1. What is the most important issue in Council District 34 you would address if elected?

Affordable, safe housing is a basic human right, but too many New Yorkers pay over half their income for housing. In our community, the median income is about $25,000 a year, and over 80% of people rent homes and are vulnerable to rising prices. I fought so that almost 35% of the housing built because of the Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning could be affordable to low-income people, with 50% reserved for our community. And, many of our fellow New Yorkers live in public housing, so I allocated about $1 million last year for security cameras and athletic facilities in public housing in the district. I will carry on these efforts because a person’s pay does not equal their worth as a person.

2. What other important issues would you address if elected?

I will keep working to create nurturing child care, excellent schools, jobs, and healthy neighborhoods, a necessary base for children to become adults who contribute to strengthening our community. I secured almost $1 million last year to increase the number of children eligible for care because good child care is the foundation for success in school. I will continue working to force the State to pay over one billion dollars it owes to City schools and advocating to strengthen science education and to expand art and sports, because every school should be a place parents choose to send their children. I also negotiated with the Mayor’s Office to create a new Industrial Development Zone in the community and to direct $20 million to protect local manufacturing jobs, and I worked with my colleagues to set aside $10 million for job training for youth and the unemployed.

3. What makes you the best candidate for this office?

When we talk about affordable housing, child care, education, jobs, and safe communities, we are not talking about privileges; we are talking about the basic rights on which all people build lives of dignity. My parents immigrated to this country and found jobs, my father as a livery cab driver and my mother in a factory. I was raised in Williamsburg and am in the first generation of my family to attend college. Opportunities like these should be available to everyone. My desire to continue working for the common good of my neighbors in Brooklyn and Queens will continue to motivate my work. My commitment to the people of our community, and to the City that offered so much to my parents and to me, makes me the best candidate for this office.

(Reprinted as supplied by the candidate.)

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PARTY KEY
C = Conservative D = Democratic EP = Education Party G = Green I = Independence L = Liberal	LBT = Libertarian R = Republican REB = Rebuild Party REF = Reform Party RNY = Reform Pary of N.Y. Party RTD = Rent is Too Damn High Party	SCS = Smaller Class Size Party SW = Socialist Workers Party VOP = Voice of the People WF = Working Families WVP = War Veterans Party