Brad Lander (Mayor 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?

For over two decades, I’ve championed public transit and safe streets. Following a devastating crash outside my City Council district office that killed two small children, I spearheaded the passage of the Reckless Driver Accountability Act, which takes an evidence-backed, restorative justice approach to changing driver behavior and holding reckless drivers accountable. As Comptroller, I led the effort to reinstate congestion pricing after it was paused. As Mayor, I will fight back against Trump’s efforts to roll back congestion pricing, and make sure that the revenues are reinvested back into the upgrades New Yorkers need to see to choose transit, from accessibility upgrades and elevators to upgrading our bus fleet; and ensure that the “streetscape dividend” of congestion pricing yields new bus- and bike-ways on 34th Street and other crosstown routes.

Whether you’re delivering groceries or dropping your toddler off at daycare, I will make sure New Yorkers feel safe and protected biking in New York City. I will bring the City’s bike infrastructure into the 21st Century, delivering on the commitments of the Streets Master Plan to build out the City’s protected bike network with a sharp focus on strengthening the bike lane network across bridges and boroughs. I will make the experience of being a pedestrian in New York City safer and easier for New Yorkers of all abilities by lowering speed limits, piloting neighborhood slow zones in residential neighborhoods, revitalizing New York City’s plazas and open streets programs, and prioritizing street redesign projects that include corner daylighting, road diets, pedestrian refuge islands, sidewalk extensions, and slip lane closures.

I will continue to work towards creating the safe, vibrant, and accessible streetscape and transit system that New Yorkers deserve, including: high-quality, accessible, and affordable subways and buses; a safe and vibrant public realm that enhances economic and community vitality; and safer streets with fewer preventable deaths.

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

New York is the greatest immigrant city the world has ever known. For generations, immigration has been a key driver of the City’s thriving economy, vibrant culture, and dynamic neighborhoods, to the benefit of all New Yorkers. It has been an extraordinary haven for Jews, enabling us to flourish here when we were fleeing violence and oppression elsewhere, as it has been for Irish, Italian, Dominican, Chinese, Bangladeshi, Haitian, Caribbean, and so many other New Yorkers. It can and must play that role now and for the future, but only if our City government gets its act together.

I have stood up passionately for New York City’s role in welcoming immigrants countless times across the past three decades. As Comptroller, my office has been at the forefront of this work. Our Facts, Not Fear report has consistently been cited by advocates as a model for elected officials.

As New York City has seen the arrival of over 150,000 people seeking asylum over the past few years, I have pushed for a common-sense management approach that uses City dollars more efficiently while setting new arrivals up for success. In July of 2023, I urged City agencies to keep prices down and improve services by replacing costly no-bid emergency contracts with vendors selected through a competitive bid process. In September 2023, I used my powers as Comptroller to reject the Adams Administration’s $432 million no-bid contract with DocGo, a for-profit medical staffing company with no experience providing shelter or services for asylum seekers, ultimately leading to its cancellation. My office audit of Adams’ no-bid staffing contracts found millions wasted by agencies’ failure to utilize cost controls.

Our investigation into the Adams Administration’s implementation of its 60-day shelter limit for asylum-seeking families revealed that City Hall has subjected over 37,000 people to repetitive screenings for shelter alternatives, disrupted families’ efforts to obtain work authorization and legal status, and uprooted children from the schools where they made connections.

I helped lead the effort to establish the successful Promise NYC program, which provides childcare for families seeking asylum, so parents can go to work, and have a safe place for their kids (and don’t feel forced to bring their kids on the subway to sell candy). And despite our differences, I initiated an effort with Mayor Adams to partner with philanthropic foundations that have raised millions of dollars to support community-based efforts to help asylum seekers find work and get on their feet.

