Something just went down near the BJ’s in Middle Village

Debbie Rolon and Jacquelyn Hicks stop to chat with a reporter outside the Rentar Plaza Metropolitan Mall in Middle Village Thursday. Eagle photo by David Brand

By David Brand

The Rentar Plaza Metropolitan Mall, situated on a suburban strip across from a cemetery in Middle Village, was once again the hottest spot in New York City politics Thursday morning.

Inside the hulking facility, Board of Elections officials tallied the very last ballots in the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney as campaign lawyers paced, reporters tweeted and BOE officials typed district vote totals into spreadsheet cells. Invigorating stuff.

But in the parking lot outside, no one seemed to care about the Twitter clout or ED/AD tallies as they hustled along the baking asphalt toward the shopping complex.

“Someone came in asking me the other day if I knew where the DA thing was,” said Dylan Melendez, an assistant manager at T-Mobile. “I didn’t know what they were talking about.” 

Debbie Rolon stopped with her partner Jacquelyn Hicks on their way into BJ’s, a membership-only retail store that sells giant boxes of Cheez-Its and other consumer essentials at discounted prices. Rolon didn’t know about the recount either.

“I’m so busy with work that this is our leisure — going to get some food and toiletries,” she said.

Hicks said she heard there was some kind of election still going on (the primary was June 25) and that it was extremely close (heading into the recount, Melinda Katz led Tiffany Cabán by just 16 votes). But the couple live in Bushwick and don’t pay too much attention to Queens politics, she said.

The pair pushed their shopping cart past two yellow school buses, which idled near the mall entrance after disgorging dozens of tweens, all in matching purple shirts.

It was Funtopia time for a local religious camp, and the kids were eager to play arcade games, get down in the Disco Room and clown around in the Balladium (socks required). None of them seemed to be discussing “substantially compliant” affidavit ballots or the arcane nuances of New York state election law. 

Across the parking lot, Yolanda, a Middle Village resident, finished loading her minivan after her weekly BJ’s trip. She slammed the trunk door and said she didn’t know the first countywide recount in 64 years was taking place a hundred yards away.

“I’m terrible at that,” she said of keeping tabs on local politics. “I just came here because I gotta do a shopping trip.” 

She said she’s a registered Democrat, but didn’t vote last month. 

Neither did Anna, another self-identified Democrat — “sort of.” Anna carried a plastic bag with a single jug of shampoo back to her crossover vehicle. 

“Between you and me, I didn’t vote,” Anna said. “I gave up … but I used to vote in every election.” 

She said she even used to attend Community Board 5 meetings in Christ the King High School, located next to the mall, She got fed up and checked out when local officials couldn’t stop the city from building a homeless shelter in Middle Village, she said.

“I heard they’re going to have people from Rikers living there,” Anna said. “They should stay in jail.”

But enough about criminal justice reform and homeless policy. Anna transitioned to discussing the local grocery store options.

“Stop N Shop [in Glendale] is pretty good, but you have to go with the sales,” she explained. 

And “BJ’s is best for Pampers,” which she said she loads up on her for her 1-year-old grandson.

An hour later, the final numbers came in and showed Katz ahead by about 60 votes.

A single Cabán supporter stood outside the mall, looking out at the cemetery before him. He mused about the meaning of a potential loss for a progressive reform campaign that had generated so much energy. He said he was so inspired that he traveled from North Carolina to serve as a volunteer monitor.

As he spoke, dozens of corrections officer trainees, all dressed in full uniform with matching military caps, marched toward a training academy — yet another facility inside the mall. 

Many of the young officers carried snacks and sandwiches from a nearby bodega. And two, a young man and woman, stopped to talk. 

Did they think the average person cared about the Queens DA race? 

“I’m from the Bronx,” the young man explained.

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s that people don’t care,” his colleague, a young woman, added. “I just don’t think people even know.”