POLICY PRIORITIES
Our campaign is built on a commitment to our communities - A promise to build a City that is livable, equitable, and affordable for all New Yorkers. By investing in education, affordable housing, and public safety while supporting and protecting our small businesses, we’ll not only revitalize our city but see our district thrive.
SMALL BUSINESS AND JOB CREATION
Small businesses have suffered tremendously throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and many have been priced or pushed out. Everytime we lose a local business we not only leave a vacant storefront behind - we lose jobs and a critical economic supporter of our community. Mom and pop stores are vital and make New York intrinsically New York. Supporting and protecting these local businesses is vital to our economic recovery and is at the forefront of my policy.
As a small business owner myself, I have advocated in support of both business growth and job development. During my time in the Assembly, I have been a fierce defender of our small businesses and will continue to work to reduce unemployment across New York State.
I will work to:
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Support restaurants struggling due to government restrictions by fighting for direct financial support to hire staff and create tax incentives for businesses that were impacted by COVID-19.
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Provide rent assistance to small businesses to ensure they can remain open.
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Work to ensure representation of local small businesses on Community Boards.
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Fight against bureaucratic restrictions that have driven businesses out of New York and stifle new business growth and development.
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Strengthen career pipelines from school to well-paid jobs.
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In working alongside our local, state, and federal legislators, I have been an outspoken advocate for small business for our community. In supporting our Chambers of Commerce, advocating for public-private partnerships, and improving our small business grant application and dispersal process I have ensured that businesses across our district get the support they need. We must get creative with revenue streams and look at fair opportunities to assure restaurants and other essential storefronts stay afloat.
HOUSING
As a renter myself and as a Member of the State Assembly's Housing Committee, I know full well the issues facing the residents of our community. Adequate, available, and affordable housing are essential to keeping a district like ours livable and thriving. As Assemblyman, I have put forward and supported legislation to actively pursue and support the restoration and development of housing across our State.
As Assemblyman, I have made it a priority to push for housing that accommodates people of all income brackets. I’m incredibly proud of the work we've done, and I will continue to make it my mission to fight for tenants while supporting small landlords across our district.
My policies for better housing in District 45 are simple:
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Restore the nearly 32,000 apartments being used as illegal hotels in New York City to the market at an affordable rate. It’s time for landlords acting in bad faith during this statewide housing crisis to pay up.
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Ban apartment warehousing and update our housing tracking systems. Keeping apartments empty while the market is down contributes to the illegal conversion of rental units and legitimizes inflated prices. I am proud to Co-Sponsor legislation in the Assembly that will help combat the out of control price of housing while fighting against the illegal practice of warehousing. ​​​​​​
Our residents deserve affordable and livable housing. I am committed to ensuring our district remains livable and accessible while protecting the high quality of life we deserve.
TRANSPORTATION
The MTA is in need of serious reforms to ensure reliable service is delivered to our district. We must ensure that the MTA is transparent and listens to our community when it seeks to make improvements and changes.
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I am committed to:
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Reforming the Structure of the MTA Board. The structure of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority allows counties outside of New York City have inequitable sway over the system's budget and oversight. I will seek to reform the structure of the board to ensure New York City has the greatest say over its transit system. That could include allowing leaders of the City and State legislatures to appoint members to the board, so there is greater oversight on how the authority is run.
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Expanding Bus Infrastructure. Buses are vital links for areas of our communities the subway does not reach. Yet the current MTA proposal for district 45 cuts bus service to already under serviced communities south of Avenue Z - like my home within Manhattan Beach. Service cuts and congestion often makes it impossible for buses to travel quickly and have a severe negative impact on communities like ours who see a larger population of senior residents. I am committed to fighting against these proposed plans in their current state and will continue to work tirelessly to make sure all residents have their voice heard before any development or service cuts move forward.
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Creating a Single-Ride Ferry System. New York City's ferry system has provided new links between Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. Yet our district has been completely excluded from ferry access; forcing residents to travel upwards of an hour to Bay Ridge to access the closest ferry. That is why I am committed to having a new ferry dock put directly into Sheepshead Bay to ensure our residents have direct access and are no longer excluded from service. Moreover I will push for a single-fare system to ensure our residents can get from Brooklyn to any other borough for the price of a metrocard swipe. Thereby removing a major barrier for communters and expanding ridership. ​
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HEALTHCARE
As New Yorkers, we are right to believe our state to be the greatest in the union. But we’re only as good as our weakest link. And in our case, this is healthcare. We rank 20th in the nation for access to health services, allowing point of care to fall away from great hospitals and accomplished primary care physicians and into the hands of anonymous urgent care clinics. Without continuity of care, it’s hard to adequately prescribe medicine and something as simple as food poisoning—or worse, a lethal bacterial infection—can go untreated.
We must:
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Expand the reach of our Health and Hospital system.
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Provide more scholarship incentives to CUNY and SUNY students to study medicine, healthcare management, and social work.
Senior care is also so often overlooked. As a member of the Assembly's Aging Committee, I have seen the gaps in government programs intended to support the aging population. Which is why we need to do the following:
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Increase funding for informal caregiver training
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Require the state to develop and provide elder abuse prevention training to senior service centers and contractors, in consultation with the Office of Children and Family Services.
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And expand pharmaceutical insurance coverage for medicines in line with annual changes in treatment.
