Council Member Mathieu Eugene (photo: John McCarten/City Council)
As City Council Member Mathieu Eugene faces term limits and is vacating his seat representing Brooklyn’s 40th District—comprising parts of Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Midwood, Prospect Park, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens—some 11 candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination in this month’s primary, with voting culminating on Tuesday, June 22.
The winner of the primary, which is just a few days away, is all but certain to be the next Council member given the district’s overwhelming Democratic enrollment.
The 51 City Council members negotiate and approve the budget alongside the Mayor, introduce and vote on legislation, monitor city agencies, review land use changes, and provide constituent services of many kinds, among other responsibilities.
Eugene, the city’s first Haitian-born Council member and currently a candidate for borough president, represents a district that was home to 43% foreign-born residents, a significant portion of whom are Jamaican, Guyanese, and Hatian immigrants, according to prior Census data. According to those 2010 Census figures, 65% of the district’s 146,552 residents were Black, 16.6% Hispanic, 10.3% white, and 5.3% Asian.
The incumbent, prior to his time in the City Council, was a fairly well-known health professional, community leader, educator, and founder of the nonprofit Youth and Education in Sports. In the Council, Eugene was the primary sponsor of 2017 legislation that created the Disconnected Youth Task Force, aimed at addressing the significant portion of the city’s youth that are both out of a job and out of school. The task force, which fell significantly behind schedule, managed to produce its long-awaited report in late January of this year, finding that 25% of New Yorkers between the ages of 16 and 24 were considered “disconnected.”
"The most important thing we can do for our youth is to not only engage them when they are young, but also to stay with them and provide a long-term support structure, so that we can prevent the patterns of behavior when they become disconnected from school and the work force," Eugene said in a statement to the Gotham Gazette in January.
In October of last year, Eugene and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to create 130 new affordable homes and community space at a project on Church Avenue in Flatbush. Eugene, in conjunction with CUNY Citizenship Now, also provides free immigration legal services to residents, as well as a number of other constituent services, such as voter registration and job assistance. But, overall Eugene has been criticized for being among the least active and productive Council members in the body over the last decade, something several candidates running to replace him have been saying on the campaign trail.
The next Council member faces myriad challenges in the district where some 40% of the population was living in poverty according to the Census. The candidates have noted recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, affordable housing for the district’s residents, public safety and police reform as their top priorities, among others including the quality of the district’s schools and more.
Rita Joseph
Rita Joseph, the ESL coordinator and on-site technology coordinator at PS6 in District 40, is a public school teacher of more than 20 years and community activist in central Brooklyn.
Joseph has been endorsed by Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, 1199 SEIU, Black Lives Matter New York, NYC KidsPAC, Vote Pro Choice, StreetsPAC, Tenants PAC, Women of Color for Progress, Road to Justice NYC, New York Immigration Coalition Action, The Haitian Times, The Jewish Vote, 21 in ‘21, Elect Black Women PAC, Voters for Animal Rights, Community Voices Heard, Roadmap for Progress, Haitian Women’s Alliance, and a number of former and current state and city elected officials. She also got the seal of approval from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Courage to Change PAC.
She had raised a total of $236,759 from private and public matching funds at the time of publication.
Joseph, who grew up in Flatbush, wrote by email to Gotham Gazette about her history of community activism, specifically recalling organizing her first rally at 19 years old alongside a group she founded, called Haitian Enforcement Against Racism, to protest the FDA’s “bad blood” rules that prevented people of Haitian descent from donating blood. The rally, she said, resulted in the FDA rescinding the rule.
“Since organizing the rally, which had more than 150,000 people participate, I haven’t looked back with my community advocacy,” Joseph wrote. “I spent my twenties raising two kids while organizing protests against cuts to student MetroCards and police brutality, on top of my full-time job. I organized not because it was easy, but because it was necessary for my community.”
Joseph also noted her time as the chair of the Neighborhood Advisory Board, where she worked with nonprofits to provide social services to city residents, as well as her time on the Citywide Participatory Budgeting Committee and as a teacher at PS6, where she secured money for a computer lab and created an ESL class for immigrant parents.
Joseph said that her top three priorities for District 40 are improving public education, securing affordable housing, and enacting criminal justice reform. Her experience as a teacher at PS6 has shaped her understanding of how to best serve public schools and their students, Joseph said. She hopes to foster community involvement in public education through local partnerships, neighborhood events and after-school programs, she wrote, and will advocate to increase the number of social workers, psychologists, and counselors at public schools. Joseph also noted the necessity of reducing class sizes, which she believes are currently too large and negatively impacting students’ learning.
Joseph also noted how one in eight students in the district have experienced homelessness in the last five years. If elected, Joseph wrote, she will fight to strengthen protections against unwarranted evictions, prevent rents from being unfairly increased, and expand tenants’ right to counsel.
Lastly, Joseph said she supports reallocating funds from the NYPD budget into education, healthcare, and social services, and will not vote for a budget that does not defund the NYPD by at least $1 billion, though she would love to see up to a $3 billion reduction instead. She wants the NYPD to spend its effort combating violent crimes such as murder, rape, and assault rather than petty ones, enforcement that disproportionately affects Black and Latino people. Joseph also wrote about how she has lost friends and former students to gun violence, and how this past summer, her own car was hit by stray bullets while parked on her block.
“I don’t blame the people who were engaged in this violence for this happening,” she wrote in the email. “Instead, I blame an education system that has neglected Black and Brown people for generations. We must focus on improving our schools to the fullest extent possible to prevent our young people (particularly men) from living in circumstances that ultimately result in violence.”
In order to address the high poverty rate in the district, Joseph once again emphasized the importance of education, and said that she has witnessed firsthand how CUNY can improve the lives of low-income students.
“We know that increased education results in lower poverty rates,” Joseph wrote. “In NYC, our students have access to the greatest urban university in the world. CUNY propels six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all eight Ivy League schools, but I believe we can make it even better by making it more accessible and affordable. I support making CUNY free for all NYC high school graduates and GED holders, as well as reducing class sizes.”
Joseph, who immigrated from Haiti during her youth, said she supports abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and that the federal agency’s treatment of immigrants is inhumane and unacceptable. She also wrote that she is a strong advocate for allowing non-U.S. citizens in the city to vote in municipal elections, securing strong legal representation for all detained immigrants, and ensuring accessibility to food, housing, and healthcare while the city recovers from the pandemic.
“During the pandemic, I have simply continued and increased the work I had already been doing for decades,” Joseph wrote. “Immigrant communities like mine have been hit especially hard by this pandemic, which is why I’ve been working locally to help source PPE and run food banks at local community-based organizations, churches, and nonprofits. Specifically, I have worked with PAYO (Pakistani American Youth Organization), Evangelical Crusade Church, Flatbush Mutual Aid, Brooklyn Immigrant Community Support, East Flatbush Community Partnership, Multicultural Bridge, among many other organizations.”
As for Eugene, Joseph said that she thinks he let down his constituents and contends that she will not do the same.
“Councilmember Eugene has been absent from the District and his constituents in a way that represents a major failure of leadership,” Joseph said. “For more than a decade, he has let down the people of District 40 in many ways, none more glaringly obvious than with his efforts, or lack thereof, towards providing quality constituent services. My team and I will be eager to help with the issues that District 40 residents have, no matter how big or small they might be.”
Kenya Handy-Hilliard
Handy-Hilliard, who served as the director of Intergovernmental Affairs in the city’s Department of Investigation until last year, has spent 14 years working in New York City politics. She has been endorsed by the New Kings Democrats, the Jewish Vote, District Council 37, and Run for Something. She had raised a total of $223,494 from private and public matching funds.
