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GENERAL ELECTION %u201986 CAMPAIGN UPDATE** I V lA iU liV ) Montalto. Mssfs, Plav Tn Q A A % * J JL AMA VIH/Ull M A M k/BY ROB TAYLORThe Mets overtime effort may have thinned the crowd at a debate Oct. 15 between the Slope/Bay Ridge GOP State Senator Chris Mega and his Democratic insurgent Joe Montalto, but did nothing to diffuse the tension between the candidates.Sponsored by the Park Slope Civic Council, the match at the Methodist Hospital pitted Mega, who has held the Senate seat for three terms, from 1978 to 1982, reelected in 1984, against Montalto, who represented the district from 1982 to 1984. Montalto said it was the 23rd time the two candidates had debated in what Park Slope Civic Council President Jim Ryan called %u201cthe longest running show in New York.%u201dMega, a soft-spoken, almost shy Republican representative, was not prepared to do serious damage in the debate, preferring instead to rely on his experience and work in the state government as reason enough to warrant reelection.He says he has returned nearly $4 million in state money to the 23rd Senate district that also includes parts of Borough Park and Sunset Park. In the past, his record has elected him by large margins, 4,828 in 1984, despite a heavy Democratic registration of 64,298 Democrats to 25,287 Republicans. In 1982, he lost to Montalto by only 296 votes.NEVER DISAGREES WITH LEADERMega%u2019s record, however, is not good enough for Montalto, who charged at the debate that the GOP Senator never disagrees with the Republican Majority Leader, Warren Anderson. %u201cMy opponent has never spoken out against Anderson,%u201d said Montalto, who added that the Republican leadership in the State Senate has prevented numerous pieces of legislation from coming to the floor for debate and passage.Mega called the charges %u201cnegative\said that Montalto only criticized his record because Montalto had no record of his own to support. %u201cMr. Montalto did not pass one piece of legislation while he was in Albany,%u201d Mega said.The retort did not move Montalto, who is a forceful debater and insisted on returning to his tactical point throughout the evening. As Park Slope is a neighborhood that Montalto carried in the 1982 and 1984 elections, he was more at ease with the 10-person audience.%u201cI think Senator Mega is also negative by never speaking out against his own majority leader,%u201d reiterated Montalto.The candidates were questioned about their positions on the death penalty, anticorruption legislation and birth control distribution in public high schools.In the recent legislative sessions, the Governor and the Democratic-controlled Assembly tried to push anti-political corrup23rd D istrict S ta te S en ator C hris M ega(left) d ebated challeng er Joe M o n talto(above) before a sparsely a tte n d e d crowd(below ) at the Park Slope M e th o d is tH ospital last W ednesday, w hen the M etshad th eir final playoff gam e w ith theA stros. (P h oenix/T aylo r Photo)tion legislation that would have affected the financing of campaigns statewide. The State Senate hindered the bill and a compromise was reached and the rules were changed only for campaigns by New York City candidates. Montalto criticized Mega for being a member of the GOP Party that opposed the statewide provisions.%u201cIt%u2019s the members of the Democratic Party that are being prosecuted, not my party,%u201d retorted Mega, adding that if New York City had a true two-party electorate and was not dominated by the Democratic Party, the competition between the two parties would hinder the corruption.Montalto had the last word, however, %u201cThebottom line is that there should be rules and controls so that it doesn%u2019t happen to any candidate.%u201dNO SCHOOL BIRTH CONTROL On the distribution of birth control in the City%u2019s high schools without parent notification, both disagreed with the recent Board of Education decision. %u201cI can understand why they made the decision they did,%u201d said Montalto, %u201cbut the way they began was wrong.%u201d Mega, keeping most of his answers brief during the debate, said he would not support the distribution of birth control in the schools under %u201cany circumstances.%u201dBoth candidates%u2019 positions on the death penalty are straightforward, with Montaltol> O f A n ~ k q f oI U i V J L / V M M i Vopposing it and Mega supporting it. Both said they have maintained consistent positions on the issue and Montalto added that he supported life without parole as an alternative, while Mega did not.Montalto, who has tried to make mass transportation an issue in the campaign because of a study released in the spring that said the N Subway Line might be closed, responded to a question on the matter that there is no accountability for the City%u2019s transit system and that he is fighting to make sure the N line is not closed down.Mega told the audience that this was %u201ca scare tactic%u201d Montalto was using. Mega said that the president and chairman of the Transit Authority came to the 23rd District and told him that the N Line was not being closed.Issues aside, it was the charges Montalto made during the campaign that caused Mega to eventually retaliate with a counter-charge of his own. Early in the discussion, Montalto claimed that Mega had spent nearly $300,000 of tax-payers%u2019 money mailing information out about his record. %u201cYou don%u2019t elect a State Senator to be on his Christmas card list,%u201d said Montalto about the mail campaign, %u201cyou elect him to represent you in Albany.