Quixotic in Queens

There are 16 City Council districts in Queens. Fifteen are held by Democrats, one by a Republican and although the election is next week, it's almost unimaginable that more than one seat will change hands.

The only Queens incumbent who certainly won't be back is Allan Jennings, a maverick who first made a name for himself with Chinese-language newspaper ads excoriating his ex-wife; more recently, he was fined $5,000 for sexual harassment. He lost the Democratic primary to former councilman Thomas White.

But Jennings is the exception. In council races, landslides are the norm.

Some have complained about the lack of competitive races and the sad state of local democracy, but such hand-wringing is overdone.

It's real work running for City Council, and given that Republicans stand practically no chance of winning, it's remarkable that there are five challengers willing to put in the effort.

In District 19, which includes Flushing, Whitestone and Bayside in northeast Queens, the Republican challenger is Peter Boudouvas. He ran for State Assembly in the same area in 2004.

"We got 14,500 votes," he told me, "so we were encouraged and entered the City Council race in May." Boudouvas is an electrical engineer and small-business owner. He's a well-spoken anti-tax and anti-waste campaigner, and also evidently an optimist. What he doesn't mention about his encouraging Assembly race is that his opponent got nearly twice as many votes.

In the District 19 race, Boudouvas' new opponent is Democratic incumbent Tony Avella, probably best known for a much-mocked bill banning the sale of returned underwear ("a major consumer and health issue"), but inside the district, Avella is primarily associated with rezoning.

Avella has been responsible for comprehensive changes designed to limit development in the residential neighborhoods he serves. The rezoning changes regulations on everything from the allowable height of a building's front wall to the acceptable size of its garage, and now some homeowners have begun to complain that the new law is too cumbersome and will reduce property values.

Boudouvas has made opposition to Avella's rezoning plan a centerpiece of his campaign. Land use restrictions are never entirely popular with property owners, and if the District 19 race is decided on the zoning issue, it would probably be a nailbiter. It won't be; city politics are anything but local. When I asked Boudouvas about the war in Iraq, he said, "I prefer not to go there." And as to abortion, "It's been decided. It's the law of the land. Anything a City Council member says for or against it is irrelevant." But they have a lot to do with who gets elected. Although Boudouvas insists that his race will be "closer than people expect," it's a cinch bet that Avella-and all the other Democratic Queens incumbents-will wake up smiling on November 9th.

-Lincoln MacVeagh