VOTE411 Voter Guide

The three top issues facing our district, and across the city, are the lack of true permanently affordable housing, public safety and our mental health crisis, and environmental sustainability.

We must build 21st-century middle-class housing, convert underused commercial spaces into homes, expand mandatory inclusionary housing, expand the use of community land trusts, recapitalize public housing, and protect vital assets like HDFC cooperatives and existing affordable housing units.

We must transform our streets to protect pedestrians and cyclists, secure our subways, build trust with data-driven, community policing, empower our youth and prevent crime at its roots, stand firm against hate crimes, work to stop random violence with real community care, and revolutionize mental health response, including expanded SHOW program outreach, training more 911 operators and first responders to lead in crises.

The CLCPA must be implemented. We must make charging stations publicly available, return community composting initiatives, provide capital funding to ensure public housing be healthier and environmentally sustainable, expand the use of wind and solar power, and reduce waste.

To start work immediately with my colleagues on the Council and the Mayor's Office on plans to build more affordable housing, implement my mental health plan, and achieve environmental sustainability.

We need to develop and preserve thousands of affordable housing apartments in our district and tens of thousands across our city.

The largest impediments are access to land upon which to build, the timeline of construction, and administrative red tape.

Housing Affordability, Public Safety - Crime, Education

On Housing to combat soaring rents (up 20% recently) and displacement, declare housing a human right and implement immediate protections. Key actions include:

NYCHA Emergency Declaration: Prioritize repairs through audits, tenant oversight committees, and unionized workforce expansion, while blocking risky privatization like RAD/PACT evictions.

Rent Stabilization and Freezes: Enforce universal rent control, revise the Rent Guidelines Board for tenant responsiveness, and regulate 300,000 deregulated units to prevent gouging and displacement of Black and brown families.

Anti-Displacement Measures: Expand 100% affordable housing on public land, provide emergency rental assistance, fully fund Right to Counsel in housing court, and penalize source-of-income discrimination. Use the council office to pressure landlords daily for repairs and harassment cessation, while promoting homeownership for locals to preserve neighborhood character.

On Public Safety, restore trust through community-driven policing and support services, addressing crime, homelessness, and delivery worker vulnerabilities without overreach.

Enhanced Patrolling and Reforms: Increase visible, accountable policing focused on gun violence and quality-of-life issues like narrow-street hazards, while protecting vulnerable groups (e.g., e-bikes for delivery workers).

Homelessness Pathways: Expand supportive housing with mental health/addiction services to break the shelter cycle, tying into broader funding for schools, hospitals, and elderly care.

Community Investment: Reinvest in safer streets via tax breaks for small businesses and families, promoting job creation to reduce economic drivers of crime.

On Education

Hire More Teachers with Competitive Pay Raises: We'd recruit and retain top educators by boosting salaries and incentives, ensuring smaller class sizes and quality instruction for every child. Our kids deserve the best, and that starts with valuing our teachers.

Modernize Facilities and Expand Resources: Invest in updated classrooms, technology, and supplies—drawing from my back-to-school drives where we've distributed book bags and essentials to hundreds of families. No more crumbling buildings or outdated materials holding our students back.

Expand After-School and Youth Programs.

Build Safe Youth and Senior Centers: Create dedicated spaces for after-school activities, mentorship, and recreation to keep kids off the streets and out of gangs. This ties directly into public safety—strong programs mean fewer shootings and safer parks for families.

Combat Crime Through Prevention: Restore funding for community programs gutted under past leadership, focusing on mentorship and job training to guide youth toward opportunity, not opioids or violence.

Support Early Childhood and Family Resources.

Universal Access to Daycare and Nurseries: Partner with local providers to build affordable childcare facilities in every neighborhood, from the East Village to Murray Hill. No family should choose between work and caring for their little ones.

This isn't rhetoric—it's rooted in my 20+ years advocating for low-income families, from rallying for NYCHA repairs to endorsing allies like George Sarantopoulos who share my vision for better schools.

As your Republican and Conservative nominee, I'll fight in City Hall for fiscal responsibility that puts our youth first, because their success is District 2's success.