After joining the office of Rep. Yvette Clarke, whose Brooklyn district overlaps with the 40th Council District, Handy-Hilliard became director of Community Affairs for Brooklyn in the Office of the New York City Comptroller, as well as director of Intergovernmental Affairs for Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island in the Office of the New York State Attorney General.
In a phone interview, Handy-Hilliard said her recent position at the Department of Investigation influenced her decision to run for City Council.
“That is the agency that supposedly roots out waste, fraud and abuse of city resources,” she said. “And that is kind of the impetus for my run, because I was seeing all of the waste and fraud vulnerabilities within city government and the reasons why we are not being served in the ways that we need to be.”
She emphasized the importance of government accountability, and said she plans to create a space where elected officials can no longer “take one’s vote and run with it.” She hopes to help the community become familiar with the responsibilities of the government and its leaders, as well increase their familiarity with the relationship between different levels of government. Collectively, this work would empower the residents of District 40, she said.
“We can, you know, not only raise the level of professionalism and response from local elected officials, but also make sure that we are engaged in the process,” Handy-Hilliard said. “That we're always in the kitchen, never on the menu. Because once you’re disengaged, frequently you are the ones who are on the menu.”
Handy-Hilliard said that securing affordable housing, improving education, and recovering economically from the COVID-19 pandemic are the top three issues facing the district. It’s hard to have a conversation about many concrete reforms, she said, if the district does not have the financing or the economy to implement them. Handy-Hilliard said she wants to make sure that she is facilitating front-end investments that will create job, apprenticeship and internship opportunities for young people and others who are struggling economically.
“Because at the end of the day, that's what's going to have the trickle down effect on crime, public safety in general, transportation,” she said. “All of the other things that I say are ancillary. It's because we don't have the front end investments to make sure that people are whole, and then that's how you start to see other things kind of, you know, fall apart.”
The most important aspect of this recovery is housing, which needs to be addressed in a community-driven way, Handy-Hilliard said. If elected, she plans to advocate for developers to invest in the community rather than take advantage of it for profit, expand affordable housing opportunities and create rent relief for tenants and small homeowners, among other reforms.
“We need to make sure that if we're sacrificing sunlight and skyline, you're investing in our schools, you're creating more open spaces or green spaces, you’re investing in our infrastructure, our piping,” she said. “...So I want to make sure that if we're talking about development that you are protecting us for the future.”
Handy-Hilliard said that the city needs to adequately invest in its young people, especially though public school funding. Some of her proposals include expanding enrichment and after-school programs, funding for mental health and professional development programs and establishing quality universal daycare. She also hopes to support more English as a Second Language (ESL) and civics classes for immigrant populations that live in the district, as well as investing in continuing education and re-entry programs.
Handy-Hilliard has signed on to an NYC Democratic Socialists of America pledge that includes reallocating $1.5 billion from the NYPD budget per year, or $3 billion by 2023.
“So there are ways for us to take this funding and put it where it needs to be,” she said. “You just have to have the will to do so. So, the number I think will be, it'll vary. I'm committed to 1.5 billion, but trust and believe, I have to be able to justify that.”
As for the 40% of the district that lives below the poverty line, Handy-Hilliard said that she plans to triage the work that is already being done on the ground by providing funding and other resources to nonprofits that are actively helping the community. She wants to make sure that these organizations, which provide access to rental assistance and other programs that support the residents of District 40, are actually receiving the money that has been appropriated for their use.
“We have to make sure the [Office of Management and Budget] is budgeting it, and whatever is budgeted, we have to make sure that it's through the agency and not given to contractors or consultants,” Handy-Hilliard said. “...We have to restructure our contracting with nonprofits.”
Josue Pierre
Pierre is a Haitian immigrant who lives in Flatbush and has spent the last seven years working for the Office of the New York City Comptroller. A very close ally and cousin of Brooklyn Democratic Party leader and Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Heremlyn, Pierre has been endorsed by Bichotte and a long list of groups and unions, including the United Federation of Teachers, 32 BJ SEIU, Communication Workers of America, New York Communities for Change, RWDSU, Tenants PAC, LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, Teamsters Local 237, Professional Staff Congress at CUNY, Shirley Chisholm Democratic Club, Churches United for Fair Housing (Action), Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, Stonewall Democrats of NYC, and the Black Lives Caucus. He had raised a total of $215,229 from private and public matching funds.
Pierre, who served as a senior financial analyst and Brooklyn borough director for the comptroller’s office, is a board member of the Haitian American Chamber of Commerce and Democratic District Leader for the 42nd Assembly District. In an interview with Gotham Gazette, Pierre said that the firsthand experience afforded by both his upbringing in Flatbush and his years as a housing activist influenced his decision to run for City Council.
“I’m fortunate enough to be one of the kids from Flatbush that made it,” Pierre said. “I lived the struggles. I know what it means to see high crime rates. I know what it means to be in classrooms that have over 40 kids. I also know firsthand, because I'm also a housing activist, what it looks like when folks are sitting outside, being evicted from their apartment buildings and not knowing where they're going to go.”
As a senior financial analyst, Pierre said he was able to help steer pension funds to finance the creation of real affordable housing. The term affordable housing, he said, often begs the question of “affordable for whom?” Pierre said that during his time at the comptroller’s office, he helped secure two-bedroom apartments for $1,200 a month in the Bronx, which he is confident he can do in Flatbush as well. He also plans to advocate for a review of the real estate tax system and an expansion of current exemptions to cover those longtime residents who opt for affordable housing.
In addition to affordable housing, Pierre said that a financial recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the top challenges facing District 40. He hopes to increase the availability of grants and loans to small businesses to aid in recovery, such as expanding the zero interest loan amount from $75,000 to $150,000. Aside from housing and economic recovery, Pierre said that he also plans to address sanitation, education, and crime and safety.
As one of four Black boys in his family, Pierre described he and his brothers faced harassment by members of the NYPD. The challenge of eradicating these practices, however, must also be addressed in conjunction with maintaining safety on the streets of District 40, he said.
“I've also had the experience of my mom being the victim of a stray bullet because two guys were outside, they got into an altercation, and one of them pulled out a gun in the middle of the day and she got hit by a bullet in her head,” he said. “Luckily she survived that, but I remember the pain of that and I just can’t imagine how someone else would feel.”
To ensure that everyone is safe leaving their house, Pierre said that the city must not abolish the police but rather establish stronger police accountability. Black and Latino taxpayers deserve the same level of protection and service that other city residents get, he said. He suggests the enactment of reforms such as an elected civilian review board—which would be comprised of community members instead of mayoral appointees and law enforcement personnel—and the use of an independent prosecutor, rather than a district attorney, when needed.
As for the police budget, Pierre said he wants a precise line-by-line budget reduction and full audit of the NYPD. He also cited the need for the development of closer relationships between officers and residents, who could work together to keep the community safe, would be a more effective alternative than adversarial dynamics.
“Finally, there are certain aspects of policing that fall in the hands of the police that I don't feel that are actually real police work,” he said. “Approaching people with mental health and other social issues dealing with the homelessness, right, that should be coupled with someone who works in social services, or some type of professional from that sector. I think the outcomes would be better.” (Such a program is being implemented in the city.)
Another challenge to the economic recovery of the district is sanitation, he said. Pierre, who has sat on the board of two Business Improvement Districts, proposed the distribution of extra garbage cans and hiring people to do extra cleaning to “beautify” the district for commerce. He hopes that Flatbush will become a place that tourists want to visit, citing attractions like culture, art, and Caribbean food.
Finally, Pierre said that the district needs to begin financing and preparing kids for education and job opportunities of the future. Some of his proposals include an increase in mental health professionals in schools and a budget expansion for public education.
