Vote, Good Guidance, and the Future

I was nearly done writing this piece on Tuesday morning-a follow-up to my last one, where I endorsed Shahana Hanif for reelection to the City Council and promised to weigh in next on the mayoral race. But then my phone lit up: texts saying that NYC Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander had been arrested by masked ICE agents after he asked to see a warrant while accompanying a migrant-someone who, from everything I understand, had committed no crime and was being denied due process-and that Brad was now in federal custody.

So I followed along, watched the videos of Brad being forcibly arrested (the images are fairly startling), and saw our country slide a little further into authoritarianism. But that’s not all that happened. What followed was a rallying of opposition-a clear, collective stand that this would not be tolerated. Elected officials showed up and spoke out, all the way up to Governor Hochul. And it was Hochul’s arrival, according to Brad, that triggered his near-immediate release.

A release into a world where nothing exists in a vacuum, and certainly not the mayoral race - especially with early voting already underway. Events like this can shift elections, and I’m not immune to that. But in this case, the impact wasn’t a shift - it was a reinforcement. Reinforcement of my belief that Brad Lander should be our next mayor. That’s why I’m ranking him #1 on my ballot - and you should too.

While I’d love for that to be enough to send anyone reading this straight to the polls for Brad, if it is, stop reading here, confirm your poll site, and go vote. But if you need more convincing, I’ve got you covered.

First, let’s remember: for all the press conferences and photo ops, the mayor is fundamentally a public administrator. We need a world-class one. From running a major affordable housing nonprofit, to serving in the City Council, to his current role as Comptroller, Brad Lander has proven time and again that he fits that bill.

Second, his career-long focus on housing and planning gives him the skill set to wield the city’s most powerful direct tool for shaping our future: land use. And crucially, Brad’s demonstrated that he’s willing to use it - not just in service of loud, entrenched voices, but in the name of building a city that is affordable for all.

I know this firsthand. As District Manager of Brooklyn Community Board 6, I worked closely with Brad during the Gowanus rezoning process. In the face of fierce opposition, he helped guide a plan that brought in new housing, including 100% affordable units on city-owned land - and did so knowing that many of the people who would benefit from it didn’t even live here yet. That’s not just planning for the present. That’s planning for a just future. It’s the land-use equivalent of that old Greek proverb: “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

So now that we’ve covered the elections I know best - and since, as I said earlier, nothing exists in a vacuum - what about the rest of the ballot? Certainly not everyone reading this lives in the same district, and this year, all 51 City Council seats are up for election. That means no matter where in the city you live, someone who will represent your community and cast votes on its behalf is on the ballot. I couldn’t pretend to know how I’d vote in every district - but if I wanted to do the most thoughtful job possible, I’d use Abundance NY’s voter guide.

It lays out positions, recommendations, and rankings for candidates across the city, focused on the two biggest issues facing us: housing and transportation. Even if you don’t fully agree with its ideological lens, it’s an incredibly helpful tool - one that can guide your thinking or help you eliminate choices. You can check it out at voterguide.abundanceny.org.

That’s all I’ve got for now. The next time you read something from me, we’ll likely have a clearer sense of what our city government will look like for the next four years. I hope that by then - sometime next week - we’ll be confident that our city’s lexicon is preparing to include the words “Mayor Lander.”