Allie Ryan (District 2 City Council candidate) – Meet the Candidates 2025!

The Murray Hill Neighborhood Association reached out to all the candidates running for office in 2025 that intersect our neighborhood (Mayor, Manhattan Borough President, City Council District 2, and City Council District 4, etc.) with questions sourced directly from our members via our Ask the Candidates questionnaire. See the candidate’s answers below.

How you would improve our streets and quality of life?

I want to improve the our collective quality of life that we all experience as we walk out our front doors. Even though you are asking to address Second and Third Avenues in the Murray Hill neighborhood, I believe Priscilla’s Law and these two negotiations would benefit all of Council District 2 as well as New York City as a whole.

Potential Legislation and Negotiation:
• eBike Regulation: Priscilla’s Law is a no-brainer for safety: register, license and insure eBikes; enforcement will be key. Use existing NYC DOT cameras to capture violations and mail out tickets to the corporations who own the eBikes.
• Shelter Load-Balancing: Beyond relocation, incentivize outer boroughs to accept shelters with tax breaks or community benefits (e.g., park upgrades). Midtown’s burden (highest shelter count citywide) justifies this shift.
• Parks and Cleanliness: Dedicating 1% of the budget to parks is ambitious but feasible if tied to quality-of-life metrics (e.g., reduced litter complaints). Regular trash collection and street cleaning could be boosted by reallocating migrant-related savings. Passing legislation to protect community gardens and make them community land trusts as a means to stop pitting green space against housing as seen with the impending tragedy of Elizabeth Street Garden, a beloved popular community garden/outdoor community center in Lower Manhattan.
• Community Feedback: Regular surveys or a CD2 “street score” app could prioritize maintenance, ensuring resources match resident needs.
• I oppose the Congestion Pricing tax. If reducing car congestion is the goal, I will introduce a bill to cap For Hire Vehicles (e.g. Uber and Lyft). If reducing air pollution in Lower Manhattan is the goal, I will introduce legislation to build a simple flood wall and save the mature trees and the park in the northern end of East River Park.
• Introduce a resolution for the State to create caps on legal cannabis retail licenses per community board district.
• Create a pilot program, “Mayor of the Block” to hire a resident who lives on each block to clean up the trash after sanitation picks up the trash, cleans up the graffiti aka inspires personal responsibility and cooperation amongst neighbors.

How are you going to handle the illegal migrant situation that has escalated into NYC?

The escalation of illegal migration into NYC has clearly strained resources, with $7 billion spent on sheltering and support, and public sentiment leaning toward stricter measures (e.g., 80% of New Yorkers supporting deportation of illegal migrants who commit crimes per a recent Siena Poll). The NYPost estimates that 45,000 “asylum seekers” are in the shelter system.

Current Democrat elected officials seem to forget the financial strain and every city agency has been cut to accommodate spending for illegal migrants as many vow to protect illegal migrants from ICE. Midtown has been deeply affected as the hotels in the area have been transformed into migrant shelters. Unlike many districts, these are not theoretical problems, they affect our daily existence. I would use Council’s tradition of deference to get other sitting Council People, who are not facing such realities, to vote with me to ensure we help people and improve our quality of life.

The Trump administration has implemented policies to end policies perceived as incentivizing illegal immigration, such as preventing illegal migrants from accessing federally funded public housing. And the Trump administration has established a precedent for withholding federal funds when an entity like a state or a college resists doing what the Trump administration wants them to do something. The showdown between the Trump administration and the Courts regarding deporting illegal migrants charged with crimes have created a standstill. It is difficult to offer a feasible solution in these uncertain times, but I will try.

Potential Approach:
• Community Input: A town hall series could refine policy—balancing humanitarian needs with local priorities. This could pressure elected officials to either reconsider their stance if it’s misaligned with constituents or affirm their stance.
• Prioritize Public Safety and Fiscal Balance: Then if constituents support deporting illegal migrants charged with crime, and thus aligning with the 80% poll consensus, then elected officials must act accordingly. While redirecting some migrant-related funds to strained local priorities like NYCHA. A transparent audit of the $7 billion spent could identify inefficiencies and reassure residents that their tax dollars aren’t being misallocated.
• Integration for Non-Criminals: For illegal migrants who remain, assimilation through English classes, skills training, and employment support is practical. Identifying warehoused low-income rentals could ease shelter system pressure, though funding and capacity would need scaling (e.g., leveraging state grants). At this present time these ideas must be funded by nonprofits who do not receive federal funding to ensure their success.

How can housing become more affordable and not just for low income candidates?

“Build, build, build” is the go-to answer for elected officials, lobbyists (and their faux grassroots activists who endorse elected officials as candidates) and the press, but without guardrails, this approach risks favoring luxury developments. The City of Yes and City for All initiatives unlock construction, yet affordability remains elusive without mandates.