Pierre emphasized the necessity of serving the district’s immigrant population, saying that this duty starts with his own office. He said he would have a diverse staff who can speak many of the district’s languages, such as Creole and Spanish, and would work to ensure that city resources are made available in those languages. Lastly, Pierre said that these changes need to trickle down to local nonprofits working in the community too, since certain residents may be reluctant to share information with the government due to concerns about ICE.
Overall, Pierre wants to make sure that the residents of District 40 don’t feel as if they have an absentee Council member. He said he looks forward to having town hall meetings and roundtable discussions with community members to figure out how to best serve the district. In his experience, he said, the best policy solutions come directly from people in the struggle.
“I was the Brooklyn borough director for the comptroller's office, so that's public affairs for the city,” Pierre said. “Being in communities like Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights, you see the vast difference in governmental resources as well. It's not just the private money. It’s the public money...And so part of my job as the next Council member is to bring home the bacon for low-income and moderate-income residents of Flatbush.”
Edwin Raymond
Raymond, co-founder of the nonprofit Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow, is an NYPD lieutenant famous for his 2015 class action lawsuit against the police department on behalf of minority members of the police force. He is endorsed by American Institute of Architects, Progressive Action TV, Voters for Animal Rights, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
He had received a total of $266,929 from both private and public matching funds.
The son of Haitian immigrants, Raymond said in an interview that he had a rough childhood in Brooklyn, where crime rates were through the roof and he was repeatedly harassed by police officers. His mother died when he was three years old, and his father was able to raise him and his brother despite not being able to speak much English and lacking an education.
Raymond said that the repeated harassment by police officers, despite his not being involved in the criminality around him, motivated him to become a police officer at 22 years old.
“I made the decision to join the police department…specifically with a mission to understand the police department and the system,” Raymond said. “What’s the best way to mitigate and rectify the issues? Immediately after the police academy I started having front row seats to what the issues were. I didn’t go along with it. I suffered serious retaliation because of it.”
The suit against the NYPD, filed by Raymond and 11 other officers, revolves around an alleged NYPD quota policy requiring officers to reach numerical goals for arrests and court summons each month. Though the NYPD has repeatedly denied the existence of such quotas, others, including Raymond, not only spoke out about the policy but insist that it cultivates discriminatory policing practices. After the lawsuit gained public attention and Raymond was featured by The New York Times Magazine in 2016, he said that hundreds of people reached out and asked him to run for office. He took these requests as a compliment, he said, but was not interested. After five years of running into roadblocks in trying to share his knowledge about the police department with elected officials, Raymond decided that rather than waiting for them to listen, he would take their place instead.
The top three issues facing District 40, according to Raymond, are recovery from the pandemic, affordable housing, and crime and public safety. To ease COVID-19 recovery, he said he wants to ensure that residents are able to get vaccinated and increase financial support for small businesses, the bedrock of the community. He also plans to advocate for prioritized hiring of city residents in order to expand access to job opportunities in residents’ own neighborhoods.
Raymond described how residents are not supportive of new housing development in the district because they’re not able to participate in them and often can’t even afford to tour the new units being built. He said he wants to create ownership opportunities in these new developments, which are often full of rentals, that would allow residents to begin creating lasting generational wealth.
Raymond also said that his experience in law enforcement means that he has to do very little guesswork to determine what reforms would be necessary to maintain public safety and simultaneously protect people’s rights.
“Very few people know how to answer that,” Raymond said. “Oftentimes, elected officials, they'll solve the civil rights violation portion, but it's a detriment to the legitimate crime-fighting strategies and tools. And then on the flip side, people want, you know, public safety, but they exploit the gray area and start to violate people's rights, so that's a balance that I bring...In terms of City Council, I'm the only candidate in the city that can bring that balance.”
Raymond described how he had responded to situations as a police officer that he felt were not actually law enforcement situations. To rectify this issue, he said that he supports reallocating some current police responsibilities to other existing city agencies or to create new agencies if none exist to address the particular need. If this rearrangement takes shaving off a portion of the budget and moving that money elsewhere, he’s all for it, he said. Some of the numbers that other candidates are suggesting, such as a $3 billion from the budget, he said, would require severe downsizing.
“You're not going to downsize fast enough with attrition, so are you going to be laying people off?,” Raymond said. ”How are you actually going to deliver?...I already understand the mismanagement of funds in the NYPD. I've watched it for 13 years. So already, at a glance, at least $400 million. I know exactly how to save, and I’ve continued to go through it line by line, knowing what’s essential and what’s not.”
Blake Morris
Morris is a practicing lawyer of more than 30 years and long-time Brooklyn resident.
He had raised a total of $167,691 from private and public matching funds.
Morris previously ran for State Senate in 2018 in an attempt to replace Senator Simcha Felder and represent New York’s 17th district in Albany. Though he ended up losing in the primary, he was endorsed by The New York Times, among other organizations, who cited how Morris was a “real Democrat” who would work in the interest of Brooklyn residents, as opposed to Felder who had conferenced with Republicans.
According to Morris’ website, the top challenges facing Council District District 40 include housing, education, public safety, quality of life, and supporting small businesses.
Morris’ proposals to address housing concerns include monitoring COVID-19 rent relief payments, creating an online platform for renters to find rent-stabilized housing, and instituting a transparent system to track the progress of landlords making repairs.
“We are in a constant housing crisis,” Morris said at a debate hosted by Gotham Gazette, the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association (PLGNA), and other groups. “I have a plan to create affordable housing for purchase and/or to rent for those facing housing insecurity. Land use review is broken. We deserve a new process and a moratorium on ULURP until the community can have a meaningful involvement in the process.”
Morris proposes reforming the NYPD in part by transferring non-core responsibilities to other city agencies, freeing up officers to prioritize street and subway crime. He also hopes to break the pipeline that feeds guns to the streets and to rewrite the policies of the NYPD to emphasize social justice.
“The top priority that is non-budgetary would be to rewrite the patrol guide,” Morris said in the debate. “People don’t talk about it but the police actually have policies set forth in the patrol guide, and the city council should have a chance to open that up and actually rewrite it.”
Morris also said in the debate that he would create a digital dashboard to improve outreach to the community, allowing residents to not only come into the office to reach their representative but also access them through the internet.
To improve quality of life in District 40, Morris hopes to improve accessibility to rapid transit for people with disabilities, increase funding for local parks, fund more frequent trash collection, reform the recycling program, and expand composting, among other things.
Morris said that he would focus on finding nonprofit partners that would support youth and education in District 40. On his website, Morris said that he will demand and support quality, equitable K-12 public education and free CUNY tuition, as well as establish a municipal broadband network to substitute over-priced internet services. In the debate, Morris emphasized his experience as an attorney fighting for civil rights and for those abused by the rich and powerful. He specifically cited how he sued the New York State Senate, which, as a result of the lawsuit, now has to disclose how its members allocate funds for mailings.
Cecilia Cortez
Cecilia Cortez, a public school special needs teacher, came to Brooklyn from her native Ecuador as a teenager. Cortez has spoken out about the need for mental health training, rent relief during the COVID-19 pandemic, and building a foundation of trust and humanity between residents and the police. She had raised a total of $80,529 from public and private funds.
John Williams
John Williams is a minister, urban public health specialist, and community activist from Brooklyn. Williams did not have a campaign website that Gotham Gazette could find, and has raised a total of $25,567 from public and private funds at the time of publication.
Maxi Eugene
Maxi Eugene, a licensed insurance broker, is the brother of Council Member Mathieu Eugene. Maxi Eugene has raised a total of $7,724 from private funds at the time of publication, and has not qualified for any public funds.
Vivia Morgan
Vivia Morgan, a Jamaican-American community activist and local community board member, is the director of Friends of Wingate Park, an organization that addresses gun and gang violence, domestic violence, housing, jobs and mentoring. Morgan is pushing for more investment opportunities for small businesses, improve job training, and reduce incarceration rates. Morgan has raised a total of $6,568 from private funds at the time of publication, and has not qualified for any public funds.
