Policy Positions

Affordable Housing

Arrest landlords who discriminate based on ethnic background of applicant.
Inclusionary Zoning has been a failure. Replace "80/20" (80% Market-Rate housing/20% Low- and Moderate Income Housing) tax incentive with new law requiring that all buildings over 16 units must include permanent affordable housing units, with the percentage of units increasing with the number of total units built.
Eliminate the "credit" loophole that allows builders of luxury apartments to place it in another part of town, under a technicality in the "80/20" law.
Eliminate the Erstadt Law so that legislators in New York City, and not those in Albany, determine housing regulations in New York City.
Make apartment improvement increases (such as new windows, etc.) a temporary surcharge and not a permanent rent increase.
Require landlords to open their books when they demand increases based on lack of profits.

Animal Care and Control

Dramatically increase funding for animal care and control to more humanely care for stray and lost animals.
Increase training for both employees and volunteers.
Reopen borough centers, as the three that exist (Brooklyn and Manhattan) are extremely inconvenient for residents in Queens and the Bronx.

Climate Change

Man-made climate change is real. We must have a fact-based scientific response to it – and fast.
Pursue a natural mitigation plan to protect our coastline, i.e. restore wetlands, create reefs (natural and artificial) and plant hundreds of millions of oysters to stabilize the coastline, minimize sea level rise and improve water quality.
Retrofit all city-owned buildings with energy efficient heating and cooling systems using renewable energy sources; mandate and incentivize the same for privately-owned buildings throughout the city.
Convert all city-owned fleet vehicles to hybrid or fully electric to dramatically lower emissions and greenhouse gases.
Change zoning laws to increase permeable areas (i.e. unpaved and landscaped areas) for all new construction to help stop increased runoff of storm water

Development/Department of Buildings

End self-certification and the fraud associated with it.
Conduct a complete investigation into the systemic corruption at the Department of Buildings.
Do background checks on all contractors for ties to organized crime.
Place an independent review authority to do random audits of the Department of Buildings.
Remove the "flexibility" in interpreting the Building and Zoning Codes that has created so many problems during the past few decades.
End all New York City tax abatements and financial loopholes for developers.

Education

Make sure that Districts 25 and 26 remain the best school districts in New York City by:
Ending Direct Mayoral Control of the schools by reconstituting the Board of Education and devolving control to local school districts.
Increased funding for arts and music education, so that our own children can flourish in the largest Arts community in the world.
Stop teaching to the Test. Instead, teach to get the students to learn.
Careful watch over the massive corruption at the Schools Construction Authority that has wasted billions of taxpayers' funds over the past decade in crooked contracts.
Ensuring that all stakeholders in a school community have a voice
Eliminating the "corporate model" from public schools
Removing unqualified people from leadership positions in schools and school districts

Health Care

ENSURE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE AS A RIGHT.The United States should catch up to every other modern nation and implement a single-payer, medicare-for-all system. There’s no reason we can’t be #1 in the world instead of #37. It’s time to end the destruction of American healthcare by rapacious, price gouging, for-profit, private health insurance middlemen

Parks/Environment

Increase hiring of Parks workers and acquire additional resources so that our parks in northeast Queens are the best in the city, not treated as second cousins to parks like Central Park, which has essentially been privatized.
Acquire the remainder of the Udalls Cove Park properties that are still in private ownership to protect the Ravine watershed.
Permanently protect - and clean up - the 60 acres of freshwater wetlands at the former Flushing Airport by turning it into a public park and wildlife preserve and removing it from the grips of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
Acquire the last 6 acres of the former Cresthaven CYO property to create parkland and athletic fields for Little League sports.
Create a network of kayak launches at MacNeil, Powell's Cove, Francis Lewis, Little Bay and Alley Parks.
Clean up the waterfront and help protect our coastline by promoting the creation of artificial oyster reefs.
Make the Parks Department accountable for the care and maintenance of street trees - pruning, cutting down dead trees, removal of stumps and new plantings.
Make sure that stormwater/sewer runoff is minimized, particularly in College Point and Douglaston. Create pilot program to help curtail pollution from runoff by creating additional waterfront wetlands, which naturally soak up and clean sewage and storm water runoff

