“I have spent my entire career
serving New York City’s
most vulnerable,
marginalized communities,
and for too long,
we have continued
to fail to provide and
protect those communities.
We’ve seen throughout the
course of the pandemic that
so many members of
those communities
are, in fact, the ones that
have kept the city operating,
taking care of the rest of us.
It’s time for New York
to center, prioritize
and elevate their needs.
I can be loud if
you want me to.
I used to be a
classroom teacher.
I can be louder.
Oh, so cool.”
“What is the most
important police reform
you would pursue as mayor?”
“The protests last summer were
actually very personal for me.
At the very first protest
after George Floyd
was murdered,
I stood at the
Barclays Center
and watched as my children
were first pepper-sprayed,
and shortly
thereafter, I watched
as my son was
physically assaulted
by a police officer.
We know that policing does
not equal public safety,
that communities that
are most heavily policed
are, in fact, the most at
risk and the most harmed.
So I don’t believe that we can
reform the police department.
I think we need
to transform it.
And I think that
that means divesting
from the department
in the way that it is,
investing in the
services that we need
and then
fundamentally transforming
the way the department
operates in our communities.
So the first thing
I’ve called for
is the creation of a community
first responders department
because we know that
so many of the calls
that N.Y.P.D. responds to
are not crimes in
progress, they’re
social issues
related to housing,
related to mental health,
related to substance abuse.
A community first
responders department
would be staffed by people
who are trained and skilled
at intervention
and de-escalation,
and then would be
able to connect
these people to a larger
ecosystem of social services
and human services
so that we can break
the cycle of the conditions
that result in them being
in need in the first place.”
“Does that mean abolish?”
“I don’t think we can move
to abolishing right now.
I think that’s a
longer-term goal.
You know, I understand
that for many people
in our communities, policing
does equal public safety
or there is that
misunderstanding
about that despite the
reality and the statistics.
So I know that it’s going
to take time for people
to really move away
from the sort
of mental understanding
that in order to be safe,
we need to be policed.
But I think that as we
begin to provide folks
with the services and the
supports that they need,
it’ll become an easier
reality for us to accomplish.
So the first thing
I think that we
need to do in order to
help New York City recover
is to prioritize
saving people’s lives.
I think that means
that we still
need to make sure that we
are investing in security
so that those people
that are still at risk
can stay home safely.
Until we do that, we
can’t begin to recover.
The next thing I think
that we need to do
is to make sure
that those the rest of us
rely on to keep the
city operating have
the protections
that they need,
whether that be through P.P.E.
or access to the vaccine.
And then we can talk
about and move
towards economic recovery,
which I think really
needs to focus
on and prioritize
our local, small and
mid-sized businesses first.
This is an opportunity for us
to transform how we operate
and move away from
an overreliance
on large corporations that
come into our communities,
exploit our labor and
extract our wealth,
and rebuild by focusing on
those who own
businesses locally.”
“Would you accept
an endorsement
from Governor Cuomo?”
“No — do you want me
to expound on that?
No, I mean, I was the
first mayoral candidate
to call for his impeachment.
I think he has abused his
power for far too long.
And I think he’s
also not been, not
held the best interest of
New Yorkers as a priority.
I’m not interested
in being endorsed
by someone whose leadership
I do not respect and
whose leadership,
I believe, has lacked in
dignity and integrity.”
“What is the single,
most important step
the next mayor can
take to make up
for educational losses
during the pandemic?”
“This focus on educational
loss in our Black
and brown communities
is one that
continues to compound
the harm that’s
being done to our children.
Our schools are the
most segregated schools
in the country and the
most under-resourced.
We need to prioritize, first,
making sure our schools get
the funding that they need.
And then we need to make sure
that our children, that we’re
creating environments
in our schools
where our children
feel loved because you
can’t learn in a space
where you don’t feel loved.
That includes
things like ensuring
that we have a culturally
responsive curriculum.
It includes things
like ensuring
that our teachers are
reflective of the students
that they’re
intended to serve.
It also includes things
like removing barriers
to access, which for so long
have continued to perpetuate
inequities and disparities
in terms of the schools
that our children
have access to.”
“Do you support
year-round school?”
“I think that we need to
move away from the agrarian
calendar and adopt a
year-round calendar that
enables us to stagger our
students in the
school system.
This would address the
overcrowding issue.
It would address
the ability for us
to really have
smaller classrooms.”
“Whom did you support in the 2020
presidential primary and why?”
“I supported Elizabeth Warren
in the primary, both
because I was a supporter
of her ideas and her vision,
and because I was really
appreciative of the role
that she gave Black women
and Black women’s voices
in her campaign
and her candidacy.
And she was a woman.
And I think it’s time
for us to actually
have a different
kind of leadership,
not just at the local
level in New York City,
but at the federal
level as well.”
“What is your main
priority for the city when
it comes to climate change?”
“I think we need to adopt a
Green New Deal for
New York City, that
includes the creation
of a public infrastructure
program that would actually
employ tens of
thousands of New Yorkers
in doing the work
that we need to do.
So that we are actually ready
for the storms in the future.
So that we are a
green city, so that we
are reducing emissions
and actually moving
towards clean energy.
We need to invest
in the future,
and we need to do that now.
This is not a time for
us to cry austerity.
This is a time for us
to rebuild our economy
and get ready for the
future that is coming
no matter what.”
“What is the key to improving
public transportation?
Would you focus more on
modernizing the subway
or expanding bus-only lanes?”
“There’s a lot of
room for improvement
in our public transportation
system here in New York City.
I believe in the idea of
starting with the things
that we can control first.
And given that we have
more influence and impact
on the busways, I think that
that would be the right place
for us to start, while at the
same time taking on Albany so
that we can get the funding
that we need in order
to improve our subway system
and make the infrastructure
improvements that we
need for our system,
including the creation of a
public works infrastructure
program that would employ
New Yorkers in actually doing
that work for us.”
“What is your favorite
New York City restaurant?”
“My favorite
New York City restaurant
is a little hole in the wall
in Fort Greene called Dino’s.”
“Your favorite bagel order?”
“My favorite bagel order is an
everything bagel with
cream cheese
and lots of lox.”
“Favorite sports team?”
“Favorite sports team —
this gets
me all the time.
I always say the Knicks.
I’m supposed to say the Nets.
It’s the Knicks.”
“Your favorite
New York City park?”
“My favorite New York City
park is probably
Prospect Park.”
“And your favorite
Broadway show?”
“My favorite Broadway
show, ‘Hamilton.’”
“Mayor de Blasio
has been criticized
for his late-morning
workouts at the Park Slope Y.
What is your
fitness routine,
and would that change
at all as mayor?”
“Fitness routine.
What fitness routine?
I’m running for mayor.
Before the pandemic,
I have a sort of teacher.
Her name is Patricia Moreno.
She teaches a class
called ‘intenSati.’
She’s doing it on
Zoom these days,
but I just haven’t
been able to make it.
‘IntenSati’ is actually a
really cool combination
of sort of spiritual
affirmations, cardio,
kickboxing and yoga.
It absolutely
changed my life.
And both increased my
level of self-confidence
and also helped me get into
the best shape I’ve ever
been in my life, which
is not right now.”
“Since voters can
rank up to five
candidates on the ballot,
whom would you pick
as your second choice?”
“There’s a lot of
daylight between me
and the rest of
the candidates,
so it’s really
hard to identify
at this point in
time how I would
rank the rest of my ballot.
I’m looking forward
to seeing the impact
that my candidacy has on
other people’s messages.”
“Then no second choice today?”
“No second choice today.”
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