Harriet Hines
Harriet Hines, a community activist from Brooklyn, uses her platform to advocate for the disabled community, of which she is a member, and make District 40 more accessible for everyone. Hines also hopes to strengthen mental health and rehabilitation programs, as well as ridding the streets of drug and alcohol abuse. She has raised a total of $3,718 from private funds at the time of publication, and has not qualified for any public funds.
Victor Jordan
Victor Jordan has raised a total of $2,000 from private funds at the time of publication, and has not qualified for any public funds. She does not have a working campaign website that Gotham Gazette could find.
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by Megan Kelly
@GothamGazette
Maya Wiley, left (photo: Wiley campaign)
After months honing her public image and developing her campaign platform, Maya Wiley now embodies two distinct archetypes of mayoral candidate: she is a standard-bearer of the progressive left and the type of political hopeful that expresses her zeal for executive leadership with lengthy policy papers.
A civil rights attorney, former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, and MSNBC commentator, Wiley has stepped into the spotlight in recent weeks as the foremost -- and most viable -- progressive in a packed field. She is best known for championing issues like police divestment and reinvestment in communities, child and elder care, and equity in education while staying above the fray of major scandal (unlike progressive rivals Comptroller Scott Stringer, who has been accused of sexual misconduct, which he has denied, and nonprofit executive Dianne Morales, who faced a unionization effort within her campaign after alleged labor abuses).
Wiley’s policies around economic recovery -- major capital investments, small business support, and promoting the arts -- are not radically different from most of the other Democratic frontrunners. Perhaps because they address the broadest issues, they also contain some of the biggest unanswered questions of any of her proposals related to funding, spending, and execution.
She has framed herself as the candidate "with the courage to confront the bureaucracy, developers, and the NYPD" while also being able to meet the needs of the post-pandemic city.
"This historic moment is one in which we can remake our city so that it is safe and fair and a great place to live," Wiley said in her opening statement at the second televised Democratic debate on June 2. "We can end street homelessness, we can make sure that every last person can afford this city and be safe from police violence," she said hitting a number of common campaign themes, including her push to make the city easier to live in -- both in terms of affordability, with promises of affordable housing for the lowest earners, and broader city services.
She agrees with most other candidates that there needs to be major investment in the environment, affordable housing, and education. One thing that sets her apart from most is an emphasis on the city government's role as a care provider, from child and elder care centers to caregiver grants and "trauma-informed" services in schools. Her campaign told Gotham Gazette this is the signature policy idea she is promising voters.
“Maya Wiley is the clear viable progressive choice in this race, and her policy platform offers a roadmap to a truly inclusive recovery,” wrote Daniel Altschuler, co-executive director of Make the Road Action, which endorsed Wiley, in an email to Gotham Gazette. “If enacted, her New Deal New York and Universal Community Care plans would provide urgently-needed financial relief to low-income families and create good jobs to help struggling New Yorkers get back on their feet, while also helping the city address climate change...And her health care plan addresses the vital challenge of significantly expanding access to coverage and care, regardless of immigration status."
Wiley "is a very serious thinker about large structural issues, there's no doubt," said Eric Phillips, a former press secretary to de Blasio and colleague of Wiley's, by phone. "I think if I had one critique from an electoral standpoint it would be that 'more is more' is not always the case. She's got sort of a lot out there and sometimes that's tough to message."
"What may suit her as a policymaker in government might also not be helpful from an electoral campaign perspective," he said.
Economic Recovery
New Deal New York
The centerpiece of Wiley's recovery pitch to voters is a five-year public works program with a $10 billion capital budget, modeled as the name suggests on the Depression-era spending spree intended to 'prime the pumps' of the sunken economy -- in Wiley's case, it's a "shot in the arm."
The city would fund major infrastructure and development projects overseen by a "New Deal Czar" within the mayor's office with the goal of creating 100,000 new jobs and improving benefits like healthcare, hazard pay, and gig protections. Thirty-thousand of those jobs would come directly from development projects and the remaining 70,000 would be indirect roles in child and home health care and manufacturing. The czar would have the power to centralize workforce development funding from various agencies, something workforce development providers have long said was needed to improve the city's haphazard job training strategy.
"Stuff like that is undoubtedly important or could be important to people's lives but at the same time it's effectively what the current mayor is doing from a jobs investment and creation standpoint," said Phillips. "Capital funds and significant public resources into economic development...It's something the city already does." He noted most of the frontrunner Democrats have major infrastructure or capital spending plans.
"The fund will consist of committed unspent capital funds and new capital dollars financed by City debt," reads Wiley's policy proposal. "The proposed spending would include new projects, as well as accelerating projects currently in the pipeline that meet the program’s criteria which will include equity and advance social and economic goals." Wiley has not been specific about many of the infrastructure projects she would pursue and has said her administration would conduct a needs assessment by community district with deference to underserved communities of color.
In a column in City Journal after the final televised debate, Manhattan Institute senior fellow Nicole Gelinas criticized Wiley's spending plan for putting the cart before the horse. "Other mayoral hopefuls barely made any sense on anything...Wiley wants to double the size of the city’s capital budget, currently about $13.3 billion a year, not to build any major infrastructure projects but to create 100,000 jobs," she wrote, also calling out statements from Stringer, Morales, and former city housing commissioner and federal housing secretary Shaun Donovan.
Wiley has laid out "initial potential funding numbers" for the $10 billion spending: $3 billion would go toward climate infrastructure like a renewable energy hub on Rikers Island, wind and solar power, power grid upgrades, and coastal resiliency. Two billion dollars would fund repairs at the New York City Housing Authority -- far lower than the $1.5 to $2 billion per year of funding advocates say the city needs to provide, in combination with other revenue, to keep public housing standing. Another $2 billion would be spent on sewage, transportation, and digital infrastructure. And $2 billion would go towards "social infrastructure" -- things like day care and community centers as part of affordable housing projects, and business incubators with subsidized office space. The last $1 billion would go to artists and performers for venues and studio space and other needs. The jobs created would prioritize local hiring and minority- and women-owned businesses, with the NYCHA dollars going to hire NYCHA residents.
Small Businesses
Wiley, like other candidates, has dedicated significant page space to supporting small businesses, which absorbed much of the economic damage from the pandemic. The proposal includes $100 million in regulatory relief and $30 million in emergency grants for the most devastated areas and industries -- both funded by federal stimulus dollars. It would be led by a Chief Small Business Officer at City Hall.
She wants to put $7 million into promoting worker cooperatives and using the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility to purchase distressed small and mid-sized businesses during economic downturns and resell them "to employees or other forms of democratic and/or local ownership" during recovery. She supports a "recovery lease program" being floated in the City Council and State Legislature -- to help commercial tenants negotiate new long term leases in exchange for arrears payments and tax abatements -- and tapping departments like Housing Preservation and Development to locate affordable retail space. Her plan states she wants to meet the city's procurement goals for MWBEs, in part by improving timelines and payment methods and expanding existing loan programs. There are also loans for street vendors and another $100 million fund for grants to artists and performers, with a council to oversee its equitable distribution.
Multiple Forms of Care
Universal Community Care
One of the most central proposals of the Wiley campaign is a serious focus on child and elder care. Her "universal community care" model would take $300 million from suspended NYPD and Correction cadet classes and give $5,000 annual stipends to 100,000 unpaid caregivers (her plan does not say where the remaining $200 million needed to pay for it would come from).
Wiley also wants to create so-called "community care centers," which she has said would provide child and elder care, as well as counseling, job training, and social programming. The goal would be to reach 300,000 people in the first year of implementation and eventually scaling to a height of 1 million annually. The centers would be paid for in part using the $10 billion capital funds she has proposed in her New Deal New York plan. She has not said which communities she would focus on first.
