9/2/2014
By Ivan Pereira
A majority of New Yorkers would welcome the Democrats’ biggest party to Brooklyn in 2016, a poll released Tuesday showed.
Some 66% of people polled in the Quinnipiac University survey said they want the Big Apple to host the party’s national convention.
Although there seemed to be some debate as to whether Brooklyn, which has been heavily promoted by Mayor Bill de Blasio, or Manhattan should be the host site, the Barclays Center edged out with a 47% to 39% margin. In fact, 67% of voters said Brooklyn is the new “hip place.”
“Brooklyn is now hip! The city’s pitch is to stage the show in Brooklyn — and Brooklyn likes that a lot,” Quinnipiac University poll assistant director Maurice Carroll said in a statement.
The university surveyed 1,021 New Yorkers between Aug. 20 and 25 and the poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Voters in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan said they preferred having the convention at the Barclays Center, with a 54%, 42% and 53% show of support, respectively, in those boroughs. Half of Bronx voters and 55% of Staten Island voters, however, indicated they would like the Democrats to gather in Manhattan, the poll said.
Last month, de Blasio and other elected city officials courted the Democratic convention committee with a tour of the city and Barclays. Carroll said the mayor’s prominence in New York’s bid is turning him “into a national spokesman for liberalism.”
New Yorkers, however, are not keen on de Blasio’s proposal to ban horse-drawn carriages, with 61% opposing the idea.
The poll also got voters’ thoughts on the ongoing debate around online room renting services such as Airbnb. Last month, the service agreed to hand over the identities of 124 hosts to the state attorney general’s office, which has been investigating cases of illegal housing activity.
Despite the concerns from Albany, 56% of people polled support renting their rooms out like hotels. Manhattanites, Queens residents and Brooklyn residents, showed a majority of support with 61%, 60% and 57% respectively, while 46% of Staten Islanders supported it and 42% of Bronx residents said it was a good idea.
The poll also found that 78% of voters disapprove of “poor doors,” separate entrances in luxury condos for tenants in affordable housing units. “Voters want to slam shut the so-called ‘Poor Door,’ allowing rich and not-so-rich to use the same entrance,” Carroll said.
