution: from cultural, to minority based to possibly, new club based. Ben Franklin is in big trouble.

Anthony Rivieccio has been founder of The Northwest Bronx Democrats , a community & political organization since 2003. Their target areas are: Fordham, Kingsbridge , Kingsbridge Heights , Bedford Park, Norwood , Allerton. The current President is Sheila Sanchez .