➤ MENCHACA, from p.14
Asked how the reforms he envisions
can overcome a powerful
police culture protected by unions
stridently resistant to change,
Menchaca said, “You have to talk
about it and write about it. Acknowledge
that it represents generational
white supremacy.”
Comparing his posture to his
rival mayoral hopefuls, he argued,
“In many ways I think I am the
most radical as an elected offi cial.”
Among other changes he recommends
are the elimination of the
vice squad, which has long ensnared
members of the LGBTQ community
in numerous different ways, empowering
the Civilian Complaint Review
Board with enforcement and disciplining
authority, and bringing on a
new commissioner.
One important factor in the push
to reform the NYPD, Menchaca
noted, has been the empowerment
of transgender women of color who
were the driving force in repealing
a statewide sex work-related loitering
statute, often dubbed a Walking
While Trans Ban, that targeted
transgender women. City government,
he said, should be proactive
in encouraging such empowerment,
especially among immigrant
trans women.
Since before his election to the
Council in 2013, Menchaca said,
he has supported full decriminalization
of sex work, noting the dangers
sex workers, including trans
women, face when law enforcement
efforts stymie their ability to provide
safety protections for themselves
in carrying out their trade.
He acknowledged the concerns
some leading feminists have about
the decrim movement, but said
their warnings that it would undermine
the war on sex traffi cking is a
“confl ation of issues” that hampers
both the international criminal
push against traffi cking and the
physical safety of adult sex workers
engaged in consensual activity.
Representing an economically
challenged community, Menchaca
is keenly aware of both the city’s
housing affordability crisis and the
harassment and neglect many tenants
suffer at the hands of landlords.
At forums across the city, he
has talked about “municipalizing”
a wide array of spaces — including
the estimated 15,000 empty
apartments and units where tenants
City Councilmember Carlos Menchaca leading a January 2017 protest at Kennedy Airport against then President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban.
have to contend with abusive
landlords, as well as hotels and
other commercial spaces. The city,
he said, should use all of its legal
authority, including eminent domain,
to take possession of available
space, and can also work to
incentivize landlords to bring their
buildings into city affordable housing
programs and to use commercial
spaces to create large numbers
of micro units.
One element in Menchaca’s housing
proposals is a focus on ownership,
especially where tenants have
reliably paid rent in a building for
years while landlords provide no
improvements and sometimes curtail
basic services. In such cases,
the city already steps in to provide
emergency repair. Menchaca’s
ownership proposals would take
that approach “to the max,” with
the city using its powers to take
possession of a neglected property
on behalf of tenants.
“Housing is a human right,” he
said, “and all of this follows from
that.”
In a campaign where entrepreneur
Andrew Yang is known for his
advocacy of a universal basic income,
Menchaca sees a guaranteed
basic income not as something to
spread across residents of any economic
status but rather as a tool
to provide support to New Yorkers
living in poverty, many of them
immigrants, who have little or no
connection to any government aid.
The program he envisions would
provide such support without reducing
any other government assistance,
and in what would likely
be a controversial approach he is
considering initiating it with a pilot
program for undocumented immigrants,
of whom there are many in
his Council district.
Menchaca also proposes the establishment
of a public bank that
would invest in creating affordable
housing and encouraging small
business development. His concept
differs sharply from the existing
Economic Development Corporation,
with which he has battled
during his time on the Council over
its developer-driven proposals for
reinvigorating the Sunset Park waterfront
warehouse district. Complaining
about the lack of community
input and benefi ts from a
major project dubbed Industry City
that he said would gentrify the area
and displace residents, Menchaca
rallied other local elected offi cials
last year in forcing the developer to
withdraw their plans.
The son of a single mother who
raised seven children in public
housing in El Paso, Menchaca, who
is 40, got his start in public service
working fi rst for then-Brooklyn
Borough President Marty Markowitz
and later for out lesbian Council
Speaker Christine Quinn. He landed
on the Council after successfully
challenging an 11-year incumbent,
Sara González, faulting her in part
for her inattention to the ravages
that Superstorm Sandy visited
on the district’s waterfront. Four
years later, Menchaca withstood a
primary challenge from Félix Ortiz,
then a major force in the State
Assembly who had the support of
the Brooklyn Democratic organization.
In both races, Menchaca proved
PHOTO REUTERS/ANDREW KELLY
his mettle in organizing fi rst-time
voters, with the district setting primary
turnout records in both 2013
and 2017. To repeat that success
citywide, however, will take considerably
more resources than he has,
he acknowledged. In a race where
the top three money-raisers have
current campaign balances ranging
from $3.5 to $7.5 million, Menchaca
has raised barely over $60,000, according
to his last public fi ling. His
modest fundraising to date was
likely a factor in Brooklyn’s Lambda
Independent Democrats, an LGBTQ
club he has long been affi liated with,
deciding to forgo his candidacy as it
plans a runoff between Comptroller
Scott Stringer, who has roughly
$7 million on hand, and Dianne
Morales, a non-profi t leader who
has worked on homeless youth and
young adult career training issues.
Morales has a far more modest campaign
balance than Stringer, but
has still outraised Menchaca by almost
six to one.
The best-resourced campaigns,
however, are buffered by generous
matches from the city campaign fi -
nance program. Menchaca will not
be eligible for that until he raises at
least $250,000.
“I am struggling with funding,’’
he told Gay City News. “Vision does
matter, but you have to have the
resources to match. I am reaching
out to people who want an elected
offi cial with experience who has
stood with the people and who has
taken hits for it.”
Menchaca is pushing hard to
reach the $250,000 matching
funds minimum by the next fi ling
date on March 15.
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