Words and Updates from Brad Lander

Low voter turnout. Low civic trust. An idea for change.

The way it looks to me, we’re facing a crisis in our democracy. And I don’t just mean Donald Trump, the partisan divide, or gaping inequality (as serious as those are). Collectively, in NYC and far beyond, we aren’t taking good care of our democracy.

We’ve got embarrassingly low voter turnout (last September, just 15% of voters showed up for the NYC primary elections that selected citywide leaders). Steep declines in civic trust, especially in government. Here in NYC, according to the census, we’ve even got some of the lowest levels of volunteerism. A crisis of civic participation.

To keep more kids from dying

That’s why I got arrested this morning, outside State Senator Marty Golden’s office in Bay Ridge: to keep more kids from dying.

We were there to demand that Golden and his colleagues head back to Albany immediately to renew and expand NYC’s school-zone speed camera program.The evidence is clear: speed cameras save kids’ lives. At intersections with speed cameras, speeding dropped by a whopping 63%, leading to fewer and less dangerous crashes.

Reckless DrivingAnnie LeversJune 28, 2018Reckless Driving, Speed Cameras, Marty Golden, BlueWave2018

By next Father’s Day, let’s make sure we’re not a complicit nation of mass child abusers.

Like so many of you, I’m feeling deeply conflicted this #FathersDay. So grateful for my remarkable blessings, as both a son and a father. And so angry and horrified and helpless by the torture our country is inflicting on immigrant fathers and their kids, not one iota less deserving or human than mine.

Annie LeversJune 17, 2018

A City budget that’s on the right track

For hundreds of thousands of working-poor New Yorkers like Shani Rahman, the price of a monthly MetroCard can exceed 10% of their household budget -- keeping them from getting medical care, buying new clothes for their kids, even forcing them to beg for a swipe just to get to work. Poverty is so often a vicious cycle, and the high cost of our public transportation has been one painful example … until now.

The 2018-2019 budget that the City Council and the Mayor have agreed upon will provide groundbreaking relief to low-income straphangers. Thanks to the #FairFares program that we’ve worked on together, New Yorkers below the poverty line (about $25,000 for a family of four) will be able to get half-priced MetroCards. It’s a strong new strand of NYC’s social safety net.

Annie LeversJune 12, 2018Budget, Fair Fares

#PlanetOrPlastic: Foam Wars

I know how much you care about the environment, so I wanted to share with you a recent Politico article that highlights an ongoing #PlanetOrPlastic battle: can we effectively recycle polystyrene foam (aka styrofoam)?

The answer is no. But don’t just take my word for it. The New York City Department of Sanitation, after a two-year exhaustive study, concluded that styrofoam could not be recycled in an economically efficient and environmentally feasible manner. Environmental groups agree: It will wind up in landfills, where it will remain, literally, forever.

EnvironmentAnnie LeversJune 7, 2018Climate Change, Environment, Plastic Waste, Planet or Plastic?

The desolate valley of segregation, 50 years later

Fifty years ago this month, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968. The law was passed just days after Dr. King was killed, inspired by his words:

“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.”

EducationAnnie LeversApril 24, 2018Segregation, Schools