Lastly, our lack of mental health support is nothing short of a humanitarian crisis. We see it in our streets, on our subways, over social media, and in conversations with friends: Everyday New Yorkers are suffering, often silently, without an adequate system to turn to for psychological and psychiatric support. I am committed to:
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Expanding Medicaid coverage of long-term stays in residential health institutions
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Increasing funding for non-profit organizations whose goals are focused on providing affordable mental healthcare access
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And increasing resources for outpatient substance abuse treatment.
EDUCATION AND YOUTH RIGHTS
So often the underrepresented in any community are those too young to have a voice, and—in New York City—this includes the underfunded schools that educate them and services that support them. It’s for this reason, the government must act mindfully of today’s youth and ensure that policy benefits our school systems and the lives of young New Yorkers.
My policies surrounding education and the rights of our youngest population are as follows:
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Get New York City’s public school system the funding it is owed. New York public schools are being short-changed hundreds of millions of dollars in funding every year. As we continue to hear stories of parent-teacher associations funding essential school resources, or teachers paying out of pocket for supplies, we must remember the debt owed to our children from Albany. Your tax dollars are being withheld from our children. As your Assembly Member, I am committed to working with parents, educators, and our youngest citizens to have those funds released.​
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I am committed to expanding school choice options, including charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling, to provide families with the flexibility they need to navigate the educational journey of their children. I firmly believe in the fundamental principle that every child deserves access to an excellent education tailored to their unique needs. In the Assembly, I have advocated for school choice initiatives, empowering parents to make informed decisions about their children's education. By fostering a competitive and diverse educational landscape, we can improve academic outcomes and ensure that no student is left behind.
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Give Parents and Teachers a Greater Voice in Mayoral Control. The recent push to renew Mayoral Control of New York City’s schools illustrated the limited voice of parents and teachers in the decision-making process. I will work with the entire school community the next time the policy comes up for a renewal to balance the mayor’s outsized control of the education system. That could include putting more parent and teacher seats on the Panel for Education Policy and stronger oversight on the DOE’s budget.
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Fund better afterschool programming for students. With crime on the rise throughout New York, now more than ever we need community-driven, state-funded programs that serve our neighborhoods and our students—both those students who live in our district and those who travel into our district to receive their education. Robust extracurricular programming has proven effects on preventing youth incarceration.
PUBLIC SAFETY
We deserve to live in a city where we do not need to fear walking our streets. The recent spike in violent crimes, particularly hate crimes against minority groups, is frightening and must be dealt with swiftly and firmly. At the same time, we must continue the important work of making our criminal and legal systems more just, more fair, and more accountable.
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I am committed to:​
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Fighting against failed Bail Reform. Bail reform has proven to be detrimental to our state and has been a direct factor in the explosion of crime and recidivism across our city. I am proud to Co-Sponsor legislation in the Assembly that will give back judicial discretion to our judges to help keep repeat offenders off the street and end the revolving door system we currently have in place.
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Supporting at-risk youth. I am proud to support funding to critical initiatives that provide programming and career training for young New Yorkers, across our district and city, that are most in need of our commitment.
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Training law enforcement to address mental health needs. Keeping our officers safe by giving them the tools and training needed to understand the various mental health needs or challenges individuals face is crucial in making sure our officers are well prepared for any situation. Funding programs to empower our officers to understand and properly address mental health situations as well as when to call a trained professional are vital steps in advancing and supporting public safety.
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Stopping the Flow of Guns. I will ensure New York State fully enforces legislation to fight gun violence, as well as continue to introduce new laws to crush the iron pipeline of illegal guns.
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Combatting Illegal Smoke Shops. With the recent decriminalization of cannabis, our state has become faced with a the new problem of smoke shops illegally selling vapes and cannabis to our youth and communities. I am proud to have authored and introduced legislation to combat these illegal stores by making the illegal sale of cannabis without a license a felony. I am also proud to have put forward legislation that, if enacted, would make it illegal to smoke cannabis in a public place. Many other large cities across the country have safely and successfully legalized cannabis use. Nearly all of them ban it's use publicly. We need to do the same.
STANDING WITH ISRAEL
I have seen the diversity of my district change and grow over the years to accommodate people from different backgrounds. It is my mission to make sure that everyone feels safe in the streets of district 45, no matter your identity and background. It also means protecting some of the most vulnerable among us.
As your representative in the New York State Assembly, I take great pride in advocating for issues that resonate with the diverse tapestry of our community. One of my top priorities has been to foster a deeper understanding of history, particularly the atrocities of the Holocaust. To this end, I sponsored a resolution, K.58, ensuring that we never forget the lives lost during that dark period in human history.
Additionally, I have actively opposed initiatives that promote discrimination, such as the “Not on Our Dime” bill. This legislation sought to punish charities that engage in business with Israel, and I staunchly condemned it as an absolutely disgusting, hateful, and anti-Semitic proposal. I remain committed to preventing such divisive measures from gaining traction in our state, and I am committed to ensuring this bill never sees a vote in the Assembly.
Recognizing the need to address hate crimes on college campuses, I have supported legislation, A.3694-A, that mandates proper measures to deter and combat these acts. It is crucial that our institutions of higher learning provide a safe and inclusive environment for all students, regardless of their background or beliefs.
Most importantly, in light of recent anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments across the nation, I have pledged my support to Israel and to the families of those kidnapped by terrorists. In solidarity, I have made my district office a permanent location for their posters and stories to be displayed without fear of vandalism or removal.
I will continue to advocate for policies that strengthen the bond between the United States and Israel, uphold our shared values, and combat anti-Semitism in all its forms.
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You can watch my full statement on Israel here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/mNPecCCDRvuJuxqE/?mibextid=WC7FNe