Phillips believes the proposals in her care platform are one of things that make Wiley's approach stand out among the candidates. "They are more forward-thinking, they're more unique. They are not something necessarily that a mayor would automatically do no matter who is elected," he said. "They touch a lot of people in different ways...which makes for a very effective policy-making strategy."
Healthcare
Wiley has proposed a sliding-scale city health insurance plan to the tune of at least $1 billion annually to be available to 246,000 people who are uninsured and ineligible for Medicaid, Affordable Care Act, and other programs, regardless of immigration status. Her plan describes a number of funding mechanisms, including repurposing city funds like NYC Care (the city's current program for uninsured New Yorkers) and state medicaid reimbursements, and finding administrative efficiencies.
Wiley has a policy paper specifically to address maternal health, particularly for Black women who experience maternal mortality at far higher rates in circumstances that are more often than not preventable. Wiley would allocate $4.35 million to build birthing centers at all public hospitals and one on Staten Island's North Shore, "targeting communities of color," the proposal reads, and "[e]stablish maternal health as mayoral priority."
Climate and Transit
The heart of Wiley’s climate plan is the $3 billion in climate infrastructure and $2 billion in NYCHA repairs and resiliency upgrades contained in her New Deal New York proposal. Part of that funding would come from $400 million in unspent federal aid for coastal resiliency projects, according to her plan. Money would go to Renewable Rikers, a plan to turn the jail complex into a site of clean energy generation and large battery storage.
Wiley, like most other frontrunners, has discussed exploring wind and solar power and utilizing city owned property like schools to build renewable energy. That includes completing the de Blasio administration goal of installing 100 megawatts of solar energy on hundreds of public buildings by 2025, which she says would create 5,000 jobs over three years. Wiley also has the lofty goal of "the decarbonization of all existing housing, including public housing" through efficiency retrofitting, which would create over 42,000 jobs over the same period, her plan says. She frequently discusses upgrading the power grid, though her policy paper mostly discusses pushing for more public accountability and control over utilities over infrastructure improvements.
Wiley has proposed a new Office of Public Space Management to oversee the repurposing of roads to pedestrian uses and green urban space, including the expansion of the pandemic-era Open Streets program. She has said she supports the "NYC 25x25" plan proposed by Transportation Alternatives to convert a quarter of road space in the five boroughs to non-car use by 2025. Part of that includes building 300 miles of bike lanes and create 1,600 jobs in the process, and transition city vehicles to electric.
Notably, Wiley has not offered a transportation plan.
Housing and Evictions
The core promise of Wiley's housing plan is to guarantee no New Yorker making up to $54,000 a year for a family of three pays more than a third of their income in rent. She would achieve this "bold solution" through affordable housing creation for households making less than 80% area median income and by greatly expanding CityFHEPS, a housing voucher program.
Wiley has committed to building only 100% permanently affordable housing on public land. She has proposed creating a nonprofit community land bank to fund the conversion of distressed properties. Building new housing appears to be of limited priority for Wiley. She would pursue upzoning in "high opportunity neighborhoods," her plan says, in brief, and she opposes the 421-a state tax incentive, which she says has "accelerated gentrification and housing segregation." She also wants to give more opportunities to non-profit developers.
Wiley has a number of proposals to address and prevent homelessness. At the top of that list is stemming evictions using federally-backed rent relief for tenants and small landlords and targeting source of income discrimination. She also wants to expand supportive housing -- housing with social services to help people get and stay on their feet -- and convert failing hotels and other properties to do it, though she hasn't placed a number on that goal.
"Her housing plan rightly focuses on both stopping rampant displacement and housing homeless New Yorkers, while prioritizing the creation of deeply affordable housing," said Altschuler of Make the Road Action.
In addition to the $2 billion in capital repairs to NYCHA, Wiley wants to integrate NYCHA into the city's building code enforcement. She opposes the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, which privatizes management of some public housing developments as a way to leverage capital funds, but has expressed qualified support for infill development, which allows private development on leaded NYCHA land, saying she is open to it as long as tenants are involved in the decision-making process.
Education
Wiley's main education proposals are hiring 2,500 new teachers at the cost of $250 million to reduce class sizes and to create what she calls "trauma-informed care" -- "mental health teams" in every school made up of social workers, guidance counselors, and psychologists. She wants to remove police officers from schools and reallocate $450 million from the NYPD's school safety budget to student support and mental health services. She would put an additional $10 million to hire a full-time nurse in every school.
"We're going to stop ignoring that our kids need supports and we have to educate the whole child," she said of trauma-informed care at the last televised debate, on June 16.
Wiley is the candidate with the most aggressive stance on integrating the city's heavily segregated public schools, though she talks far more about reducing overcrowding and addressing student trauma on the campaign trail. She is supportive of many of the policies recommended by the School Diversity Advisory Group -- a task force empanelled by de Blasio of which Wiley was a co-chair -- including controversial changes to admissions. Wiley says she would replace gifted and talented programing with school-wide enrichment programing at every school, drop exclusionary admissions screens for middle and high schools (criteria like grade minimums, attendance, and zip code) and eliminate the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test as the single criteria used to get into the five specialized high schools where it's not required by state law while also pushing to change the state law so it can be removed at the other three. To meet integration goals, and oversee the implementation of these policies, Wiley would appoint a Chief Integration and Equity Officer reporting to the schools chancellor with broad jurisdiction with the Department of Education.
"Maya's specific plans for desegregating New York City schools lean into the work she led on the School Diversity Advisory Group (SDAG)," wrote Matt Gonzales, an education advocate and member of the SDAG, by email. "The appointment of a Chief Integration and Equity Officer in particular would be significant, as it was one of the key recommendations declined by Mayor de Blasio back in 2019."
Policing and Public Safety
Wiley might have become most well-known initially for her stance on police reform, adopting many of what have become (especially in this race) staple progressive positions around redirecting funds and responsibilities from the NYPD and using the language of police accountability and independent oversight.
Though she has purposefully avoided the language of “defunding the NYPD,” Wiley has proposed removing $1 billion from the NYPD's nearly $6 billion annual operating budget by freezing cadet classes for two years and closing the vice squad, traffic enforcement, and school safety divisions. The rest of the money would come from cuts identified in a full audit of the NYPD. And the money would go toward violence interrupter groups, reentry services, and homelessness and mental health response. The focal point of her gun violence plan is $18 million to establish a "participatory justice process" where the public will have input on local anti-violence programs and policies in some of the communities hardest hit by shootings.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain who is leading most polls and widely viewed as a moderate Democrat, has criticized Wiley for having long-term gun violence prevention plans (that he calls more philosophical but says he agrees with) but what he says is no immediate response to increased shootings -- no “right now plan” for “intervention.” Wiley has said there is a role for the NYPD in stemming the flow of guns into New York and getting guns off the street, but has offered few details. Her campaign did not provide any when asked by Gotham Gazette about what she would do immediately if she was mayor during a spike in gun violence like the city has seen over the course of a year-plus.
"I don't think her police reform proposals are from a substance level all that different from any of the other candidates," said Phillips, acknowledging some variances like on NYPD divestment.
"What will end up mattering more from a police reform perspective is how the next mayor will actually manage the commissioner and his or her top lieutenants. And it's not the kind of organization, just like the Department of Education, just like Sanitation, just like all these other big organizations, it's not the kind of place where you can snap your fingers and expect the department to change," he said. "The change will come from your ability to navigate 1 Police Plaza, and that's not easy to do. So I think the concepts themselves aren't nearly as important as the style of the next mayor when it comes to police reform.
Along with other candidates, Wiley has said she would appoint a civilian police commissioner who has not come up through the ranks of the department and create an office to track behaviors associated with biased policing. "The first step is to take the leadership of the NYPD out of a uniformed culture that is resistant to change and is stuck to routines and practices that are hostile to the mission," her plan states.
