Housing for all of us.

Housing is a human right. In order to ensure that every New Yorker has access to safe and reliable housing for generations to come, we need to break our reliance on the corporate real estate industry for developing housing and assert our power as a city to build our own homes and make real investments in social and affordable housing. It’s time to take back control, reclaim our land, house the homeless, and guarantee permanent housing affordability in NYC.

See our full housing plan.

A Recovery for all of us.

The COVID-19 crisis has led to a historic unemployment crisis, the permanent closure of thousands of New York City small businesses, and the displacement of thousands from their homes.

Our campaign is committed to fighting for a Recovery for All of Us - one that addresses the disproportionate impact that this economic crisis has wrought on people of color, immigrants, marginalized communities, and working families and ensures New Yorkers are never this vulnerable again.

See our full recovery plan.

Justice for all of us.

As a community member, as a father, and as a candidate for City Council, my first priority is to keep our community members safe. In order to do this, we need to address the root causes of crime and interpersonal violence and invest in real long-term solutions for public safety.

Our plan calls for reinvesting in our communities and addressing root causes of crime, addressing inequality in the legal justice system, and reducing recidivism and supporting re-entry services for the formerly incarcerated. Our communities deserve better - we deserve Justice for All of Us.

Cultures & Arts for All of Us

A Plan for Cultural Workers, Cultural Infrastructure, and Community Arts Organizations

We can’t talk about a recovery for all of us without also talking about a recovery for New York’s cultural sector. Because there is no recovery for New York without the artists, musicians, dancers, music venues, theaters, arts education providers, cultural spaces, and arts nonprofits that are at the heart of our communities.

Our cultural workers and infrastructure are under intense threat – estimates from February show that two-thirds of arts and culture sector workers lost work during the pandemic, more than nearly any other sector in the economy. Our cultural infrastructure – the spaces where artists and cultural organizations live, work, make, and perform – had already been challenged by increasing unaffordability in New York before the pandemic. It is now hanging on by a thread. Six months after being signed into law, independent venues, theaters, and museums are still waiting to receive funds from the federal Save Our Stages Act to allow them to pay back rent, rehire employees, and restart programming.

Together we will:

• Reinvest Existing Funding and Resources into Community Arts Groups

• Open up new opportunities for collective and centralized local grantmaking for the arts

• Explore opportunities for the development of artist land trusts

• Find ways to more directly engage artists in local governance, planning and policy

• Invest in cooperative organizing and capacity building for artists and cultural workers in the district

See our full arts plan

Housing for all of us.

A Plan to Stop Displacement, Reclaim the Land, and Build Permanently Affordable Housing

With the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, New York tenants and small businesses are now more vulnerable than ever. Nearly 90% of NYC restaurants and bars couldn’t pay full rent in October and it’s estimated that by January 2021, over 800,000 households in the state of New York will be at risk of eviction.

It’s time to release big real estate’s hold over our city and reclaim our right to live, work, and raise our families in the city that we love and call home.

Together we will:

• Repair and Fully-Fund the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)

• Accelerate the Social Housing and Community Land Trust (CLT) Revolution

• End the Private Warehousing of Vacant Properties and Seize Strategic Assets

• Stop the Revolving Door Between Real Estate and Government

• Create A Comprehensive Citywide Plan for Housing and Land Justice

• Include a Racial Impact Study in our Land-use Process

See our full housing plan.

A Recovery for all of us.

A Plan for a Cooperative, Caring, and Just Economic Recovery Post-COVID

The COVID-19 crisis has led to a historic unemployment crisis, the permanent closure of thousands of New York City small businesses, and the displacement of thousands from their homes. Without decisive local public action, the Coronavirus era threatens to severely deepen existing poverty and inequality.

Our campaign is committed to fighting for a Recovery for All of Us - one that addresses the disproportionate impact that this economic crisis has wrought on people of color, immigrants, marginalized communities, and working families and ensures New Yorkers are never this vulnerable again.

