Affordable housing and safe streets were the key issues discussed during a Democratic mayoral primary forum in Washington Heights on Saturday — a day that saw former Gov. Andrew Cuomo shake up the entire NYC mayoral race.
Held at the Direccion de Cultura Dominicana del Exterior in Washington Heights, the 90-minute forum saw Democratic candidates, City Comptroller Brad Lander; State Senators Jessica Ramos and Zellnor Myrie; former Assemblyman Michael Blake; and former City Comptroller Scott Stringer reply to questions regarding issues many New Yorkers have been pondering since the last city election in 2021.
Fervent answers were given when Reverend Kirsten John Foy, President and CEO of the Arc of Justice, who hosted the forum, asked questions of all five candidates. Most of the questions touched on issues such as affordable housing and safe streets.
Right around the time the event began, Cuomo officially announced his candidacy for mayor with a 17-minute video posted on his campaign website and shared via social media.
Lander broke the news to forum attendees and immediately went on the attack — alleging that Cuomo was only running for mayor to “rehabilitate his own reputation, not to fight for New Yorkers,” in reference to accusations of Cuomo sexually harassing 11 women and senior citizens dying in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The former governor has repeatedly denied the sexual harassment allegations and rebuffed claims about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in senior living facilities.
“One thing Andrew Cuomo has not done is say one single word about what Donald Trump has been doing in the White House,” Lander said. “Mass deportations, the money for the health care we need to cut the budget of the city of New York.”
Tackling affordability
This forum was the second for the Arc of Justice, and there will be more to come in the weeks leading up to June’s primary elections. Schneps Media, the parent company of amNewYork Metro, was among the sponsors for the March 1 forum.
Reverend Foy explained to amNewYorkMetro that the forums’ purpose is to invite mayoral candidates to neighborhoods that are traditionally overlooked during city elections.
“How can you leverage New York City’s power and wealth to help make it more affordable for the people who make it run?” asked Reverend Foy.
Stringer mentioned a three-tier approach to economic development that would go beyond affordable housing and would focus on giving relief to people, particularly parents who struggle to take care of their children. Myrie said infrastructure would be needed to solve the affordable housing crisis further. He said he would create universal afterschool programs, build up small businesses, and utilize the Housing Development Corporation.
Ramos referred to Co-Op City, Penn South, and other developments across the city as not just affordable housing for the city to see more of, but also build communities.
“As chair of the Labor Committee these past seven years in the Senate,” she said. “I can work with the unions and especially the building trades to make sure we’re leveraging our union pension dollars with our taxpayer dollars to build the way we used to for working families, low-income rentals, and modest equity home-ownership opportunities.”
Foy even asked if the candidates would support a rent freeze as mayor, to which all of the candidates at the forum except Lander (who left before this question was asked) said yes, though Stringer said the strategy to establish it would require playing chess.
Mental health
Mental health was the other main topic, with Foy calling the homeless crisis a public health failure. Mental health was one of the big issues Mayor Adams has focused on during his term, including the involuntary hospitalization policy that many in the city’s mental health community disagreed with.
Stringer said the city needs to mobilize nurses and doctors rather than cops or even robotic dogs. Ramos brought up her mental health plan, called Harmony NYP but she also believes that pointed out how affordability intertwines with mental health.
“Poverty impacts our mental illness in New York City,” she said. “Being poor puts undue stress on a person who can’t pay rent, who can’t put groceries on the table for their kids.”
Blake also said he does not believe the police should be trying to help the city’s homeless but instead, mental health professionals. State Senator Myrie introduced his public safety plan called Safe Streets and Safe Subways, which would not only deploy law enforcement officers, but pair them with clinicians.
“What we are doing now is not working,” Myrie said. “We are either sending people to emergency rooms, which cycle back out in a couple of days, or sending them to Rikers, where they get even worse. There has to be a middle ground here.”
Not all of the Democratic candidates were present for the forum. One of them, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, had a conflict that kept him away. But two other candidates, Mayor Eric Adams and former Governor Cuomo, were missing.
“If someone is running for mayor and they do not have the guts to show up before you for a forum or meeting, they don’t deserve your vote,” said Blake of the absentee candidates.
