Mark Hynes Brings Lifelong Yonkers Experiences to Council Run

Mark Hynes

 

The large field of democratic candidates stepping forward to run for City Council in the First District to replace Patricia McDow includes Mark Hynes. Hynes is a lifelong resident, a former Yonkers business owner and Democratic Committee co-ward leader who brings a diverse wealth of Yonkers experiences to the race.

“I’m running to make a change,” said Hynes. “Yonkers is what I’ve been about all my life. I hear the concerns of the people in the district and they are the same issues my family is concerned about. I’ve experienced the first district moving forward with development, but backwards in educating our children and keeping our streets safe and clean.”

Hynes has been a District Leader in the Democratic City Committee for 12 years and currently serves as a co-ward leader.

And while some district leaders are more active than others, Hynes’ community involvement runs much deeper, and beyond politics. He attends the church his family founded — the Yonkers Church of God, located at 21 Hudson St.

Hynes has operated a hair salon in downtown Yonkers which, like many barber shops, became a meeting place and social club for many residents to discuss the good and bad about living in Yonkers. Through his business, Hynes became an unofficial liaison between his customers and local elected officials. He employed many Yonkers residents, held voter registration drives, provided haircuts to needy families and donated to and sponsored community events.

As a real estate agent, Hynes has learned how important schools, and property taxes, are to prospective home buyers. And as a Senior Warden of the Free Masons, Farrell Lodge#34, he continues to his help to the people in the district through scholarships for local students, monthly luncheons for the less fortunate, Easter Egg Hunts, Thanksgiving baskets and Christmas dinners.

Hynes has also seen the sour side of living in downtown Yonkers, with a firsthand account of police brutality and getting forced out of his barber shop location by City Hall. Hynes’ experiences, good and bad, are the same things that have happened to many of the residents in the first district.

“I’ve dealt with police brutality and regentrification, and I’m tired of seeing things go the wrong way,” said Hynes. “We have problems with our schools and there are jobs in city hall that shouldn’t be there. And we aren’t safe on our streets, with young people not respectful of the police. Many people in Yonkers have no hope because they don’t trust our officials.

“Education is my number one priority. The school district needs to bring back sports and extracurricular activities to keep the students in school and off the streets and to give them hope.”

On development, Hynes wants to make sure, “that we don’t give developers large tax breaks. It hurts us down the road, and we are New York’s fourth largest city and an attractive location. Developers will come to Yonkers without tax breaks.

“I don’t want to see Yonkers rebuilt so that everyday citizens and small businesses can’t afford it. The mom and pop businesses are the backbone of the city — you meet them and see them every day. You never meet the owners of CVS or Starbucks.”

On crime, Hynes said, “We need police walking the streets again. I live on Riverdale Avenue, and there is too much activity going on outside at 3 a.m. More foot patrols are worth it, even if it means that response times are greater.”

Hynes wants to clean up some of the neighborhoods in the first district, and has a simple plan — put out more garbage cans. “On many corners there are no garbage cans. If we had them, a lot of people wouldn’t litter,” said Hynes.

Hynes lost the Democratic Party’s nomination at the convention in May by a 51 to 49 percent margin to Christopher Johnson. Hynes believes that his lifetime of interactions and experiences in the first district will help him win the Democratic primary against Johnson and Ivy Reeves, Larry Sykes and others (depending on the outcome of petitions submitted last week. Hynes submitted 1,100 signatures and is not being challenged, guaranteeing him a place on the ballot in September).

“Nobody is better known and has done more in the community than I have,” said Hynes. “Christopher Johnson has just moved into the district and hasn’t done anything for the people of Yonkers.” Johnson works for State Senator Andrea-Stewart Cousins.

Hynes called into question the roles that Johnson and City Democratic leader Symra Brandon played in getting the nomination for Johnson, while both are employed by Senator Stewart-Cousins. Brandon also works in the Senator’s downtown Yonkers district office.

“The City leader works for Andrea and Chris [Johnson] also works for Andrea,” said Hynes. “One of them should not have been involved in the vote at the convention. I think the party turned its back on me, and certain people I thought would support me haven’t. But I’ve received dozens of calls from democrats urging me to stay in the race and run in a primary because they believe, and so do I, that I didn’t lose ‘fair and square.’”

In addition to his friends and neighbors in the first district, Hynes will be assisted by his mother and father, 6 siblings, 24 nieces and nephews and more than 40 great nieces and nephews, all of who live in Yonkers and whose numbers rival the Spano clan and their large Yonkers family.

The Democratic Primary is on September 13.

 

Advertisement