Small Groups, Big Decisions
Unpacking the latest in New York politics
Hi All,
We often talk about how, when it comes to local politics, a very small group of people exert a lot of power. As attention turns to the group of two taking the debate stage tonight, let’s focus ours on the not-many-more New Yorkers dictating the future of our city and state.
🗳️ Low turnout, big impact: The big story out of Tuesday’s primaries in New York was Jamaal Bowman’s loss to George Latimer in the 16th Congressional district, but we were watching the races in state legislative elections where the abundance agenda was on the ballot.
Happily, the candidates we were rooting for won—though most voters stayed on the sidelines.
On the Upper West Side, Micah Lasher won 53% in a five-way race to replace a retiring Assemblymember. Micah was a key architect of the statewide Housing Compact proposal to require every community to help grow housing supply. Hopefully, with him in Albany, we can get it passed! About 20% of active Democratic voters in the 69th district showed up, making it one of the higher turnout races in the city.
In North Brooklyn, Emily Gallagher won 76% of the vote, decisively beating a challenger running in opposition to a street-safety redesign Emily supports. We were glad to see that this NIMBYism was a losing issue. Still, fewer than 6,000 voters came out—just about 10% of the district’s active Democrats (and ~4% of the population).
Otherwise, the results were a mixed bag. Multiple pro-housing Open New York endorsees won and other StreetsPac-endorsed incumbents beat car-first candidates. However, Scott Budow, a sharp abundance-minded challenger to Jo Anne Simon, lost; indeed, the only state legislator ousted on Tuesday was scandal-plagued Juan Ardila.
🚗 + 🏘️ Small boards, big changes: Community Boards, whose 50 appointed members each represent 140,000+ New Yorkers, are adding their voices to crucial cityscape changes.
Congestion pricing is being stalled by a traffic cop of one: Governor Hochul, as the MTA board lamented yesterday. Four of the six Community Boards in the congestion zone voted to co-sign a letter urging her to start it on time; unfortunately, CB3 voted narrowly not to join. (Eleven council-members co-signed their own pro-congestion pricing letter.)
When the Department of City Planning’s City of Yes for Housing Opportunity update to the city’s 60-year-old residential zoning was sent to Community Boards for review, many expected that it would hit a buzzsaw of opposition—but 11 boards have already voted to approve it! As long as these small groups have such outsize influence, that’s good news.
Community Boards’ power is problematic, even when they’re doing the right thing: members are older and whiter than their districts overall. We’re glad to have helped 16 folks get appointed this year, improving the diversity of these small but mighty groups.
🎉 Our growing group—ever bigger, ever better: Abundance New York hosted our launch event last week, and about a hundred of you all came out!
The party included city and state elected officials, current and past candidates, key advocates and government staffers, local press (we were covered in Politico!), and many regular folks who want to build a better city and state.
Given how few New Yorkers pull the levers of our politics, the growth and visibility of our community has the power to change everything.
Let’s keep it up, together,
Ryder