My Top Three Priorities for the First 100 Days in NYC Council District 2

Declare a Housing Emergency and Launch Tenant

Protections: Introduce legislation for an immediate NYCHA emergency declaration, including a full audit of repairs and a tenant oversight board to end the backlog of crumbling homes.

Host weekly tenant town halls to hear your stories and connect families to emergency rental assistance—because no one should fear losing their home.

Boost Public Safety with Community-Led Reforms.

Partner with NYPD and local leaders to roll out enhanced street patrols targeting gun violence and quality-of-life crimes, while protecting delivery workers with e-bike safety zones.

Secure funding for the rapid deployment of mental health crisis teams to address homelessness, reducing shelter reliance, and keeping our streets safer for kids heading to school.

Invest in Our Youth Through Education and After-School Safety Nets.

Propose a budget amendment to hire 50 new teachers for District 2 schools with competitive raises and fund back-to-school supply drives for 1,000+ students.

Break ground on a new youth center in the Lower East Side for after-school programs, mentorship, and job training to steer kids away from gangs and toward opportunity.

Ending Homelessness once and for all.

My Most Ambitious Goal: Make Housing a True Human Right in District 2

Raised in leaky NYCHA on the Lower East Side, watching my mom grind through three jobs to keep our roof, I know a home is everything.

My big swing: Transform District 2 into NYC's first neighborhood with secure, affordable, tenant-controlled housing—no greed, no fear, no evictions.In four years,

I'll pilot the nation's first tenant-led public housing model: Retrofits for green living, on-site childcare, job hubs in our towers.

By 2030, zero evictions via rent freezes, community land trusts, and a "Housing Bill of Rights" shielding immigrants, seniors, and families like mine—after 20+ years fighting for them.

Real economic power back in our hands, not developers' pockets. Ambitious? Hell yes. Impossible? Not with grassroots fighters like us rallying at City Hall and holding feet to the fire.

Top 3 Roadblocks to Tenant-Led Housing in District 2

NYC's broken system fights dirty, but after 20+ years battling, I know the score:

Funding Black Hole: $80B needed for NYCHA fixes, gutted by federal cuts—leaks and lead everywhere. I'll redirect waste to plug it.

Developer Schemes: Lobbies push RAD privatizations that boot families. I'll end those rip-offs.

Bureaucracy & Gentrification: Red tape + rent spikes evict us first. Grassroots power crushes it.

Safer Streets & Sidewalks, Small Businesses, and Homelessness

Safer Streets and Sidewalks: Pass a bill called Priscilla’s Law: to register & license eBikes. End the era of gangs selling drugs in parks. Hire more police, increase foot patrols on our streets, in our parks and subways. Protect NYPD gang database. Cap cannabis retail licenses per community board.

Small Businesses: Re-introduce the Affordability Act to enable small businesses to negotiate fair leases with landlords. Create a staff position dedicated to help small business owners open and maintain a small business in CD2.

Homelessness: Over 130,000 people (39,000 children) reside in the NYC Homeless Shelter system. The majority are down on their luck and NOT mentally ill, violent or drug addicts who dominate our headlines & minds. Structured job training for homeless to get on their feet. These New Yorkers desperately need low income housing. And so as your councilmember I will work to increase the subsidies given to small property owners to renovate their vacant apartments; Define a schedule to fully fund repairs for all 17 NYCHA housing developments in CD2, which would release desperately needed low-income housing to help the 126,000 New Yorkers living in the homeless shelter system & end the use of midtown hotels serving as homeless shelters.

1. Priscilla’s Law: a bill to register, license and insure eBikes. 2. Clean Water For All: Address and resolve the polluted water supply in NYCHA's Jacob Riis Houses and repair NYCHA. 3. Garden Protection Act: Make community gardens permanent community land trusts.

to pass Priscilla' Law. Registering and licensing ebikes will save lives. eBike riders will know that the rules of the road applies to them too.

Getting Priscilla's Law passed is my most ambitious goal because the majority of elected officials (including my opponent) are endorsed by the ebicycle lobbyists (Transportation Alternatives and their sister organizations). Transportation Alternatives does not want ebike riders to take personal responsibility for their actions when zooming through a red light and hitting a child, an adult or an elderly person.

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