A better approach is possible: one that is more effective, more compassionate, and better for NYC economically. As mayor, I will build on the City’s Asylum Application Help Center and network of immigrant service providers — and on the example of Jewish Family Services of Western New York, who are taking over the DocGo contract — to make smart investments in legal services to help families apply for asylum and work authorization, along with case management, ESL, workforce development, and placement assistance to help them obtain jobs so they can move out of shelter. This will more effectively decrease the shelter population and save on sheltering costs via real supports, rather than by kicking people out of shelter on arbitrary timelines.

New York City’s long history of immigration is a big part of what makes this city the best in the world. I am proud to help New York City continue this tradition of welcoming immigrants, helping them resettle, and viewing support to immigrants as an investment in our shared future — by providing the results-oriented management and better-functioning public systems that will connect people to employment and out of shelter.

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

Our housing crisis is the result of many factors: faster job-growth than housing growth since 2010, neighborhood downzonings from the Giuliani and Bloomberg mayoralities, lack of new development, weak affordability requirements in the developments that have been built, and decades of watering down our rent regulations in Albany until we finally passed the HSTPA in 2019. All of that coupled with the fact that wages have not increased at the rate of inflation over the past 40 years, has led to an acute affordability crisis in our City.

New York City’s affordability crisis is crushing families and straining the City’s economy. I’ve been a leader in the fight for more affordable housing in NYC for decades, from my time at Fifth Avenue Committee & the Pratt Center, in the campaigns to save the rent laws and reform 421-a, and through the Gowanus Rezoning (the biggest affordable housing rezoning in recent years, and one of the only ones supported by its community board). As Comptroller, I’ve made historic investments in housing affordability, issuing $2 billion in social bonds (the first in the City’s history) that have financed thousands of units of low-income housing, and an innovative investment of pension fund dollars that saved the 35,000 units of rent-stabilized housing put at risk by the failure of Signature Bank.

As Mayor, I will increase affordable housing for all incomes:

Declare a temporary emergency for housing to expedite growth by streamlining and expediting ULURP and convening a new Citizens Assembly to build a shared, community-driven vision for adding 500,000 new units of housing over 10 years to lay the groundwork for long-term comprehensive planning. Rezoning actions that are in compliance with these plans for housing growth would go through a new, alternative 90-day public review process and would not be subject to Council review or adoption.

Increase housing density on key sites ripe for development – including 4 of the City’s 12 municipal golf courses – by working in partnership with faith-based institutions to invest in their houses of worship while creating new housing, and identifying large, stalled privately-owned development sites and working with developers to get shovels in the ground.

Make it easier to build the housing New Yorkers need, by enabling co-living and co-housing models, simplifying zoning through form-based zoning in appropriate situations, expanding safe basements and accessory dwelling units, launching Home Share NYC, reviving the original City of Yes proposal by putting it on the ballot to voters, and investing City capital to develop new affordable housing through NYCHA and the NYCHA Preservation Trust.

Advance specific opportunities for neighborhood and transit-oriented growth and rezonings in Long Island City and along the proposed Interborough Express, which will connect Jackson Heights in Queens and Bay Ridge in Brooklyn.

Develop long-term comprehensive and regional plans, working with communities and the New York City Council to develop a long-term, citywide, comprehensive plan within two years of declaring the emergency to supplant the emergency process and create a permanent framework for streamlining ULURP and ensuring communities get their fair share of investments in school seats, parks, and critical infrastructure. I will also convene a Mayoral Panel on regional growth to develop and advance proposals for housing growth in New York City’s suburbs.

I will create the next generation of working and middle-class homeownership:

Advance and promote upzonings for the development of large-scale, affordable co-ops to dramatically increase the number of affordable homes available for purchase in New York City, restoring the path to affordable homeownership once offered by the Mitchell-Lama and related programs at Penn South, Amalgamated House, Co-op City, and elsewhere.

Prohibit discrimination in the co-op housing market to ensure all New Yorkers get a fair shot at purchasing a home.

Provide expanded financial support and technical assistance to HDFC, Mitchell-Lama, and other naturally occurring affordable co-ops to preserve this treasured resource of permanently-affordable homeownership that has been stewarded by housing heroes across decades, but faces serious challenges.

