H H H H H H PRIMARY VOTERS’ GUIDE 2021 H H H H H H
Manhattan Borough President race
Caribbean L 36 ife, JUNE 4-10, 2021
KEY CONTENDERS
Visit PoliticsNY.com to Watch Debates & Learn More About Each Candidate
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
There are nine candidates vying for a chance
to take over term-limited Gale Brewer’s post
as Manhattan borough president ahead of what
will undoubtedly be a challenging several years
in terms of the city’s pandemic recovery.
Although the role of the borough president is
largely ceremonial, the borough’s top cheerleaders
hold real power in land use and development projects
as a key player in the city’s Uniform Land Review
Process. As part of the ULURP process, community
boards review all requests for changes in
land use and then submit the application as well as
their own recommendation to the Borough President.
The borough president then has roughly a
month to review the proposed project and give
their recommendations to the Department of City
Planning. The borough president also nominates
some community board members and can team
up with deepening their influence as the highest
position in the borough.
Most of the candidates want to take on quality
of life issues, improvement to transits and work to
further desegregate schools if elected.
Last year, amid a new push to change how selective
middle and high schools screen their students
Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Schools Chancellor
Richard Carranza, announced the City would implement
some changes to how competitive schools
would choose their students.
Officials decided to do away with geographic
requirements for high schools and offer the Specialized
High School Admissions Test to middle
schools across the city as well as do away with academic
screens for the year. Although the changes
have shown some positive results, many believe
more can be done to desegregate schools across
the five boroughs.
But most of the candidates stressed a desperate
need to focus on the borough’s pandemic recovery
which includes helping small businesses devastated
by the COVID-19 pandemic order to promote
the borough’s.
Linsdey Boylan, who
made headlines months
ago after she accused
former boss Governor
Andrew Cuomo of sexual
harassment, also
wants to support small
businesses which she
described as an “essential
part of Lower Manhattan’s
unique cultural fabric.” If elected, Boylan
would like to create a “one-stop-shop” program for
small businesses to help business owners navigate the
bureaucracy that comes with grant and loan programs
as well as advocate for local businesses.
Elizabeth Caputo
agrees that one of the
easiest ways to help
the borough and the
city at large regain its
footing after the economic
blow that was
the COVID-19 pandemic
is to help small
businesses.
Borough President candidate
and current state
Senator Brad Hoylman is
running on what he calls
the “Manhattan Marshall
Plan,” which would start
with”comprehensive community
led planning for
Manhattan’s twelve community
boards.” If elected,
Hoylman plans on giving community boards the ability
to start 197-a plans in conjunction with the Borough
President’s office. That section of the City Charter gives
community boards and the Borough President the power
to sponsor plans that recommend strategies to address
economic development, housing, land use, or environmental
or social issues in the borough.
Upper East Side Councilmember
Ben Kallos,
like many of his fellow
candidates, believes that
elected officials like the
Borough President will
have to get creative when
it comes to building a
better and more equitable
city as part of the big
apple’s pandemic recovery.
Councilmember
Mark Levine, who
represented northern
Manhattan and is
also running for borough
president, says
he wants to establish
a COVID recovery
unit in the Borough
President’s office if
elected. The office would be headed by a COVID-19
Recovery Czar who would work directly with Levine
to advance legislation that would improve health
equity, bring people back into the workforce, bring
back the arts and support small businesses.
Candidate Kim
Watkins, a longtime
member of District
3 Community
Education Council,
believes in getting
small businesses
back online and
hopes that as borough
president she
can work to create an easy process to operate pop-up
shops and new small businesses and scaleable small
businesses to mid-size businesses to get more people
working again.
/PoliticsNY.com
