5 candidates are vying to exchange term-limited Council Member Carlina Rivera within the Democratic main for Manhattan’s District 2 on June 24.
Distinguished contenders aiming to fill the Metropolis Council seat, which covers Gramercy, the Decrease East Aspect, East Village, Greenwich Village, Midtown South–Flatiron–Union Sq., and Murray Hill–Kips Bay, embrace a sitting Meeting Member, the chair of Manhattan Neighborhood Board 3, and a disgraced former pol searching for a comeback.
Whoever wins within the June main will face off in opposition to the one registered Republican candidate, Jason Murillo, also called DJ Loudmouth.
Right here’s a have a look at the candidates and the platforms they hope will assist them clinch the democratic nomination in one of many borough’s extra aggressive races.
Harvey Epstein
Meeting Member Harvey Epstein is hoping to swap Albany for Metropolis HallPhoto courtesy of Epstein’s marketing campaign
An Meeting Member for Manhattan’s East Aspect since 2018, Harvey Epstein resides within the East Village along with his spouse and two kids. He’s now eying the Metropolis Council seat as a result of “we must act locally to tackle the urgent challenges affecting our daily lives.”
“I’m running for City Council because our community needs bold leadership and a future-focused vision,” mentioned Epstein in an announcement. “During my time in Albany, we made tangible progress on protecting tenants, reforming our criminal justice system, and championing LGBT+ rights. Now, it’s time to bring that drive and know-how directly to City Hall, where each decision impacts our neighborhoods in real and immediate ways.”
In Albany, he pushed progressive laws on housing, felony justice reform, LGBTQIA rights, incapacity entry, and environmental sustainability. Previous to turning into an Meeting Member, he served on Neighborhood Board 3, led public college dad or mum organizations, and helped safe hire freezes as a tenant member of the Hire Tips Board. Extra not too long ago, he took an SNL spoof of his Metropolis Council candidacy on the chin.
If elected regionally, he desires to sort out the problem of housing by constructing fashionable middle-class housing, absolutely funding public housing, and changing underused industrial area into properties, in response to his platform. His psychological well being plan, in the meantime, contains increasing disaster response groups and supportive housing, revolutionizing psychological well being companies for twin diagnoses, holding public establishments accountable for launch plans, and scaling up cellular outreach packages.
Anthony Weiner
Anthony Weiner mounts a political comeback along with his “25 Ideas for ’25”Photograph courtesy of Anthony Weiner’s marketing campaign
When Anthony Weiner introduced his return to politics final yr, he mentioned he wasn’t asking for assist regardless of his controversial previous—however due to it. His political reentry comes greater than a decade after his mayoral bid collapsed amid a second sexting scandal that ended his profession and led to an 18-month jail sentence for sending express messages to a minor.
The previous U.S. Consultant for Brooklyn and Queens, who served from 1998 to 2011, acknowledged his journey to this second “hasn’t been easy.”
“I struggled with addiction and lost the chance to serve. But after rehab, full acceptance of responsibility, time in prison, and years since making amends, including by mentoring and hiring the formerly incarcerated, I consider my debt paid. Now, I want to return to the thing I do best. Fighting for my city and my neighbors,” Weiner mentioned in an announcement.
Working on a platform, 25 Concepts for ’25, Weiner lays out a collection of proposals aimed toward addressing a broad vary of points for constituents, together with recruiting extra cops to pound the pavement, banning casinos from Manhattan, ending gross sales tax for pet meals, and introducing an oligarchy tax.
“For years, as a Council Member and a Congressman I have always been proud to represent what I call the “fighting wing” of the Democratic social gathering. I’ve all the time believed in standing up for what’s proper and tackling robust issues with actual concepts – not simply slogans and banners. And when individuals ask why I’m coming again now, I say that is an “all hands on deck” second for our nation and our metropolis,” mentioned Weiner. “I am asking you to re-elect me because with Trump in charge in DC and seemingly no one minding the store in NYC, this is a moment for grit and smarts. With 30 years in public life, maybe no one in the history of the city has run with more experience.”
Sarah Batchu
Sarah Batchu, neighborhood advocate and former Metropolis Corridor staffer, is working for Metropolis Council to develop entry to security, housing, and wellbeing for all New Yorkers.Photograph courtesy of Batchu’s marketing campaign
Chief of a Decrease East Aspect non-profit centered on wellbeing and former vice chair of Neighborhood Board 3, Sarah Batchu started her profession in metropolis authorities at Metropolis Corridor, the place she labored on housing points, pandemic response efforts, and social service supply underneath the de Blasio administration.
