Frustration with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has reached a boiling point on her home turf, with disgruntled Queens and Bronx residents telling The Post they’re sick and tired of playing second fiddle to the jet-setting socialist’s primary interest — herself.
Her district offices in the Bronx and Queens provide little to justify the $1.9 million the congresswoman receives to run them—one is only open one weekday and the other is closed on Fridays, with phones that go unanswered and constituents invited to discuss their problems “by appointment only.”
AOC’s town halls used to be monthly, but now they are only conducted once in a blue moon, there’s no way to get in a question, and sometimes she merely phones in and doesn’t bother coming in person.
“This woman has done nothing for the community she was once again elected to serve,” said Lauro Vazquez of Woodside, Queens.
Vazquez reiterated a feeling shared throughout AOC’s bi-borough district: that they and the “mundane” concerns they care about — jobs, public safety, traffic — are an afterthought for a representative focused on the national stage.
The image became a reality last week at a town hall in Jackson Heights, when AOC offered a crowded auditorium little under an hour of face time before rushing for an idling SUV.
She only took six questions.
The public meeting had already been rescheduled from its initial date after the senator became ill after closing up her statewide Fighting the Oligarchy tour alongside Bernie Sanders.
“Of course, it’s cancelled — too busy jet setting around on private jets screaming about ‘oligarchs’ and setting up her bid for a POTUS run,” according to Vazquez. “This woman has done nothing for the community she was once again elected to serve.”
“It’s hard to find a private plane – it’s Easter weekend,” said Jackson Heights resident Tatiana Lacatus of the cancelled event. “She is too big for us.”
Elmhurst Republican City Council candidate Ramses Frias referred to Ocasio-Cortez as a “absentee landlord” who is removed from the realities of her working-class people.
“She’s flying around on private jets, talking about the oligarchy, which is not really resonating with the regular guy – the person going shopping over here at the supermarket,” he added, before sarcastically adding, “She’s a rock star.”
On both major and minor issues, detractors in her district — which includes Queens’ Astoria and Jackson Heights, as well as the South Bronx — claim AOC is betraying the people who elected her.
She has made little progress on Mets owner Steve Cohen’s contentious $8 billion casino proposal for parks near Citi Field, which opponents say will become a blight on the town.
At the town hall, AOC could only brush off the worries.
“The Citi Field Park has been redistricted out of my district,” she informed me. “I have respectfully expressed my position on this to those who are commenting on it. I don’t really have much to say about it other than to state my stance.”
However, critics claim she will seize on any subject that suits her, even if it is unrelated to her area.
She made headlines in 2021 for briefly volunteering at a Houston food bank and raising more than $5 million for Texans after the state was devastated by winter storms, but some of her own constituents claimed she did little to help New Yorkers who were hit by Hurricane Ida and are still dealing with the pandemic.
According to opponents, the congresswoman paid merely lip service when the Trump administration announced last month that it would eliminate $200 million in awards for climate-friendly “cloudburst projects” that assist absorb severe rainfall. Some of these projects were planned for flood-prone sections of Queens.
However, after the arrest and detention of anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student who is not her client, she spoke out strongly in support of him.
“Mahmoud was a Columbia student — but our office has been able to take the lead on that case for the New York City delegation,” she said during the town hall discussion.
Locals demand more from the congressman, who recently boasted of commanding crowds of 86,847 people, even in far-flung locations such as Montana and Idaho.
“I wish she did more,” said Aimee Rosato, an AOC volunteer. “We don’t need a casino, it drives me a bit wild.”
“She will help if it gets her name on national issues,” Gloria Contreras sniffed. “She’s about her and getting worldwide attention while ignoring constituents.”
Even fellow comrades have grown bored of the gimmick.
“She’s always on TV trying to raise her profile, not to represent her neighbors and fight for funding for her constituents,” a longtime left-wing Queens politician told The Post.
Another smack in the face occurred last week when her office requested company owners to complete a survey about the impact of tariffs, which was interpreted as a shameless attempt to criticize President Trump’s policies while elevating herself on the national stage.
“Now you are digging for dirt?” criticized retired nurse Jeanette Geary.
Many criticized her for failing not only to deliver economic development to her district, but also for sabotaging it, such as destroying the deal to bring an Amazon headquarters to Queens after she was elected. It would have created 25,000 jobs and was supported by the majority of her constituents.
“We need to prioritize adequate healthcare, living salaries, and cheap rents. Corporations that provide none of those things should be approached with mistrust,” she wrote on X at the time.
“She killed the Amazon deal, ghosted her district, and thinks viral TikToks make her a legislator,” claimed Republican mayoral candidate and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.
One of the AOC’s two district offices, in Astoria, is only open one day a week and is shared with Queens Councilwoman Tiffany Caban, another socialist. Caban’s employees are typically obliged to accept in-person notes left for AOC because the lawmaker does not staff the office on a daily basis, sources claimed.
Ocasio-Cortez’s primary constituent office in the Bronx’s Hunts Point is closed on Fridays and closed for extended lunch breaks the other four days.
When The Post paid a visit, a Spanish-speaking constituent seeking assistance with an immigration concern had to wait outside the office for approximately 30 minutes until 1pm before being allowed to enter.
Phone calls are routinely unanswered, leaving the public with no method to reach staff unless they visit in person.
When they arrive, they are greeted by an intimidating sign at the door at the Astoria office requiring “by appointment only” — or a surveillance camera and iPad check-in in the Bronx, where they must provide personal information before speaking with a worker about difficulties.
Forget about seeing AOC in town.
According to Federal Election Commission records, she spent at least $101,788 in campaign expenditures on flights across the United States in the last year alone.
She joined Sanders on his national oligarchy tour in March and April, spending three and five days, respectively.
Many people believe she is seeking the White House.
She raised a staggering $9.6 million in campaign donations in the first quarter of this year, surpassing her own personal record and fuelling speculation of a potential presidential run.
Her office did not answer to queries about how frequently the congresswoman visited her area in the previous year, instead boasting that she is the most popular NYC politician, according to a Siena College poll in April.
“She is a constant presence in the district and deeply engaged with the issues that concern her constituents,” her chief of staff, Mike Casca, told the Post.
However, Councilman Robert Holden, a moderate Queens Democrat, stated that he “hears from her constituents constantly—and AOC is nowhere to be found.”
“She can’t be bothered doing mundane constituent services like addressing quality of life issues in her district,” according to him.
Holden went further: “She’s too busy trying to make our entire country into a carbon copy of the failed Soviet Union — Queens and the Bronx deserve better.”