Election Q&A: Meet Upper East Side Candidate Kyle Athayde

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Independent candidate Kyle Athayde is running for City Council in District 4 in New York City's general election on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

In November, Athayde will face off against Virginia Maloney, the Democratic nominee, and Debra Schwartzben, a Republican candidate. Athayde is running under the Revive the East Side party.

District 4 includes NoMad, Times Square, Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village, Murray Hill, Kips Bay, Turtle Bay, United Nations, and Upper East Side-Carnegie Hill.

Ahead of the election, Patch posed several questions to Athayde about his platform, priorities, experience, and district. See his replies below.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article contains information about one of several candidates who have announced their campaigns for Upper East Side offices in the 2025 election. Patch has contacted the other candidates with the same questions and will post replies as they are received. None of what Athayde said during this interview has been fact-checked.

PATCH: What neighborhood are you from?

ATHAYDE: Born and raised on the East Side of Manhattan: Midtown East and the Upper East Side

PATCH: What languages do you speak?

ATHAYDE: English, and studied Arabic and French

PATCH: Educational background?

ATHAYDE: I’m the only candidate in this race that attended public schools:

• PS 183
• Simon Baruch Middle School (MS 104)
• CUNY Hunter College with Honors in English Literature and a Certificate in Public Policy from the Roosevelt House

PATCH: Age?

ATHAYDE: 34

PATCH: Renter or owner?

ATHAYDE: Renter

PATCH: Why are you running for City Council?

ATHAYDE: I am running to Revive the East Side because the NYC Council is where change begins. It is the level of government closest to the heartbeat of the people. It is where hope is translated into housing and green spaces, where safety is made real through trust, where the quality of a child’s classroom or the cleanliness of a street becomes a reflection of our collective will. It is where hope can be restored through honest leadership and practical action.

I am running to return common sense to our City Council, where we can transform it from a place of bureaucratic process into a forum of conscience. Together, we can summon the decency, compassion, and the restless energy of District 4 to confront the injustices that persist and the inequities that endure.

My EAST Plan (Education, Affordability, Safety and Sanitation, and Transportation) is not just a policy agenda – it is a promise that local government can again serve the people with independence and integrity.

New York’s greatness has never been measured by wealth or power, but by its humanity. By extending opportunity to those who have none, by preserving the dream that anyone from anywhere can still make a life here, we are living up to the promise of our City – one that I still believe in, and one that we must restore together.

PATCH: What makes you qualified to represent your district? Share the work and life experiences that prepared you for this role.

ATHAYDE: I believe public service is about people – not titles, power, or famous names. It is about standing up when it is difficult, and fighting for what is right even when you must stand alone.

I am the working-class candidate in this race with the most professional experience, community-based leadership, and a record of positive achievements for the community. I have known both hardship and hope, and have dedicated my life to public service.

When I was 8, my family was priced out of our apartment and we became homeless. For nearly a year, we lived in our church, in friends’ apartments, and in the YMCA on the Upper West Side. This experience taught me what it means to lose stability, and what it takes to rebuild it. It taught me that public service must begin with empathy, and that government must never forget the people it was created to serve.

For the past decade, I have served on Manhattan Community Board 6, and was elected as the Chair 3x until term-limited in 2024. During this time, I was the first to stand up against the Soloviev Casino proposal, and built the coalition that ultimately defeated it. I also returned the largest amount of green space to the district in over a generation including the NYU Langone Waterfront Parking Lot and the Saint Vartan Park Garden. I also ensured the health and safety of our community during the pandemic, and fought for the dignity of our homeless population while demanding real accountability and better communication from the City.

Professionally:

• At the age of 23, I was appointed by Governor Cuomo to NY State’s Immigration Office where I oversaw government relations and managed special initiatives for nearly 10 years – my leadership was recognized as a Top 25 Government Innovation by the Harvard Kennedy School
• I oversaw Strategic Initiatives and Community Affairs for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
• I currently am the Director of External Affairs and Operations for NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn

My experience plus my status as the independent candidate best position me to build bridges between the extremes of the Democratic and Republican parties, so that we are focused on local problem solving rather than tribal partisanship.

PATCH: What do you see as the three biggest issues in your district?

ATHAYDE:

1. Affordability: Housing and Working Families
2. Education: Standards and Opportunity
3. Streets: Safety and Sanitation

PATCH: How would you address these issues through policy?