After her time in authorities, Sarah joined the Decrease East Aspect Ladies Membership as Chief of Employees, the place she helped set up the Middle for Wellbeing & Happiness – a nonprofit neighborhood area that now serves over 1,000 members.
“I’m running to bring a new generation of leadership to our community—grounded in service, equity, and care. I was raised by two doctors who taught me that care is more about people than medicine. As a nonprofit leader and public health professional, I’ve carried that same ethic into my work—fighting for housing justice, community wellness, and accessible healthcare,” Batchu mentioned in an announcement. “I know the challenges our neighbors face because I’ve lived them, and I’ve rolled up my sleeves to work alongside community members to create real solutions.”
As a survivor of campus sexual assault whereas pupil at Barnard School, she mentioned she was emboldened by the expertise to turn into a fierce advocate for security and justice. If elected, she intends to introduce the Withholding Eligibility In NYC Elections for Restricted People Act (WEINER Act) which might prohibit registered intercourse offenders and people convicted of sexual harassment, abuse, or rape from holding public workplace within the metropolis. And sure, the act’s identify is a direct jab at race opponent, Anthony Weiner.
Andrea Gordillo
Andrea Gordillo, cultural chief and Neighborhood Board 3 Chair, desires to convey her years of native organizing expertise and a deep dedication to housing and local weather justice to Metropolis Corridor.Photograph courtesy of Gordillo’s marketing campaign
Andrea Gordillo is the chair of Neighborhood Board 3 and Director of a Puerto Rican/Latinx multi-arts cultural establishment on the Decrease East Aspect. She’s working to symbolize the district the place she resides as a “fresh voice with real experience who knows how to bring bold, community-driven leadership to City Hall.”
“Our communities are struggling. Too many of us feel abandoned by City Hall and Albany. Politics as usual has failed us,” Gordillo mentioned. “I am a proud daughter of Peruvian immigrants. My parents came here with nothing but the hope for a better life. They achieved the American Dream, but that dream feels further out of reach because of the rising cost of living. I’m running to make sure that the dream my parents fought for is still alive for the next generation – whether you’ve been here for generations or you just arrived.”
With almost a decade of management throughout native cultural establishments and grass roots organizations —together with The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Middle, Fourth Arts Block and the Coalition for a District Different – Gordillo has championed racial and financial fairness within the arts and past. Her background in social coverage has additionally formed her involvement in organizing, together with her work on initiatives just like the This Land is Ours Neighborhood Land Belief.
As Chair of Neighborhood Board 3, Andrea helped information the neighborhood by means of a number of challenges, together with the Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital closure and neighborhood responses to immigration coverage shifts. The platform she’s working on facilities on tackling town’s housing disaster by increasing senior housing and reasonably priced and public housing, preventing for a hire freeze and making a registry of vacant models to carry landlords accountable. She additionally desires to advances the district’s local weather resilience, increasing entry to arts and tradition, and reimagining public security by means of community-driven options.
Allie Ryan
Allie Ryan is working for Metropolis Council to battle for safer streets, public inexperienced area, amongst different points.Photograph courtesy of Ryan’s marketing campaign
Allie Ryan is a long-time East Village resident, neighborhood activist, and documentary movie producer. She beforehand ran for a similar council seat within the 2023 main, incomes 38% of the vote in opposition to outgoing Council Member Rivera. She says she’s again once more “with real solutions.”
Over the previous twenty years, she has organized with native coalitions to oppose rezonings, advocate for parkland preservation, promote public security, and defend small companies.
“We, New Yorkers, have been told crime is not happening, that current policy experiments are working. That the affordability crisis, declining public schools, mental illness, homelessness, subway crime, storefronts shuttering and addiction epidemics, are being addressed to the best of our NYC and NYS elected officials’ abilities. We know that they are not,” Ryan mentioned in an announcement. “My husband and I are raising our daughters in the historic arts, music and environmental communities of the East Village. Our family is representative of the working-class Union families that are being driven out of the city.”
Amongst her platform insurance policies, Ryan’s concentrate on public security facilities round selling safer streets with Priscilla’s Regulation to control e-bikes, helps beat cops, and seeks to restrict hashish licenses by district. Her affordability priorities embrace opposing congestion pricing, supporting small companies, and increasing reasonably priced homeownership by means of Mitchell-Lama-style fashions. She can be pushing for climate-resilient infrastructure like flood partitions at East River Park, banning synthetic turf, and zoning neighborhood gardens as land trusts.
