01.31 Mayor’s Race: choose your fighter
Mayor’s Race Shuffle, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya Still Believes in Our City, and Bill de Blasio’s "legacy"
The mayor's race is beginning to take shape. Our standout candidates: Dianne Morales, Maya Wiley, Carlos Menchaca and Scott Stringer + *wildcard!*. Dianne Morales set the bar high by committing to a $3 BILLION cut from the NYPD budget (!), which has risen to over $6B under de Blaz. She is our #DefundThePolice candidate and frontrunner. Andrew Yang brings big-start-up vibes. He pitched a casino and a “tourist vaccine visa.” Yang is coming off of the high from his Prez run, but look, this 👏 is 👏 NYC 👏 we 👏 will 👏 call 👏 you 👏 out. Watch the very informative (and borderline entertaining!) #BKMayoralForum (linked below).
We also lost a candidate (probs for the best) but gained a Real Housewife (probs for the worst!). The male candidates have all the cash and that’s a problem. (1) there’s just too much money in politics and (2) c’mon people, it’s time for a woman mayor! Establishment male candidates may be raising the most money (don’t EVEN get us started on where it’s coming from), and community-oriented female candidates are receiving the most individual contributions. Maya Wiley has the most contributors out of any candidate. There’s plenty more to discuss, but it’s also a waiting game to see who will drop out (and why).
Mayoral reading, “Abolishing the Police 101” graphic zine, and a video memorial for MTA workers who died of COVID-19 down below. Wanna put something on our radar? Leave a comment or email us at softpowervote@gmail.com.
ON THE RADAR
WATCH: Citizens Union Breakfast Brief on Ranked Choice Voting
Monday 02.01, 9 am. Join WNYC editor in chief, exec director of Center for Law and Social Justice at CUNY, the coo of NYU Institute of Poverty Policy and Research, and Editor of Gotham Gazette, Ben Max, in convo on RANKED CHOICE VOTING! RSVP here.
ACTION: Apply to be on your Community Board (this is how you get those bike lanes and parklets in the city)
Bronx (Deadline 02.05) | Brooklyn (Deadline 02.12) | Queens (Deadline 02.19) | Manhattan (Deadline 02.22) | Staten Island
ACTION: Phonebank and GOTV in CD-24 Special Election.
WATCH: UWS Open Hearts & Da Homeless Hero host Mayoral Forum
Thursday, 02.04, 5:30 pm. Questions to candidates from those experiencing homelessness!
PARTY AFFILIATION DEADLINE: V-Day (2/14) is the last day to switch your party affiliation to vote in the city-wide primary
NYC has closed primaries—Democrats can only vote in Dem Primaries and so on—so all you “Independents” out there who want to participate in the Primary (and the city’s transformation) change your party affiliation to “Democrat” by 2/14. Update your party!
PUBLIC COMMENT on NYPD Use Policy of Surveillance Tech
Make your voice heard on everything from NYPD use of facial recognition to x-ray and more.
We don’t know if these comments will enact change, but let’s make some noise! Deadline to submit: 02.25
City Council introduces 11 bills on public safety and police reform! Hearings 02.08-02.16. Read more
Monday, 02.08, 1 pm. Investigating police officers with a history of bias via Committee on Civil and Human Rights.
CULTURAL WORK
Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya’s I Still Believe in Our City campaign as a part of the NYC’s P.A.I.R. program, places artists in city agencies.
Travels Far. Video memorial for MTA workers who died from Covid-19. [TRT: 08:06] Pay your respects.
Artists as Essential workers! Wide Awakes x For Freedom’s program series features Philadelphia’s DA, former astronauts, writers, and creatives. Arts + activism at Sundance Film Festival, thru 02.02. FREE w/RSVP.
On the Other Side of Something. We Buy Gold’s sixth project. Thru March 2021.
Police Abolition 101: Messages When Facing Doubts. Graphic zine by Noah Jodice in collab with @prisonculture, @projectnia, and Interrupting Criminalization. Check it out!
Show me a Hero (2015). A reminder of how career politics becomes a drug. Features Oscar Isaac! On HBO.
SOFT POWER VOTE
MAYORAL RACE STUFF:
WATCH: BK Mayoral Forum [TRT: 3 hrs 40 mins]. One of the BEST forums, moderated by Ny Whitaker and Gloria Pazmino, who asked unique, pressing, and somehow FUN questions to candidates in three rounds (questions were different for each round, SWOON!).
YangGang for NYC is less tech bro and more wall street
Eric Adams helped build CompStat, and co-signed CompStat 2.0 in 2016!. We don’t want a COP for mayor.
A casino is a bad idea, Andrew Yang. Here’s why
WATCH: Decision 2021 Mayoral Candidate Interviews
Gotham Gazette and Manhattan Neighborhood Network co-producing interviews with every mayoral candidate! 13 online so far.
READ: Inside the Mad Dash for NYC Mayoral Endorsements
Most sought-after backers are the Working Families Party, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and 1199SEIU, which represents 400,000 health care workers and retirees. Gotta catch ‘em all.
READ: Cash rules everything around… MAYORAL CANDIDATES!
Financial filings for mayoral candidates say a lot. TL;DR Scott Stringer, Eric Adams, and Ray McGuire rake in a disturbing amount of money. S/O to Maya Wiley who has the most contributors (avg $103) and Dianne Morales who has the most contributions < $50 (also both are Black female candidates!). Read up!
READ: NY Schools are Segregated, Will the Next Mayor Change That?
NYT’s Eliza Shapiro interviewed 10 mayoral candidates about their school desegregation plans. Read up!
Zach Iscol Drops out of Mayoral Race
But pivots to run for Comptroller, but do we want him as comptroller? No. We like Brad Lander.
Real Housewife Enters Mayoral Race
Barbara Kavovit saw the mayoral candidates getting dragged on Twitter and thought it looked fun.
Bill de Blasio’s last State of the City has us contemplating his legacy… an era of **gaslights in progressive**
Vision Zero, but saw an increase in cycling and pedestrian deaths
Ground-breaking pilot programs that ended before they took off
Getting elected on universal pre-k while covering up lead paint poisoning in NYCHA
Over 26k New Yorkers died from Covid-19 while the mayor and governor squabbled
We have just under a year left with de Blasio in which we get to choose the future of our city. Let’s learn from the past 7 years and elect someone who will lead with competence.