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Ben Wetzler (District 4 City Council candidate) – Meet the Candidates 2025!
MHNAThe 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 believe that pedestrian safety needs to be the number one priority for transportation policy, and that this can be achieved through a combination of infrastructure improvements/redesigns and automated enforcement. Shifting traffic enforcement away from police officers–whose time is better spent focusing on their core mission of preventing crime–and towards red light, speed, and noise violation cameras would improve the safety situation on the East Side dramatically. Additionally, enforcement of traffic violations against Citibike riders and delivery app workers could be effectively done by mandating that the companies that own those vehicles transmit the geolocation data they track to the City and to their insurance company.
To improve our infrastructure we need to devote more space to pedestrians through wider sidewalks and “daylighting” intersections so that cars are not pulling in/out of parking spaces into the paths of pedestrians. We must eliminate the red tape that delays sidewalk pavement improvements at the DOT and dedicate more space to bus lanes to speed up our public transit. And we must address sanitation and quality of life problems through technology and process improvements, such as replacing sidewalk trash bags with on-street containers and using high resolution cameras to conduct building inspections without the need for excessive, dirty scaffolding.
How are you going to handle the illegal migrant situation that has escalated into NYC?
The migrant crisis has strained City resources and overwhelmed the social services system, leading to a lack of accountability and health and safety problems for both the migrants themselves and the surrounding community. City officials rushed to provide services to the large influx of migrants, signing expensive contracts with providers who were not equipped to do the work they had promised and leaving large numbers of migrants loitering around the streets and sidewalks or moving between neighborhoods without any kind of support structure. The City Council cannot change federal election law, but if I am elected I will pursue better accountability from the service providers the City uses and work to provide a more structured environment so that migrants who are awaiting a determination on their legal status are not forced onto the streets.
How can housing become more affordable and not just for low income candidates?
New York has a decades-long housing shortage that has made finding affordable options nearly impossible for people at every income level. This problem is primarily the result of reactive planning processes that do not anticipate changes in the population’s housing needs, and the focus of my professional work in affordable housing policy has been working with local governments to improve their land use planning processes to incorporate more forward thinking strategies to house everyone. This must include going back to more traditional forms of dense, mid-rise development that characterizes much of the housing stock on the East Side but has been abandoned in favor of less dense “pencil towers” that provide less housing and a less inviting streetscape.
As the only rent stabilized tenant running in this district, I believe it is critically important that we both protect the rights of existing tenants while also thinking about the future of the neighborhood. The way to do that is through a multi-pronged approach that proactively looks for opportunities for new housing that meets the neighborhood’s needs while aggressively enforcing the rent stabilization law and appropriating sufficient funding to meet the needs of low-income New Yorkers. In recent years New York has at times tried one or another of these approaches but never all of them as part of a coherent and comprehensive strategy, and if elected I will work to implement that.
How would you address homelessness and mental illness in NYC?
Just over half of homeless New Yorkers do not have any kind of mental illness or drug abuse problem. They are simply living the worst possible manifestation of the broader housing affordability crisis affecting everyone. Many work full time, lost their home or fled domestic violence, and had nowhere else to go. Addressing the housing affordability crisis more broadly will resolve this aspect of the problem and free up City resources to tackle the more severe and complicated problem of dealing with behavioral health issues.
For those who have drug or mental health problems, the most important element of an effective strategy is finding long-term housing for them in a facility that can provide treatment on-site that is appropriate to their needs. This is where the City has most consistently failed, both in terms of providing enough beds for everyone who needs one and coordinating the appropriate types of services, creating gaps in the intake-to-services pipeline that allows too many treatable cases to fall through and leaving long-term vacancies in the supportive housing system. If elected I will work with the relevant social service agencies and providers to improve coordination and place people with drug and mental health issues in appropriate settings quickly and ensure they are getting the treatment that meets their needs.
How would you support the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association?
I believe the most important quality of an elected official is their openness and engagement with the community. If elected, I intend to have an open door policy to all constituents, but particularly the neighborhood associations who do so much great work keeping our streets beautiful and our neighborhoods active. I will similarly look to partner on community beautification and cultural appreciation initiatives where the institutional knowledge of the MHNA will be a critical asset.
Bio
I grew up on the Upper East Side, where much of my family still lives. They instilled in me a strong sense of public service and after graduating from Johns Hopkins University in 2012, I began a career in State government with a focus on affordable housing and community development. I returned to the neighborhood in 2015.
After Donald Trump was elected I knew I had to do more. In 2017, I challenged the long-time Democratic District Leader for the Lenox Hill neighborhood. I won the race in an upset and spent the next six years leading efforts to reform and strengthen the Democratic Party, connecting grassroots volunteers with campaigns outside the city and using my housing policy expertise to advocate for an aggressive affordability agenda for NYC.
I now live in Stuyvesant Town with my partner, and we hope to stay here for the rest of our lives. I believe every New Yorker deserves to live in a community like Stuy-Town—affordable, accessible for families and seniors, walkable, with lots of green space—and I’m running to bring the things that make it great to every neighborhood.
