Stringer Headlines Full House at Forest Hills Civic

This week’s Forest Hills Civic Association meeting was a veritable who’s who among New York’s office seekers, with appearances by U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman, City Councilwoman Letitia James, and a representative from the office of U.S. Rep. Bob Turner.

Headlining was Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, whose overtures toward the mayor’s office became something of a game he played with Forest Hills residents who kept asking him point blank: Are you running for mayor or what?

Stringer played coy, telling the assembled residents that he’s “exploring the possibility,” but also spent the entirety of his time at the event laying out his vision for a city in what he calls the “post-Bloomberg” era.

Stringer staked out his position as the middle-class candidate — a vacuum left since once-presumed mayoral candidate and former Forest Hills Congressman Anthony Weiner has kept a low profile — and talked about wanting to ease the tax burden on families making less than $300,000 a year.

“Part of growing up in New York City in the 70’s, was that there was a feeling that if you work hard, and you play by the rules, and you do the right thing, you could make it in this city,” Stringer said. “Today I worry that the compact between our government and our city is fading away.”

The Borough President also talked about creating more affordable housing in the city, an issue that might resonate more soundly with New Yorkers in his home borough of Manhattan than it does in Forest Hills.

Stringer acknowledged that neighborhoods like Forest Hills, with a mix of high- middle- and low-income residents, were emblematic of the city’s current growing pains.

“The people in this civic association are the people who built this community, they’re the ones who care about community issues,” Stringer said. “They worry about traffic, they worry about their fellow citizens, they worry about their own quality of life, and they come to these meetings to hear from elected officials about the possibilities of making their community better.”

In the end, Stringer said, his visit was as much about listening to residents outside of his usual sphere as it was about introducing himself.

Ackerman, whose visit was unannounced, came to the meeting as a gesture of introduction as well. , and he announced last week that he plans to run in the new Sixth District, which will include

His visit to the Forest Hills Civic Tuesday night was the first of what is likely to be many campaign stops in the neighborhood.

“I just wanted to show my face, reintroduce myself, I have a lot of friends here,” Ackerman said. He added that the new Sixth “is one of the most compact districts, it’s all in Queens.”

The veteran Congressman credited the group with being “the grassroots politics everyone talks about.”