Together we will:

• Create a Municipal Portable Benefits Program and Strengthen Worker Protections

• Regulate Delivery Apps and Stop the Amazonification of New York City

• Fight for Truly Universal Childcare

• Invest in Green Career Pathways, Local Hiring, and Union Apprenticeships

• Accelerate the Worker-Owned Business Movement

• Create a Public Bank to Support Key Sectors of our Local Economy

See our full recovery plan.

Justice for all of us.

As a community member, as a father, and as a candidate for City Council, my first priority is to keep our community members safe. In order to do this, we need to address the root causes of crime and interpersonal violence and invest in real long-term solutions for public safety.

Our plan calls for reinvesting in our communities and addressing root causes of crime, addressing inequality in the legal justice system, and reducing recidivism and supporting re-entry services for the formerly incarcerated. Our communities deserve better - we deserve Justice for All of Us.

Together we will:

• Redefine the role of NYPD and remove police from situations that should be handled by social services.

• Hold NYPD accountable and address police misconduct

• Reallocate and reinvest $2 billion in our communities.

• Expand Community Courts

• Reduce recidivism and support re-entry services for the formerly incarcerated.

Climate Justice

Cities are responsible for about 75% of Earth’s pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Most of those emissions come from inefficient buildings and transportation. While cities are some of the world’s biggest polluters, they can also be leaders in curbing emissions and leading the fight to reverse climate change. As a candidate running to represent a waterfront district, including the Sandy-impacted neighborhoods of Red Hook and Sunset Park, climate change is a central and existential threat to our community. As a longtime community activist, I have organized and won against racist and environmentally dangerous rezonings, including the Industry City rezoning. I have also fought to address the chronic failure of the federal, state, and city government to confront the needs of the Red Hook NYCHA community when it comes to climate resiliency. New York City has made great strides in this respect with the passage of the Climate Mobilization Act in 2019, but we must go further. All policy should be drafted with climate resiliency in mind - not as an afterthought, but as a primary concern for our communities.

Together we will:

• Work with our Federal partners to invest in a Green New Deal for NYCHA. This would work to modernize public housing and transition its buildings to carbon-free energy. This would also be a huge job creator, as we would train and hire NYCHA residents to complete those renovations. 

• Create regulations for more efficient and sustainable construction. This would include using more sustainable building materials, such as low-carbon cement, and recycling and reducing building components, such as virgin steel. I would also advocate for the use of existing space and infrastructure to avoid transportation of new material or contributing to deforestation.

• Invest in infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists, and people with disabilities, and expanding green infrastructure and public transportation. This would include increasing the number of protected bike lanes and the number of SBS bus routes. Further, this includes expanding the open streets program and repurposing parking spots and parking lots.

Transportation & Street Safety

Transportation that works for all of us is vital. Far too often we pit drivers against cyclists, cyclists against pedestrians when we need to be planning streets that work for all modes of transit. We need to ensure that everyone can get around the district quickly and safely. I am an avid cyclist who has been bike-commuting to work since 2014. I know how unsafe our streets are, have been to too many vigils for cyclists and pedestrians, and will treat street safety as the public health crisis that it is. The 38th District has been neglected by the DOT and the Mayor’s Office for decades, resulting in the record number of traffic fatalities that we all know too well. Preventing the deaths of other cyclists and pedestrians is worth more than the financial investment that we need to make as a city to ensure that our streets are safe. 

For Sunset Park:

• Make 3rd Avenue safer with better lighting, slower speeds, individual Express bus lane for B37

• We need better transit connections from protected bike lanes to bus routes from upland Sunset Park to our waterfront, including Bush Terminal waterfront park.  

• Improve integration of Citibike into our streets, sidewalks, and existing transit options. The rollout of citibike was not handled with enough community output and without real consideration for how it works with existing transit options. 

For Red Hook: 

• Better, faster bus connections to F, G subway stops in Red Hook 

• Safer Pedestrian crossings along Hamilton Avenue