%u201dMega responded that one of his jobs as a State Senator is to communicate with the constituents and that his letters were not unusual.INVOLVED IN HYFINPerhaps fed up with Montalto%u2019s accusations, Mega fired a shot of his own, perhaps sensing that the audience was leaning toward the Democratic candidate. Mega referred to a Village Voice article last spring that reported Montalto as receiving a loan from the HYFIN Credit Union which is now under investigation for laundering money. Mega said Montalto received a loan from the credit union at no interest, implying that he was a part of the corruption problems at the credit union.Incensed, Montalto returned to the podium and told Mega that he was in danger of being sued. %u201cAt no time did I ever receive a nointerest loan from HYFIN,%u201d he said and added that the Village Voice article did not make that accusation either.Stepping away from the podium, Montalto seemed to be accepting victory in the debate. With an aggressive campaign, Montalto has three weeks left to convince the voters to return him to Albany. He is hoping to ride in on the coattails of popular Democratic candidates on the ticket, including Governor Mario Cuomo, who tops the ticket.Much of the race is unresolved and with three more debates scheduled and perhaps larger audiences, one candidate might take a clear lead in the race unless, of course, the Mets World Series games get in the way.Boerum Hill High Rise Is Cause For ControversyBY ROB TAYLOROpposition to a proposed condominium tower on the corner of Atlantic and Third Avenues, currently a parking lot, is mounting with some local residents claiming the building will be an %u201ceyesore%u201d on a street of low-standing commercial buildings.Plans to build the 65-unit mixed use tower coincide with the recent Board of Estimate approval of the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Area (ATURA) project, but the condominium plan will probably be able to bypass the lengthy Urban Land Use Review Process (ULURP) because the lot is already zoned for the development.The proposal being developed by the 520 Atlantic Avenue Associates has been filed with the Department of Buildings and is waiting for a review by an examiner in the Brooklyn office. According to the City%u2019s Planning Commission, the property is already zoned for commercial use and can be used for residential purposes under the R-7 regulations that limit the height and density of a building by the size of the lot. The 16-story building is within the l;mit.In addition to the condominium, the hiiilding plans t all for 14.000 snuare feet of office space, 11,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and below-ground parking for 50 cars.FIRST MAJOR CONSTRUCTIONOnce a thriving commercial strip that sawits demise in the early 1960s, the ATURA development is expected to bring a renewed vigor to the economy of the neighborhood surrounding the Atlantic Terminal project. The 520 Atlantic Ave. plan is the first major construction project spurred by the renewal plans.%u201cI remember what the street looked like 35 years ago,%u201d says Anastacio Monotrakis, who purchased the property with three other people from the Brooklyn Gospel Tabernacle in 1978. %u201cThere was a luncheonette on the corner of Third and Pacific in a two-story garage building with a gas station.%u201dMonotrakis, who was raised in the neighborhood, owns the lot along with Steve Caravolos, Gus Kokinos and Frullo Properties. He says he knows nothing about the condominium development at this time.The garage was demolished in 1974 by the surviving children of the late owner, Murray Frischling, after the building was determined to be unsafe. Two years later, Brooklyn Gospel Tabernacle, a congregation that was then located across the street at 543 Atlantic, purchased the vacant lot for $200,000. It was not until 1982, after Monotrakis and his associates Durchased the property that it resumed use as an 18,000 square foot parking lot for 90 cars.Along with the 24-story ATURA development and the Williamsburgh Bank Tower, the 520 Atlantic Ave. condominium plan does notT U ft r> ln %u00ab tw in U %u201e%u2022 %u2022 %u2022 V K IW \1 W l l ' \p i V jV / V t IV / V*Vbuilt at the corner of A tlan tic Ave. and ThirdAve. has not been form ally filed w ith thebuildings departm en t. The 17-story buildingwill have m ixed use, and, even according toopponents, w ill need few, if any, variancesto begin construction.appear to be out of place, but privately, local residents would like to see the design plans changed.MEETING ARRANGEDA meeting has been arranged between local residents and Frank Esposito, the developer. Community residents are reluctant to talk publicly about their objections because they claim that any criticisms could jeopardize their ability to influence the final design proposals.Records on file with the Buildings Department show that the property is not in an urban renewal area, is not in a historic district and is not landmarked. As the proposals are within the zoning restrictions for the area, according to City Planning Commission officials, the development project could proceed with little review by the various layers of City agencies.But approval from the Buildings Department will not be hasty. The file has yet to be reviewed by an examiner and, according to department officials, Esposito has not paid the full fee to begin an examination of the plans. The fee is based on a percentage of the total construction costs and Esposito has only made a deposit of about S980.After the deposit is paid in full, the public will be able to examine the draft plans. A decision will be made 40 days from the date the deposit is paid in full.O cto b er 23.19 86 , TH E P H O E N IX , Page 5