Greenpoint Star: October 17, 2018

It was a week of ducking political foes for two of New York's most powerful politicians, or as one opponent of Governor Andrew Cuomo put it, chickening out.

The Green Party candidate for governor is doing his best to goad Cuomo into a debate before Election Day by staging fake debates with a Cuomo impersonator and a man dressed as a chicken.

With the chicken (played by James Lane, a former Green Party candidate for public advocate) squawking soundbites like “Debates Are Fowl!,” “Read My Beak! No Debates!,” and “Debates? Kiss My Eggs!,” Hawkins instead debates a Fake Cuomo played by Randy Credico.

Hawkins is calling for four debates in four cities on four topics: the economy, government reform, climate and the environment, and social problems.

So far, Cuomo has not agreed to debate any of this year's candidates for governor, which is a lot longer list than you might have imagined.

In addition to Cuomo, the Republicans will of course have a candidate on the ballotin Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro. And Cuomo primary challenger, former “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon, is still on the ballot on the Working Families Party line.

Then there is former Syracuse mayor Stephanie Miner, whose running mate is the Republican mayor of Pelham. She will be on the Serve America Movement line, and Larry Sharpe is running on the Libertarian Party line. One of his campaign promises is refusing any additional funding for the MTA.

“Yeah, I'm not going to fund them any more at all,” he told City & State. “They get what they get and that's it. And that will make them have to collapse, I don't care.”

And then there is the chicken-toting Hawkins. While some Democratic voters might support the far-left campaigns of Miner and Hawkins as an alternative to Cuomo, the current governor seems poised to win a third term, so we don't see him agreeing to a debate, which could only serve to drop his stock, anytime soon

We guess Hawkins is going to have to continue to travel the state with that chicken and Cuomo impersonator in tow for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, a homeless activist confronted Mayor Bill de Blasio at the Park Slope Y in the middle of an intense butterfly stretch during one of his many well-publicized weekly workouts. The mayor regularly blocks out three hours most mornings to be driven from Gracie Mansion to Brooklyn for a little exercise, city business be damned.

Nathylin Flowers Adesegun is among a group of VOCAL-NY activists who want the city to set aside 30,000 apartments for homeless individuals.

The mayor brushed her off, but said later that he would have gladly spoken with her but the Y has some rule about filming – Adesegun or one of her supporters was trying to record the encounter – during workouts. “So if someone starts filming, I am not going to engage them,” he offered as an excuse.

The mayor has been under fire for potential campaign finance violations, and had to have a court order him to release emails about city business after he tried to illegally keep them from the public by claiming paid consultants were “agents of the city,” but the Park Slope Y's rule about filming during workouts is a line he simply won't cross.

Adesegun did get a meeting at City Hall with staffers, but the mayor was a no-show, so now she plans to lead a march on Gracie Mansion on October 23. That's a Tuesday, so they might have better luck marching on the Y in Brooklyn.