Reform the broken and unfair NYC property tax system to reduce costs for working class homeowners and provide a fairer, more rational system for the future.

How would you address homelessness and mental illness in NYC?

My #1 commitment in this campaign is to end street homelessness for people with serious mental illness. With mayoral leadership, a better coordinated continuum-of-care, and a “housing first” approach that moves people from the street directly into housing with services (a strategy that evidence shows works 70-90% of the time, and is having great success in Denver, Houston, and other cities), we can achieve that goal.

When a New Yorker calls 911 to report someone in need of mental health crisis support, they should feel confident that the person will receive help from mental health professionals. Unfortunately, the NYPD remains the default response. While there has been an effort to train police officers, they are not behavioral health specialists, leaving them without the skills or specialized knowledge needed to de-escalate situations or connect individuals to appropriate medical services.

I will restructure the City’s framework for mental health emergency response, to always include mental health professionals, and better distinguish between crisis and non-crisis interactions by:

Deploying mental health professionals and peer responders to 100% of 911 mental health crisis calls through a new citywide, 24-7 program modeled on the Crisis Assistance Helping Out on The Streets (CAHOOTS) model, incorporating best practices to mental health crisis response.
Deploying police officers alongside those mental health professionals in cases where 911 operators believe there is a risk of violence.

Requiring all in-service police officers to complete mental health response training, ensuring comprehensive coverage across the department and mandate annual refresher courses to maintain and enhance their skills. Implement a standardized curriculum for all 911 call center operators to ensure operators can assess and triage mental health crisis calls effectively.

Increasing public transparency and rigorously track outcomes through the creation of a centralized database for all mental health crisis responses. Create an independent oversight team to monitor and evaluate the mental health crisis response system.

How would you support the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association?

Across my career, the campaigns and efforts that have mattered have been achieved through intentional inside/outside, or co-governance, approaches. This was true when I worked in the community development sector, when I was board chair of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, and in the campaigns discussed above in the City Council (participatory budgeting, Community Safety Act, paid sick days, fair work week, living wage pay for Uber & Lyft drivers and deliveristas, desegregating District 15, and many more), and the Comptroller’s office (NYCHA Resident Audit Committee, Disability Justice Roundtable, Iftar on the Go, AAPI Classroom, and many others). I would bring this co-governance approach to City Hall.

I would work alongside community and neighborhood organizations like, Murray Hill Neighborhood Association, to ensure the views of the community are included into our shared policy priorities. I believe the best way to affect change is to work with coalitions and in partnerships with frontline communities to solve the problems of our city.

Bio

I am honored to serve as NYC Comptroller, our city’s chief financial officer, leading an office of over 700 public servants in our office’s work to promote the financial health, integrity, and effectiveness of city government and secure a more thriving and sustainable future for all New Yorkers. My audits, public finance, and pension fund management have saved the City over $2.5 billion, while investing in record amounts of affordable housing, climate solutions, good jobs, and MWBE businesses.

Prior to being elected Comptroller in 2021, I spent 12 years in the City Council, where I co-founded the Council’s Progressive Caucus and the national organization Local Progress, and won transformative changes to expand workers’ rights, secure tenant protections, create affordable housing, integrate and strengthen the district’s public schools, and make streets safer.

Before entering elected office, I served as the director of the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Pratt Center for Community Development, two grassroots affordable housing and community development non-profit organizations in Brooklyn. Leaders at FAC and the Pratt Center taught me what it means to be a New Yorker – to never give up on your neighbors.

I grew up in a middle-class family in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of a public school guidance counselor and a legal services and bankruptcy lawyer. I went to public elementary, middle, and high school – as did the two kids, Marek and Rosa, that my wife Meg Barnette and I were proud to raise in Brooklyn. They still roll their eyes at my dad jokes.

https://www.landerfornyc.com/