Potential Approach:
• Mandate Tiered Affordability: On government-owned land, enforce a mix of income-targeted housing (e.g., 30% low-income, 40% middle-income, 30% fixed income) to broaden access.
• Funding Innovation: Partnering with NY State, redirecting Community Development Block Grants, and tapping the mortgage recording tax. In addition tax incentives for developers who commit to build Mitchell-Lama-style projects, or give the storefront space to a developer and the above residential units can be affordable homeownership opportunities. Both Mitchell-Lama-style housing and affordable homeownership opportunities have historically enabled residents to live and work here for the long term.

How would you address homelessness and mental illness in NYC?

Conflating homelessness and mental illness muddies solutions; the illegal migrants add complexity. Midtown’s high shelter concentration (noted in the Comptroller’s report) and the $2.4 billion shelter industry highlight the scale; 120,000 individuals sleep in the shelter system every night; 45,000 are illegal migrants. According to the NYC Comptroller’s Office, “In August 2021 there were 44,586 individuals in the Department of Homeless Services shelter, the lowest daily population in nearly ten years.”

It is important to acknowledge that people with serious mentally illness who are experiencing homelessness harass small businesses’ staff and customers as well as residents walking down the street. This is a reoccurring complaint at the 13th Precinct Community Council monthly meetings. I have witnessed and heard about crimes such as sucker punches, murders, stealing, stalking, indecent exposure committed by individuals who are later revealed to have mental illness and homeless. The Outreach social workers program is frankly not working; it’s become inhumane to allow homeless individuals to live indefinitely on the streets.

Potential Approach:
• Decouple and Target Solutions: For the “down on their luck” homeless, expand short-term rental assistance and job placement programs to prevent shelter reliance. Housing Court / Right to Counsel Reform is badly needed. When elected to City Council, I will have an experienced staff member dedicated to helping tenants with housing issues. For the mentally ill, advocate for NYS to broaden involuntary commitment laws, paired with increased funding for psychiatric beds on Randalls Island (not just outreach). For the illegal migrants, non-federally funded programs have to be utilized.
• Shelter Redistribution: Relocating some Midtown shelters could ease neighborhood strain, but it will need borough-wide coordination to avoid pushback. Data-driven site selection—focusing on underutilized city properties—could make this equitable.
• Reform Shelter Spending: The $1 billion hotel deal through 2026 signals long-term reliance. Transitioning to permanent housing solutions (e.g., converting vacant office buildings) could cut costs and create tangible solutions.
• Homelessness and evictions can be traumatic, especially when they stem from circumstances like job loss, mental health issues or lack of support systems. When elected to City Council, I would negotiate for funding fine art therapy, performing arts therapy and gardening therapy to help these individuals heal, reconnect and become productive members of society.

How would you support the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association?

NYC 2024 budget shows that Councilmember Carlina Rivera allocated $5,000 to the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association for programs and operations. I would continue this allocation.

I would like to propose a collaboration:
• Partner with MHNA on town halls or clean-up drives, and amplify MHNA members on issues like shelter concentration or migrant support. MHNA’s local insight could refine my proposals. These collaborations would build trust and encourage broader community involvement to create solutions and legislation to solve the unforeseen chronic problems plaguing Midtown due to recent urban policies passed at the local and state level.

Bio

The daughter of working class parents (a Nurse and an hospital administrator/Entrepreneur/artist/engineer) Allie Ryan has always had a tough pragmatic independent spirit. Since childhood, Allie wanted to live in New York City, and moved here permanently in the mid-2000s where she met her future husband, an activist, punk musician (Team Spider) and filmmaker. He taught her to ride a bike on the streets of NYC and opened the door to the Alphabet City underground punk music, community gardens, cycling and filmmaking scene. They created Dedicated Lane Productions, a documentary film production company that tackled a wide range of subjects from former inmates re-entering society, to the NYPD harassment of bicyclists during the Bloomberg administration, as well as the underground punk music scene and advocating for free speech/right to assembly. Allie and her husband, a long-time member of IATSE Local 52 (an electrician), are raising their two middle-school age daughters in Alphabet City.

Over the past twenty years Allie has joined and built coalitions, participated in government processes, and introduced solutions to fight back against rezonings and public policies that residents didn’t want. Allie and her neighbors have not sat idly by. Two years ago Allie ran for this seat and won 40% of the vote against an incumbent; Allie is back because the district has gotten worse. Allie symbolizes an end to the status quo of elected officials who haven’t put residents first. Who have caused Allie and many residents in Lower Manhattan and around the city to crowdfund seven lawsuits and sue to stop unwanted programs such as congestion pricing, the SoHo NoHo Rezoning, the restaurant sheds, and the destruction of Elizabeth Street Garden.

https://allieryan.com/