In November 1918, a real estate dealer named Joseph Lentol beat a socialist incumbent for a state assembly seat in what was then Brooklyn’s 14th district. Since then, Lentol men – two out of three of them named Joe — upholding the interests of the real estate industry have represented the area for three generations. But this year, the current Joe Lentol – grandson of the first – might lose his seat to a socialist.

His challenger for the assembly seat in what is now Brooklyn’s 50th district, Emily Gallagher, 36, is a community board member who has lived in the neighborhood since 2006.

She first became politically active in Greenpoint protesting pollution – the area has more than its share of Superfund sites – and advocating for more green space. These fights drew her into the political economy of the area, including its relentless gentrification and displacement. She says she began to notice the “speculation on this neighborhood with very little concern for the people who lived there and for how their lives would be impacted. And I really started to feel like the government often was looking at the people who lived there as temporary. There were always going to be people who live there, but they were going to change.” After all, for the city’s real estate capitalists, the churn in humans could be a source of profit, and policymakers saw the benefit to the city’s tax base. Meanwhile, a community was suffering profoundly.