Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Victor Pichardo

Victor Pichardo

  • Competing Visions of Public Banking in New York City

    compete vis bank

    A Wall Street rally for public banking (photo: @PublicBankNYC)


    In recent memory public banking was an idea that belonged either to a distant utopian future or a distant populist past. But today, not only is public banking on the agenda of major New York politicians, but competing visions of public banking are on offer.

    The coalition Public Bank NYC (PBNYC) is running a grassroots effort to create a public bank for New York City, while mayoral candidate Andrew Yang proposes to initiate public banking through the mayor’s executive authority. Despite

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  • 'We're in a State of Transition': Bronx Democrats Wrestle with Changing of the Guard

    Bronx Democrats Heastie Diaz Jr Crespo

    Bronx political leaders Heastie, Diaz Jr., Crespo (photo: Bronx Borough President's Office)


    To say the Bronx political landscape is changing is simultaneously both a trite observation and a vast understatement. The once-vaunted Democratic machine in the borough is currently leaderless and has lost many of its longtime fixtures in recent years, with more on their way off the political stage. This comes at a time when progressive and anti-establishment forces are gaining momentum across the city, though in some ways less so in the

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  • An Agenda to Protect New York Immigrants and Benefit the Entire State

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    (photo: governor's office)


    Immigrants in New York are under attack. In New York City for example, despite municipal policies to welcome and protect immigrants, ICE arrests of immigrant individuals with no criminal convictions have rapidly increased. From fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2018, ICE non-criminal arrests in the New York City area increased by 414%.

    These increases reflect the president’s negative rhetoric and policies

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  • Former Informant, Out; Candidate Indicted on Voter Fraud, In

    Hector Ramirez petitioning

    Hector Ramirez petitioning in the Bronx (photo via Facebook)


    Bronx Assemblymember Victor Pichardo will no longer be facing former Assemblymember Nelson Castro, a onetime federal informant who helped dig up dirt on fellow electeds in an attempt to reduce charges he was facing for election-related perjury, in the upcoming Democratic primary.

    Instead, Pichardo will again be

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  • Former Government Informant to Run for Old Assembly Seat

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    Current Assembly Member Victor Pichardo


    Former Bronx Assemblymember Nelson Castro wants his seat back. Standing in the way, along with the rigors of a campaign and the incumbent, is the fact that Castro served as a government informant for years - to avoid perjury charges.

    In April 2013 Castro abruptly resigned his Bronx Assembly seat, shocking his colleagues and constituents by announcing that he had worked for the U.S. Attorney’s office and that his role as an informant was key to convicting former Assemblymember Eric Stevenson for taking $20,000 in bribes from businesspeople

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