A former chair of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, Wiley would expand that agency's budget but also create another oversight body -- a "Commission on Public Safety Oversight and Accountability" -- which together with the CCRB would have final authority over police discipline, removing it from the discretion of the NYPD commissioner. How that relationship would work is not clear in Wiley's policy papers, nor do they address state law, which reserves disciplinary decision-making for the police commissioner. Unlike the CCRB, the new commission would also have the power to set NYPD policy and budget framework. Wiley has also suggested making officers, not taxpayers, liable for police misconduct and beefing up criminal prosecutions of some violations through the state Attorney General's office.
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by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
@GeringerSameth @GothamGazette
Council Member Karen Koslowitz (photo: John McCarten/City Council)
Queens’ Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Rego Park, and Richmond Hill neighborhoods are losing their City Council member, Karen Koslowitz, who has served five terms over two stints but is again term-limited from seeking reelection. The District 29 race to succeed Koslowitz is flooded with nine Democrats running in this month’s primary, eight of whom are well-funded and offer substantial platforms.
The district, whose residents are 47.1% White, 27.7% Asian, 18.2% Hispanic, and 3.5% Black, according to the 2010 Census, faces issues ranging from the redesign of Queens Boulevard, the construction of a new jail in Kew Gardens, and a lack of health-care access for its disproportionately old population.
Public safety improvements along Queens Boulevard from Yellowstone Boulevard to Union Turnpike have been highly contested and remain an issue in the district. The upgrades have been delayed since 2018 and are finally set to be installed this July. This is the final stage of the redesign that includes added protected bike lanes and shortened pedestrian crossings to improve safety. The first stages of the new design decreased pedestrian injuries by 55% and total crashes by 19%, according to a city Department of Transportation report. Koslowitz and Community Board 6 caim that the 200 lost parking spaces entailed by the new design will hurt small business. The de Blasio administration moved ahead with the plan despite pushback, leaving the next Council member to monitor and build-off of the new installation.
Koslowitz took a bold stance when she made what she called a “difficult” decision and agreed to the construction of one of four borough-based jails to be constructed in her district as part of the plan to close the Rikers Island jail complex. Koslowitz’s conditional support of the jail won her a new community center, more public parking, more police officers and security cameras, school and senior center improvements, and lighting upgrades among other ‘quality of life’ measures. The construction and opening of the jail will likely happen on the watch of the next Council member.
As with most districts in the area, the coronavirus pandemic exposed consequences of the hospital closures that hit Queens during the first decade of this century, with St. Joseph’s Hospital, Parkway Hospital, Mary Immaculate Hospital, and St. John’s Hospital shutting their doors. Health care has been a top issue in the campaign.
Lynn Schulman, Koslowitz’s chosen successor and the recipient of many endorsements, is running aggressively on a healthcare platform. Her background in healthcare and tenure on Community Board 6 have convinced many that she has the experience necessary to bring these Queens neighborhoods back from covid and help them to be better prepared for the future.
Her run is far from uncontested, with progressive Democrats rallying behind local activist and nonprofit leader Aleda Gagarin. Also running are David Aronov, the youngest candidate in the race hoping to be the first Bukharian Jewish Council member; Avi Cyperstein, a moderate candidate rooting his run in years of emergency response volunteer experience; Eliseo Labayen, a longtime aide for numerous elected officials in city and federal government; Douglas Shapiro, a business finance advisor; Edwin Wong, a banker who is a member of Community Board 6; Donghui Zang, a more conservative Wall Street analyst; and Sheryl Fetik, a veteran community organizer and member of the Queens County Democratic Committee.
Koslowitz has been a popular staple in the district, serving in the Council from 1991 to 2001 and 2010 to 2021. She hopes that Schulman will replace her, telling voters that “we can count on [Schulman] to focus on the issues that matter most to our neighborhoods, especially fixing the hospital shortage, investing in our public schools, and taking care of our seniors.”
David Aronov
Aronov, 24, is a first-generation American with parents from Uzbekistan. In 2020, he helped lead the Queens Census effort, and is running with experience in community relations positions for various City Council Members including Koslowitz.
As of June 13, the NYC Campaign Finance Board (CFB) reports that Aronov fundraised $65,049 privately and received the maximum amount of public matching funds, $160,444. He is endorsed by NY Pan-Asian Democratic Club, NY Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education (PLACE NYC), Queens Parents United (QPU), Laborer’s International Union (LiUNA! NY), Alliance of South Asian American Labor (ASAAL), and 70 “Jewish Community Endorsers,” he writes on his website.
Pandemic recovery is Aronov’s top priority. He wants more grants and fewer fines for small businesses to help them recover from the economic hardship of the shutdown, and increased access to healthcare — focus areas similar to the rest of the pack.
One major tenet of his healthcare plan centers around universal child care, which Aronov says on his website will save New York families $10,152 in expenses each year. He also lays out plans on his website to combat the opioid crisis using neighborhood action centers as resource hubs and directing low level drug offenders to community-based health services instead of jail.
Regarding the Queens Boulevard redesign, Aronov claims on his website that the bike lanes are neither efficient nor safe for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers, and he hopes to “revisit” the plan. Before implementing any new transportation programs, Aronov says he will seek “genuine community feedback.”
Aronov makes it clear on his website that unlike Koslowitz, he does not support construction of new jails, and would rather focus on rehabilitation and facilitating reentry into society to prevent recidivism. To make this plan feasible, he wants to use existing jail facilities and speed up trials, he told QNS.
Increasing benefits for seniors including increasing funding for the Department for the Aging, creating a one-stop-shop for senior welfare programs, and freezing property tax for 65 and older residents are all plans Aronov hopes will appeal to the large base of older voters in the district.
Having been excluded from the gifted and talented program as a child due to overcrowding, he says, Aronov told PoliticsNY that bringing more G&T programs to the district on top of building a new middle school and securing funds he claims are owed by the state to the city, are key education-related issues he plans to address if elected.
To “deal with the crisis of confidence in the NYPD,” he says on his website that he aligns himself with mayoral candidate Eric Adams’ policing platform. Launching a new anti-gun unit, somewhat narrowing police purview, and funding the hate crime task force are all ways that Aronov hopes to improve policing in the city.
Avi Cyperstein
Born and raised in Kew Gardens, Cyperstein now hopes to represent his home neighborhood in city government after having spent years volunteering to help neighbors with non-medical and medical emergencies through a nonprofit he co-founded called Chaverim of Queens and as a volunteer EMT. According to his LinkedIn profile, Cyperstein was a property manager in Brooklyn and the Bronx, and is now an executive producer for an entertainment group that creates content for nonprofit organizations.
With the support of Orthodox Jewish voters, Cyperstein is running a campaign with $49,719 in private donations and $160,444 in public matching funds as of June 13, according to the CFB. He is also supported by the Queens Jewish Alliance for Action, local political group Kissena Democratic Club, Asian American Voters Alliance, and a few others.
Cyperstein entered the race after witnessing the pandemic through the eyes of an emergency response technician, which, he said in an interview with PoliticsNY, exposed the inconsistencies and political motivations that hindered the city’s pandemic response. In an interview with Hamodia, Cyperstein said that city emergency response protocols were made “not based necessarily on the medical necessity or what would be for the benefit of the patient,” but rather what New York’s political leadership had chosen. He doesn’t delve into specifics on what type of protocols he would improve and implement.
For Cyperstein’s small business recovery plan, minority- and women-owned businesses would be prioritized through the city’s adherence to quotas for the number of city contracts that go to Asian-American and young adult-run businesses, he explains on his website.
“No jail in Kew Gardens!” Cyperstein says on his website. Instead, he thinks the funding should go to Rikers Island renovations.
