Our Vision
Read our comprehensive Public Saftey policy page.
What we are really paying police to do is meet protestors with war weapons, to uphold the school to prison pipeline, to help carry out evictions, to be ill-equipped first responders for mental health crises, and to conduct routine traffic stops.
The billions of dollars could be redirected to the people and service providers best equipped to deal with those situations, and more important, prevent them from happening in the first place.
Yet time and again, we’ve invested in the wrong things, and a lack of imagination and real political courage have stagnated New York City’s progress.
As City Council Member, I will commit to divesting from carceral solutions and investing in what actually keeps communities safe and thriving. I will fight for the working people who have built this city. I will push policies that will not only protect New Yorkers now but will create a safer, more livable, city for decades to come. And I will co-govern every day alongside my constituents.
To that end, I will work to:
End the carceral system in New York City by defunding and disbanding the NYPD, permanently closing Rikers Island, halting the construction of new jails, and embedding restorative practices into all city agencies.
During my near-decade of work as a public defender in New York City, I witnessed the trauma our criminal legal system inflicts on Black and brown, poor, and immigrant communities every day. I have long fought for, and remain committed to, a complete transformation of our criminal legal system and an end to policing and mass incarceration.
- Defund, and ultimately disband, the NYPD and replace it with a community-led public safety infrastructure
- Fight to close Rikers Island before 2026 and halt the construction of the borough-based jails proposal
- Create a citywide bail vouchers program to facilitate the release of incarcerated individuals
- Remove police from schools, traffic enforcement, homeless outreach, and hospitals
Invest in the things that keep communities safe by fully funding and desegregating our schools, building new social housing, protecting and expanding opportunities for small businesses, and ending transportation deserts.
I am the product of both public and private Queens schooling, a child of parents who grew up in Woodside Houses, and a proud supporter of the district’s diverse small businesses. As we fight to divest from policing and incarceration, we must prioritize investments in the resources and infrastructure that stabilizes individual lives and strengthens communities.
- Desegregate our schools by advocating for the repeal of Hect-Calandra at the state level, end all discriminatory screens in New York City public schools, and launch a community-led diversity plan for middle schools in Astoria
- Decommodify housing and support a city-level Homes Guarantee campaign by preserving existing affordable public and social housing (including NYCHA), building new social housing units, and advocating for a comprehensive plan
- Support small businesses and vendors by fighting for commercial rent control, lifting the cap on street vendor permits, and creating a permanent open street and lot program for business use
- Fight for increased federal and state funding for the MTA, and transition control over the subways to the city so that capital improvements are made to improve signals, expand service, and guarantee accessibility
Establish a caring economy whereby the most vulnerable amongst us have the resources they need to truly thrive and the city’s workforce has dignity, adequate pay, and expanded protections.
I am the daughter of both a domestic worker who provided care to neighborhood children and a retired union worker with Otis Elevator Company. I know firsthand how important a strong and robust caregiving infrastructure is to the economic livelihood of our city, and how workplace protections, social benefits, and union membership can lift families out of poverty.
- Fight for universal access to affordable and quality childcare and eldercare and increase opportunities for training and financial assistance for primary caregivers
- Expand access to paid family leave under the city’s Earned Safe & Sick Leave Act to independent contractors and gig workers
- Explore the creation of a citywide portable benefits model to provide social benefits to workers regardless of employment status
- Implement just cause and whistleblower protections to combat unfair and discriminatory firings, which disproportionately harm Black and brown workers
Implement a Green New Deal for New York City by creating green, union jobs, increasing public green spaces, making infrastructure more clean, and ensuring the city’s shorelines are resilient.
As Western Queens residents saw during Superstorm Sandy, New York City is particularly vulnerable to the ecological, social, and economic harms of climate change. I recognize the need for solutions as big as the crisis we face, and the importance of using a justice-oriented framework to transform our city and lift up communities most at-risk.
- Oppose any projects that expand the city’s fossil fuel infrastructure and advocate for the use of renewable energy sources, including solar and wind, to achieve a carbon-neutral New York City by 2030
- Guarantee healthy living for low-wage workers and communities of color by prioritizing them for new and high-paying clean energy jobs, fighting for publicly-owned power sources, prioritizing waste equity, and investing in urban farming
- Return streets to pedestrians, cyclists, and communities by creating permanent superblocks, investing in public plazas and greenspaces, and building more protected bike lanes and bus lanes
- Ensure the city’s shorelines are made more resilient through the creation of hardened, raised architecture and that waterfronts and waterways are publicly accessible and not hoarded by real estate interests
Reimagine local government by bringing a proactive, relational organizing framework to constituent services, creating a socialist and leftist bloc to remake the City Council, and prioritizing collaborative design-making and co-governance.
In my work as a political organizer, I’ve helped support and elect radical change-agents committed to transforming local government institutions. The New City Council needs a radical shake-up. For the body to truly be the People’s home, we need to remake the institution from the inside-out, bring new life into City Hall, and repair decades of harm.
- Ensure constituent services is proactive, not reactive, and that district offices are hubs for organizing so that constituents can access the tools, skills, and training needed to find solutions to local problems
- Organize a socialist and leftist bloc within the City Council to influence not only the Speaker’s race, committee chairs and memberships, but the adoption of session rules and the budget process and outcome
- Implement internal rules reforms that limit the overwhelming power of the Speaker over the Council’s legislative and budget agenda and pushes the bounds of the body’s power as the effective counterweight to the Mayoralty
- Use working groups, resident councils and/or neighborhood block groups to influence decision-making, increase understanding of local government processes, and facilitate constant communication and co-governance
Our District
My platform is rooted in participatory engagement. The above-listed proposals are just a start and if you have recommendations, concerns, or specific proposals, please submit them below.