Public Safety

Increase hiring of policemen, firemen and other public safety workers to help maintain northeast Queens as the safest neighborhoods in New York City.
Expand community patrolling throughout the district, especially on Bell Boulevard, College Point Boulevard, Whitestone Village and other commercial strips.
Divide the 109th Precinct into two precincts - perhaps along Northern Boulevard - as the average 911 response time continues to increase due to lack of proximity to the precinct itself.
Open a rape crisis / domestic violence counseling center to respond to the increasing number of incidences in the 109th and 111th Precincts.
Increase salaries for those policemen / firemen who reside within New York City - keep our tax money inside the city.
Shut down illegal businesses that have been proliferating in the 19th Council District, including gambling operations, sweatshops, illegal nightclubs/caberets and brothels.
Develop a financial incentive program to help businesses that have non-English signage replace their awnings/signs in order to help public safety officers better serve them in times of need.

Transportation

Restore full service to the many bus lines that serve northeast Queens, which have been drastically cut during the past decade.
Carefully study and implement a sane network of bike paths throughout the district, as opposed to placing them with no community consultation as is presently done.
Paving contracts MUST stop being given out on an automated basis, which has resulted in streets being paved unnecessarily and, in many cases, sloppily in order for the contractor to receive a 20% bonus for early completiion. Instead, paving contracts should be based on NEED.
Signage for "No Trucks" - and traffic enforcement - on certain residential streets must be increased, as should speed bumps to discourage illegal truck traffic.
Problem intersections throughout the 19th Council District should be thoroughly catalogued and re-examined to come up with better traffic-easing and safety solutions.

Women's Rights

Provide adequate health care for women. We need a greatly increased emphasis on women's health problems, including increased research, preventive measures and medical services. Form review boards to monitor the use of hysterectomies and C-sections, and discourage their overuse. Insurance programs must cover, at no additional cost, women's health problems, including breast and cervical cancer, AIDS, non-cosmetic elective surgery, pregnancy and coverage for disabled homemakers.
Keep established rights guaranteed by Roe v. Wade intact, ensuring full access to all family planning decisions and rights to their own bodies.
Establish equitable workplace rights for women. We must pass legislation which requires comparable pay for comparable work, expanded child care in the work place, and the prevention of gender-based job discrimination and sexual harassment.
Adopt a constitutional protection of equality for women, such as the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
Provide education and training for judges, court and law enforcement personnel to handle cases of violence against women.
Adopt evidentiary rules so that opinions about past sexual behavior of an alleged victim are not admissible, nor should her clothes be admissible as evidence the offense was incited.
Acknowledge "battered women's syndrome" as a mitigating factor in the defense argument at murder trials.
Develop curricular materials, pedagogical methods and teacher training programs that promote non-sexist attitudes on the part of teachers and students. We support programs that hold the educational system accountable for supporting feminine rights, such as the ones legislated in Title IX, the Sex Equity in Education Act.
Recognize women's studies as a discipline in which women articulate their own reality through research and analysis. Universities should be mandated to support Women's Studies.
Promote educational programs to combat sexual objectification and exploitation of women in advertising.
Expand the legal definition of families to include non-traditional domestic arrangements. We should support men and women who make a career of homemaking.
Mandate treatment for all sex offenders. Assure confidentiality in handling complaints and legal procedures involving abused persons.
Increase support and funding for safe houses and other family violence prevention services.
Support the selection of women for elective and appointive offices.

Zoning and Land Use

Having contextually rezoned most neighborhoods in the 19th Council District, we need to finish the job: Bay Terrace needs a neighborhood-wide rezoning and several other areas, including parts of Douglaston, North Flushing and Bayside must be rezoned to further protect our single-family neighborhoods.
Recognize and designate our historic treasures in the 19th Council District that are not currently protected. This includes all presently calendared buildings, including the Ahles house, Cambridge Court and the Douglaston Historic District Extension. Other neighborhoods that deserve immediate landmark designation include Broadway-Flushing, Bellcourt, Beech Court and Lawrence Manor.
Continue Community Facility reform by lowering all FAR bonuses in low-density zones and removing the sky-exposure plane and permitted obstructions, which allow towers and other out-of-scale projections in our single-family neighborhoods.
Get the DOB to enforce the newly-adopted Yards Text Amendment that prohibits the paving over of front yards.