In a recent Twitter video, Cyperstein said that he opposes defunding the police, because it doesn’t allow the NYPD to hire the best officers “to do the best job possible.” People in the district, he argues, want an effective police department that will maintain Queens’ “safety and security,” and stop hate crimes.
Expanding welfare programs is another way Cyperstein hopes to help his community members rebound from the pandemic. He told the Queens Gazette that he would fight to fund “senior centers, programming and the reopening of social adult day care centers.” Alluding to “starving” residents in the district on his website, Cyperstein said he will increase food stamp programs and expand them to include clothes and school supplies. He also plans to fight for discounted museum and other arts and cultural activity rates for low-income families.
Sheryl Fetik
As a longtime local activist in politics, Fetik hopes to overcome a lack of funding and endorsements to win the seat. She attended local public schools and Queens College, was an aide to District 29 Council Member Aurther Katzman in the ‘80s, and is now a member of the Queens County Democratic Committee.
Fetik only raised $438 in private funds as of June 13, according to the CFB, and doesn’t list any endorsements on her website. Further calling into question the legitimacy of Fetik’s run is her sparse website platform.
In an interview with Patch, Fetik said that small businesses were hurt by the bike lanes on Queens Boulevard, and that in the future, residents need to be included in streetscaping decisions.
On her website, Fetik says that she was the only candidate to testify against the jail in Kew Gardens, and told Patch that she doesn’t see the jail as a done deal, but rather a plan she plans to stop through defunding, canceling contracts and altering the current plan.
Fetik’s healthcare plan puts an emphasis on “quality of care, not the number of beds,” she says on her website -- a point of difference between her and the other candidates who put hospital capacity as a top healthcare priority. Details of the plan are not offered.
Fetik is a proponent of specialized high schools and their admissions tests in addition to gifted and talented programs. She names education and expanding lifelong learning as one of her main priorities.
Fetik’s position on NYPD funding is similar to Cyperstein’s in that she wants to reform, not defund the police, she writes on her website.
Aleda Gagarin
A 15-year Kew Gardens resident with $35,514 in private funds and $160,444 in public matchings funds as of June 13, according to the CFB, Gagarin has united progressives on the left and has had a lot of energy behind her campaign. She has a masters in urban planning from CUNY-Hunter College and has been a leader for seven years at Candid, a nonprofit information service focusing on nonprofit funding transparency.
Gagarin enjoys a plethora of endorsements including from Assembly Member Ron Kim, Council Members Jimmy Van Bramer and Brad Lander, activist and actor Cynthia Nixon, the Working Families Party, The Jewish Vote, VOCAL NY, StreetsPAC, National Institute for Reproductive Health Action Fund, Voters for Animal Rights, New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, National Association of Social Workers, Black Lives Caucus, Vote Pro Choice, Sunrise NYC, Forest Hills Green Team, Kew Gardens Preservation Alliance, Resilience PAC, New York Communities for Change, Queens United Independent Progressives (QUIP), Queens Central Democratic Club (QCDC), AOC’s Courage to Change PAC, Progressive Women of NY, Run for Something, and more. She also has local news outlets Forest Hills and Rego Park Times.
Garagin criticized Koslowitz’ pro-parking stance during the Queens Boulevard bike lane dispute, saying it denied the district “environmental and health benefits,” as she told Streetsblog. Gagarin goes further on her website, calling for a city-wide bike lane network and more road medians to protect elderly pedestrians and bikers.
Like the other candidates, Gagarin is vehemently against the Kew Gardens jail, hoping instead efforts and funding go toward decarceration through expanded employment opportunities and decriminalization, she writes on her website. Pre-existing jails such as on Rikers Island should be closed by 2026 and converted to a green energy hub, she says of the Renewable Rikers plan that is in the works.
Universal healthcare and a moratorium on public hospital closures are among her plans to address the healthcare crisis that Gagarin argues is a product of a lack of access to healthy food and green space that leaves working class communities worse-off and prone to chronic underlying health conditions.
Small business support is another area Gagarin hopes to address at the City Council. She wants an increase in city contracts of minority- and women-owned businesses to a 50% quota, to rezone to limit chain retailers, to institute commercial rent control, and to increase grants and loans for small businesses, as detailed on her website.
Gagarin has the most robust environmental justice platform in the race and wants to reduce waste, invest in green infrastructure, create a resiliency plan to prepare for extreme weather, rezone to equitably distribute exposure to noxious waste, and divest municipal funds from fossil fuel-invested Wall Street.
Gagarin is vocal about police reform as well, and recently authored a guest opinion column explaining how she wants to resize the police budget to better reflect the community’s priorities. Instead of policing homeless people, we should provide permanent housing; rather than having police in schools, we should invest in school-based social workers; and in place of drug-related arrests, we should provide addiction treatment, she argues. On her website, Gagarin also calls for freezing all new police hires and reducing police union power in favor of AFL-CIO unions. City and State reported that she has supported defunding the NYPD by $3 billion.
Her platform also includes a public bank, making CUNY free, facilitating school integration and inclusionary admissions, an eventual moratorium on charter schools, decriminalizing jaywalking, ending solitary confinement, and expanding accessory dwelling units to “ensure long-term deep affordability,” among other initiatives she details on her website.
Eliseo Labayen
Native to the district and a longtime city and federal government staffer with the offices of Congressional Reps. Cartwright and Rangel and Council Members Vallone and Ferreras-Copeland, as well as in the State Department, Labayen now seeks the City Council seat to bring change after Koslowitz’s “dismal tenure,” he told Patch. With $22,645 in private fundraising and $97,865 in public matching funds as of June 13, according to the CFB, Labayen doesn’t list any endorsements on his website.
Growing up, he told Streetsblog, Queens Boulevard was so dangerous that he remembers being among those calling it the “Boulevard of Death,” explaining that it would be “a top priority” for him to support the redesign in favor of public safety over business owners’ plea for parking spots. In a Queens Post video interview, Labayen said bike lanes, like the ones set to be installed on Queens Boulevard, are a “basic safety measure.”
Labayen hopes to support small businesses in other, more productive ways, he told the Queens Post, such as through a renewal of the Love Your Local Small Business Grant Program, which was recently allowed to sunset. He also explains on his website that he will fund the Department of Small Business Services, offer more grants, and create small business liaisons to offer advice on regulatory adherence.
In line with most of his opponents, Labayen is opposed to the Kew Gardens jail and told Patch he “[intends] on preventing” its construction. Not only does Lanayen believe that the land use process and location decision was flawed, as he explains on his website, but that Koslowitz’s decision went “against the wishes and concerns of the community at large,” he told Patch.
Labayen said in the Queens Post interview that he is “happy with the headcount of the NYPD as it is now,” and approves of the modest cuts made by the City Council and mayor last year. For him, police remain “a vibrant and very important part of the community...so are small businesses, so are schools and so is mental health.” Law enforcement involvement in fighting hate crime, protecting small businesses from burglary, and keeping public transportation safe are all areas he hopes to address with the NYPD.
Labayen believes that expanding use of Kendra’s Law, which allows courts to order mental health treatment if someone is deemed a danger to the public, will not only improve street safety, but also help the homelessness crisis, he writes on his website.
To tackle education reform, Labayen wants to hire at least two college counselors per high school and foster diversity in schools through affordable housing that allows parents to choose the neighborhood where they want their child to attend school, he says on his website.
Labayen also promotes his climate change platform, which includes fostering climate resiliency and disaster preparedness, expanding rain garden construction, and installing QueensWay, a High Line-esque urban park.
Lynn Schulman
Backed by much of the Queens Democratic Party establishment, including outgoing Council Member Koslowitz, on top of many influential labor unions, Schulman, a senior liaison in Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s office, LGBTQ activist, and the former vice-chair of Community Board 6 for 20 years, is running the apparent frontrunner campaign. Having worked for 10 years as an executive director for a hospital network, Schulman is focusing her campaign on healthcare.
