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June 15, 2013- By Steven E. Greer
At approximately 10:30 AM, on a bright Saturday morning in Battery Park City, a group of local campaigners set up camp within 20 feet of the doorway of a residential building on West Thames Street. The campaign signs prominently displayed the names of well-known Margaret Chin and Julie Menin. At the bottom of the display was a lesser known Robin Forst. She is running for the spot of “District Leader in the 65th AD, Part C”.
On the Lower Manhattan Democrats (LMD) website, it states that both Menin and Chin have endorsed Forst.
Candidate Forst used to live in the residential building, but moved away years ago, according to sources.
Forst and two volunteers, a man and a woman, were standing by the signs and explained that they were part of the LMD club. When BatteryPark.TV politely asked the man to explain what that was, genuinely seeing an answer, he grew uncomfortable with the questioning. When Ms. Forst was asked if she would like to be interviewed, she declined stating, “I have an uneasy feeling.”.
BatteryPark.TV had never heard of Robin Forst before June 15th, and was not biased for or against her campaign. Perhaps Forst was well aware of BatteryPark.TV?
At this time, a female volunteer assisting Forst, completely unprovoked, began to become irate and tried to attack BatteryPark.TV’s camera which was 20 feet away (see photo). She even tried to come inside the private building.
Witnessing this was a father and resident of the building. He had noticed the campaigners earlier in the morning and encouraged the building staff to “call the police…they can’t be here.”
BatteryPark.TV had other matters to attend to at Asphalt Green and left the bizarre scene. Building staff reported that the Forst campaign packed up and left shortly thereafter.
A brief search of Robin Forst revealed that she is a long-time local busybody, “Forst has served in many neighborhood roles including the Community Board, as a member and a committee chair, PTA co-chair, co-founder and board member of Battery Park City Cares, member of two school leadership teams, and current president of Lower Manhattan Democrats. She worked for Council Member Alan Gerson as Deputy Chief of Staff, and has played a strong role in construction coordination in Lower Manhattan post 9/11 as Deputy Executive Director at the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Cornell University.”
Update: see comment from Westsider, below. This team of hacks has a long history of aggressiveness while canvassing for small-time politicians.
Thank you for the feedback. Yes. David Reck was there and he ran from the camera.
I am not a political person, but I would never vote for Julie menin
She placed the needs of her political aspirations over her constituents during the whole mosque, Christmas park and the protests in zuccotti park
The woman volunteer trying to attack the camera is Eli Hausknecht, live-in girlfriend of the male volunteer you referenced but who is not shown in your photos, David Reck. (That is his shopping cart in the background, in fact. He never seems to leave home without it.)
Violent confrontations are not uncommon with these two.
For instance, during the 2009 campaign, Reck, who was backing Alan Gerson for city council (Forst worked for Gerson at the time), attacked a diminutive, 5′- 3″, 18-year old kid who was volunteering for Gerson’s opponent, Pete Gleason. The young volunteer’s “offense” was similar to BatteryParkTV’s: shooting a video of Reck, who was caught tearing down a Gleason poster down.
After tearing down the poster, the burly bully walks over and confronts the young kid, sticking his finger within inches of the volunteer’s eyes. When told that Gleason, a 6-foot former cop, was arriving in a second or two, Reck immediately turns tail and gets out of Dodge. See the incident here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0Lu14u_gV4
This attack was one reason that voters rejected Reck when he ran for district leader two years later. So, no one should be surprised at this current incident. It is surprising the Frost associates with these two, since their history is well known.
Pretty ironic that Forst is now a BPCA employee…
Forst is a well-known skunk who continually fails up.