Santana runs aggressive campaign against Ames-Garnes in Paterson's 4th Ward

4th Ward candidate Wilkin Santana 

PATERSON - Wilkin Santana turns left on Rosa Parks Boulevard and hits the gas into the heart of the 4th Ward. He sees foreclosure signs on front doors and gangs standing on sidewalks who look at him when he drives past.

"You have open drug dealing going on here," says Santana, shaking his head as he guns the engine. "You’ve got crack houses. Abandoned buildings. This is her record. I believe if you have 23 years to try to fix the neighborhood, you’ve had enough."

His reference is to Councilwoman Vera Ames-Garnes. This is her neighborhood. It’s also Santana’s ward, which is why he’s running against Ames-Garnes.

The 27-year old challenger does not believe his councilwoman has actively fought the gangs’s control of these streets. She can wave to people and get on the sidewalk level and talk about how no one knows Santana, but after more than two decades in office, who wouldn’t know an elected official, he wonders.

Allied with other challengers backed by the Dominican-American Organization of New Jersey, including Julio Tavarez in the 5th Ward and Miguel Diaz in the 3rd, Santana has a shot at beating the 60-year old Ames-Garnes in the 4th.

The ethnic composition of the ward at the very least - roughly 55-45% Latino/African-American - means the presence in the contest of two African-American candidates, Ames-Garnes and Kisha Manning, could work to Santana’s advantage.

Historically, African-American voters have the upper-hand in voter registration here, but the Dominicans are organized. In the last school board election, their candidate, Wendy Guzman, earned the third-highest number of votes citywide.

Santana says his strategy isn’t to triangulate based on race. He’s trying to tap outrage across ethnic lines.

"We need new leadership," he says. "We need to clean up this ward and make it safe so people are not afraid to leave their homes. As a school teacher, people know I am going to demand safety and cleanliness for our kids and our parents."

He pulls his campaign sign decked car over to the side of the road and slams the door.

"Look at this," he cries at the sight of beer cans and hard liquor bottles and weed bags strewn on the uncut lawn of an almost desolate park across the street from Public School 6.

"Kids should be playing in this park, but they can’t," cries Santana, breaking into a jog, his tie flapping. "They can’t, because of this! Look at this!"

A man wearing a backpack and sitting on a park bench looks up mournfully as the city council candidate in a rage kneels on the sidewalk and clenches a heap of litter in his fists.

"It’s not right," the man on the bench agrees, shaking his head. "It’s not right."

Another man encounters Santana. He lives in an apartment building directly across the street.

"All you get in the park are drunks, prostitutes, dope users, drug dealers," Cayetano Luna says. "I’ve been living here ten years and that’s all I’ve seen here. No kids in here."

"And it’s next to a school," Santana says.

School. It’s a word the candidate uses often.

Both of Santana’s opponents - the incumbent, and fellow challenger Manning - say he is too inexperienced to ably represent the ward, having never held elected office or served on a board or commission..

"In the future - maybe," says Ames-Garnes. "But not now. You’ve got to do something in your community first. You’ve got to get out there and contribute. You go around here and ask people. No one knows these people. They’ve been out of school for a minute."

The council woman adds, "There’s no worse fool than an educated fool."

Remarks like that burn Santana, who for the past five years has taught Spanish in Paterson Public School 21.

An immigrant raised in the 4th Ward by a single mother, he graduated from Eastside High School and went to Rutgers University, where he graduated with a double major in political science and Spanish Literature. He later earned a Master's from Rutgers in public administration.

"Alexander Hamilton was an immigrant, you know," he says, referring to the founding father whose statue stands over Paterson’s Great Falls.

On the walls of Santana home hang framed photographs of himself on Gradation Day, a block and a half from 10th Avenue, where Crips and Bloods fight for territory.

"I had a loving mother who always made sure I did my work and instilled in me the value of education, who made sure I was involved in after-school programs," he says. "I ran track, cross country and wrestled at East Side. Recreation and athletics go hand in hand with academics."

With the way things are now in the ward, he says, restaurant owners can’t stay open past 6 p.m. because customers feel terrorized by street gangs. But worse, "My students are afraid to walk home from school," Santana says.

He scoffs at Ames Garnes’s boast that she spearheaded construction of 85 new homes in the word as part of an ongoing attempt at revitalization.

The only way to take the streets away from the drug lords is to build associations of residents and business owners working together with elected officials and government, he says. No tolerance anti-crime partnerships are broken, in part because people will not move into the ward the way it is now.

"Who would spend $400,000 to buy a home here next to a crack house," Santana says. "You’ve got to tear these houses down and redevelop the whole area. Who would buy a new home in the middle of a warzone?"

But the other reason those partnerships don’t function, Santana says, is because the councilwoman hasn’t built them.

The park is almost empty at dusk in Paterson’s 4th Ward. A man lies half on a concrete slab and half on the litter-strewn grass, his eyes gazing at the trees.

Santana extends his hand to the man wearing a backpack on the park bench.

"It’s not right," the mans says, shaking his head..

"I’m Wilkin Santana," says the candidate as he takes the man’s hand. "I’m running for city council in the 4th ward."