ATHAYDE:

Affordability

• I am the only candidate in favor of a RENT FREEZE, and property tax freeze for small property owners, with a long-term solution to cap rent increases for low- to middle-income housing.
• Incentivize developers to BUILD MORE affordable housing through a Green Tape Initiative: Streamline approvals for developments depending on the amount of affordable housing units committed to communities.
• Bar slumlords from owning and operating property for tenants.
• Universal Childcare and After-School Programming for working families
• Increase the NYC Earned Income Tax Credit for working families

Education

• Protect and EXPAND gifted and talented programs.
• Eliminate NYC income tax for all public school teachers to retain and attract talented educators.
• Add arts, civics, financial literacy, and home economics to the core curriculum.
• Implement Comprehensive Social Media Mental Health Education.
• Add more 3K and PreK seats by converting underused spaces into classrooms; Advocate for the School Construction Authority to fund new elementary schools and expand existing ones in high-demand zones; Utilize NYC’s stock of underutilized commercial and office space for educational use through rezoning and private-public partnerships; Build stronger relationships with Community Education Councils to assess needs in real time, and to push for more accountability from the DOE and SCA.
• Be more systematic in admissions so that students do not need to leave their neighborhood to access quality education.
• Create additional specialized high schools, and set an ambitious goal of ensuring that every city council district hosts at least 1 specialized high school.

Street Safety and Sanitation

Safe Streets, Stores, and Subways

• Increase NYPD Neighborhood Safety Patrols

• Reallocate NYPD officers from turnstiles and platforms to subway cars where most crimes take place

• Implement smart surveillance, improved lighting, 24/7 mental health outreach in subways

• E-Bikes/E-Scooters

• Pass Priscilla’s Law to mandate licensing and registration

• Protected bike lanes for pedestrian and rider safety

• Implement bike lane speed bumps near pedestrian crossings

• Utilize geofencing technology to enforce NO BIKE ZONES on sidewalks and automatic slow down at crossing

• Establish a flat-rate for CitiBikes instead of charging by time, so that riders are not incentivized to speed for a lower cost

• Sanitation

• Smart bins on every corner + trash containerization

• Digital Waste Track to improve trash pick-up and efficiency

PATCH: Who did you rank in the 2025 mayoral primary election this June?

ATHAYDE: I am a registered “non-affiliated” voter, which means that I cannot vote in NYC’s primary elections when only party loyalists are permitted to vote.

New York City is 1 of only 10 states in our nation that closes its primaries, and the result is that millions of New Yorkers are silenced in the very elections that decide who will represent them.

In New York, 3.4 million voters are unaffiliated with any political party – more than the number of voters enrolled in the Republican, Conservative, and Working Families parties combined! Yet these New Yorkers are barred from participating in the elections their tax dollars fund; denied a voice not because of disinterest, but because the political machinery has chosen to keep them out.

When we deny millions of citizens the right to vote, we erode the moral foundation of democracy itself. We tell people that power belongs not to the people, but to the party bosses. We tell elected officials that their duty is to their primary voters, not to the broader public. And we create a government afraid of compromise – where leaders hesitate to reach across the aisle for fear of being primaried by someone louder and more extreme.

It does not have to be this way. We can open our primaries and open our democracy. We can build a system that rewards cooperation instead of conflict – one that asks our leaders to represent all their constituents, not just those within their party lines.

The promise of New York City is participation. It is the belief that every citizen deserves a voice, and that from the many, we can be one.

PATCH: What’s something that always makes you smile about your district?

ATHAYDE: District 4’s incredible humanity represents the best of New York City. On any block, you can experience the full measure of our city’s spirit – neighbors conversing on a stoop, parents strolling down the block with their newborn, and doormen drinking their morning coffee with each other.

With wealth living alongside struggle and small green spaces adjacent to the roar of the FDR, this is a district of juxtapositions, but somehow it all works. People look out for one another, and still believe that we are part of something larger than ourselves.

There is a special rhythm to the East Side of Manhattan that makes it feel like the heartbeat of NYC – the hum of small businesses opening in the morning, the sound of church bells mingling with the incessant car horns, and the joy of people from all over the world who decided to make this neighborhood their home.

Everyday I smile in this neighborhood, because in District 4, you can see the strength and promise of the American Dream – not in our monuments or skyscrapers, but in its people: compassionate, striving, and forever hopeful.

For questions and tips, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.