A graduate from Brooklyn Law School and the Senior Executives in State and Local Government Leadership program at Harvard Kennedy School, Schulman has run for the seat twice before, losing by less than 4% to Koslowitz in 2009.
Schulman is endorsed by, among others, Congressional Reps. Grace Meng and Ritchie Torres, Assemblymembers Andrew Hevesi and Catalina Cruz, Council Members Koslowitz, Carlina Rivera, Daniel Dromm, Keith Powers, and Justin Brannan, State Senators John Liu, Toby Stavisky, and Leroy Comrie, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, 1199 SEIU, Central Labor Council (CLC AFL-CIO), nurses (NYSNA), communications workers (CWA), municipal workers (DC37), hotel workers (HTC), building service workers (32BJ), sanitation workers (USA Local 831), teachers (UFT), firefighters (UFA), retail workers (RWDSU), EMS workers (EMS Local 3621 and 2507), and transportation workers (TWU Local 100), 21 in ‘21, Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, Lesbian & Gay Democratic Club of Queens (LGDCQ), JFK Democratic Club, Tenants PAC, Roadmap for Progress, Queens Democrats, Queens Central Democratic Club, Planned Parenthood PAC, Stonewall Democrats, NY League of Conservation Voters, Vote Pro Choice, and still others.
According to the CFB, Schulman raised $81,982 in private donations and $160,444 in public matching funds as of June 13. City & State reported that $4,000 of her fundraising came from registered lobbyists, several of whom have had direct business-related contact with Schulman in her position as senior community and emergency services liaison in Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s office.
Another $30,876 was spent on Schulman’s behalf by “Common Sense NYC,” an independent expenditure group whose top donors, according to Patch, are two Trump-supporting billionaires. Although candidates cannot control who chooses to spend to support them, they can publicly disavow or refuse the money -- neither of which Schulman has done. Schulman told Patch she was proud to be running a “broad based grassroots campaign,” and “did not seek, nor…know anything about [the Trump-supporting donors].”
Common Sense NYC has supported 17 other City Council candidates and told The City that their funding decisions are efforts to suppress “socialist-related” candidates (such as Gagarin, in this case).
Schulman is running with a focus on healthcare and healthcare infrastructure, and helped spearhead a letter to the State Health Commissioner demanding more hospital beds in Queens. She told Patch hospital capacity is the “single most pressing issue” in the district. Schulman not only wants more investment in community healthcare centers for preventative and primary care, but she also promised she would “push legislation that will require all development projects under land use review to include a hospital impact assessment in addition to the required environmental assessment,” according to her website.
Schulman is supportive of the Queens Boulevard redesign project, and hopes to take more input from community boards on the subject of safety in public spaces, she told Streetsblog NYC. Hoping to balance pedestrian and cyclist safety with business’ push for more parking, Schulman says on her website that she supports expanding residential parking permits to all neighborhoods and promoting rapid bus transit.
Schulman wants to stop the Kew Gardens jail altogether, and is in favor of a “community-based restorative justice” system that she says on her website will “change the relationship between the corrections systems and the community,” although she does not offer any specific policies.
She is similarly vague with regard to her plans for police reform, telling City and State that she plans to work with other Council members to determine cuts to NYPD funding.
Douglas Shapiro
A self-described technocrat with a “deep expertise in macroeconomics and finance,” Shapiro is a CFO advisor for an IT consulting firm who is not accepting donations from corporations, special interest groups, lobbyists, law firms, fossil fuel companies, or real estate firms. He had raised $23,509 in private donations and $66,560 in public matching funds as of June 13, according to the CFB, and posted no endorsements on his website.
Shapiro told Patch that his experience working with the Guinea-Bissau government to reduce inequality and as a consultant to the US government to increase food stamp efficiency prepared him to “[get] things done despite bureaucratic obstacles.” He is positioning himself as the rational, data-oriented candidate.
Koslowitz’s vote for the Kew Gardens jail was a “colossal error in judgement,” Shapiro told Patch. On his website, he says the money should be diverted to “education, physical infrastructure, and healthcare.”
Education and healthcare are priorities in Shapiro’s campaign. Having attended Stuyvesant High School, Shapiro is in favor of keeping the specialized high school admissions test and the expansion of gifted and talented programs. He also wants to build a new middle school and hire more teachers to reduce class sizes, Shapiro told PoliticsNY.
Shapiro co-authored a piece in Gotham Gazette about senior healthcare infrastructure improvement in which he echoes calls to increase hospital capacity in Queens by replacing lost hospitals and funding current facilities such as the vacant Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills.
On the addition of bike lanes on Queens Boulevard, Shapiro said that he is willing to sacrifice some parking space for a plan that will in the end “make our community more vibrant by allowing more transportation options,” he wrote on his website.
Edwin Wong
Wong is a commercial banker and Community Board 6 member in addition to having achieved president emeritus status of the Forest Hills Asian Association. He had raised $27,198 in private donations and $108,786 in public matching funds as of June 13, according to the CFB. He is endorsed by Queens Parents United (QPU), Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education (PLACE NYC), New American Voters Association (NAVA), NYC Asian-American Democratic Club, South Brooklyn Chinese-American Voters Alliance, former Assembly Member Jimmy Meng, and several other Asian-American community leaders.
Without a clear website platform and failure to respond to press requests for comment, Wong’s positions on many issues is largely unknown.
In an interview with PoliticsNY, Wong said that he considered himself “the unifier” who can work with everyone, from small and commercial businesses to landlords and tenants. On the issue of bike lanes on Queens Boulevard, Wong told the Queens Chronicle that he would look more into the issue because of business owner complaints.
On the Kew Gardens jail, he told QNS he was opposed to its construction and wants the funds to be redirected to education, rent relief and mortgage assistance. Rather than fund new jails, Wong advocates for rebuilding Rikers Island and focusing on “free vocational and trade schools” to facilitate employment, reported QNS.
Donghui Zang
Zang, who came from a small village in China to work his way to become a Wall Street analyst, takes a more conservative stance than many of his opponents.
Zang is endorsed by City Council Members Robert Holden and Peter Koo, Assembly Member William Colton, Queens Parents United (QPU), Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education (PLACE NYC), NYC School Safety Coalition, and NYC Parents Union. He had raised $29,819 in private funding and $160,444 in public matching funds as of June 13, according to the CFB.
Zang has two children in city public schools, and is an outspoken, staunch supporter of the specialized high school admissions test, which he claims is an objective standard to determine admittance.
The Astoria Post reported that Zang organized a rally called “Keep Safety Agents in Schools” in May with the New York School Safety Coalition in support of continued NYPD presence in New York’s public schools in the face of Mayor de Blasio’s plan to move school safety to the Department of Education.
Zang opposes the borough-based jail in Kew Gardens, calling the project fiscally irresponsible at a time when the city has been hit financially by the pandemic, he told QNS.
With rising violent crime, Zang told Gothamist that more police presence is needed, and instead of defunding the police, “we should refund them.” Claiming a lack of knowledge of the Black Lives Matter movement, Zang said he wasn’t sure enough to take a side, but said he is a believer that “all the lives matter.”
On the Queens Boulevard revamp, Zang told Streetsblog that he supports “long-term investments in bike lanes,” but sees too much community opposition to the redesign and wants a more comprehensive study of the project before he supports it.
Republican Nominee Awaits
The winner of the Demorcratic primary will go on to face Republican Michael Conigliaro in the fall general election. Conigliaro is a real estate attorney who told Patch that he is running his campaign on “common sense” policies that target rising crime, struggling small businesses and rapid overdevelopment.
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by Carmen Vintro for Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette