Bradford S. Lander (born July 8,1969)[1] is an American politician,urban planner,and community organizer who has served as the 45th New York City comptroller since 2022. A progressive member of the Democratic Party,[2] Lander was elected to the New York City Council in 2009,serving for twelve years,later serving as Deputy Leader for Policy.[3] His district included portions of Brooklyn. In 2021,Lander was elected city comptroller,and assumed office on January 1,2022. He was endorsed by progressives such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren.[4]
In July 2024,Lander announced he would challenge incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in the 2025 New York City mayoral election. The New York Times Opinion panel and Ezra Klein chose Lander as their top choice for the Democratic primary for mayor in separate opinion pieces.[5][6] He trailed and conceded defeat in the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani on June 24,2025. He had campaigned with Mamdani after the two candidates cross-endorsed in the city's ranked choice system.
From 1993 to 2003,Lander was the executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC),a Park Slope not-for-profit organization that develops and manages affordable housing.[16][9][17] For his work he received the 2000 New York Magazine Civics Award,and FAC received the 2002 Leadership for a Changing World award (sponsored by the Washington,D.C.–based Institute for Sustainable Communities).[18][16]
From 2003 to 2009,Lander was a director of the university-based Pratt Center for Community Development. In that position,he was a critic of the Bloomberg administration's development policies.[9][19][20][21] He has also been a critic of the Atlantic Yards project.[22] Lander's work in 2003–2005 on Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning led to the first New York City inclusionary housing program to create affordable housing in new development outside Manhattan.[23] Lander served on a mayoral taskforce that recommended reforms to the 421-a tax exemption for luxury housing and required that new development in certain areas of the city set aside affordable housing units.[24][25] He co-led the completion of the One City One Future platform,a progressive vision for economic development in New York City.[26][27] He stepped down as head of the organization in 2009 to seek a seat on the New York City Council.[28] Lander teaches as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School.[29]
New York City Council
Lander in 2010
Lander represented the 39th district in New York City Council from 2009 until 2021,when term limits prevented him from running again. He is a co-founder of the Progressive Caucus in the New York City Council.[30] For his first term,Lander shared the title of co-chair of the caucus with his Manhattan colleague,Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.[31]
Lander was one of four Council members who brought participatory budgeting to New York City,which allows citizens to propose,develop,and vote on items in the municipal budget.[34] Over half of the 51 New York City Council Districts now engage in participatory budgeting.[35]
Labor
In 2013,Lander played a key role in a campaign to pass paid sick leave over Mayor Bloomberg's veto,telling the Brooklyn Reporter that the legislation would "make our city a fairer,more compassionate place to live and work".[36] In 2015,Lander passed legislation to ban discriminatory employment credit checks,ending the practice of companies discriminating against people because of their credit history.[37] In March 2015,outside a Park Slope,Brooklyn car wash that was closed at the time,Lander was arrested for blocking traffic to show support for eight striking car washers;it was his fourth arrest.[38][39][40] In November 2016,he announced his intention to get arrested as part of the "Fight for $15" National Day of Action,saying it was:"part of a long tradition of civil disobedience,and it takes a little courage".[41]
Lander has crafted a number of workers' rights policies. In 2017,he passed legislation to require fast food and retail companies to give their workers stable scheduling and restrict on-call scheduling and last-minute changes.[42][43] Lander also sponsored a successful bill to prevent fast food workers from being fired without just cause and to allow them to appeal terminations through arbitration.[44] He worked with the Freelancers Union to create the "Freelance Isn't Free Act," the first legislation of its kind to ensure that freelancers and independent contractors are paid on time and in full.[45] In 2018,Lander successfully achieved the first ruling in the country that guaranteed a living wage for Uber,Lyft and other for-hire drivers.[46] By April 2020,Lander had sponsored over 2,254 articles of legislation.[47]City and State New York ranked Lander's performance in the lower half of all New York City lawmakers,placing him 30th out of the 51 councilmembers;the ranking criteria included total number of bills introduced,the number of bills signed into law,attendance,and responsiveness to questions from constituents and from the media.[48]
Development and housing
Lander opposed rezoning the site of Long Island College Hospital to include affordable housing.[49] In July 2017,he was the primary sponsor of 20 local laws enacted by the City Council and signed by the mayor.[50] In addition,Lander played a role in helping shepherd the Community Safety Act through the New York City Council for final passage,along with councilmember Jumaane Williams.[51] In 2017,Lander worked with advocates at the Association of Neighborhood and Housing Development and Make the Road New York to create a Certificate of No Harassment program that provides the strongest protections against tenant harassment and displacement of any law in the country.[52] As part of the #TooHotToLearn campaign,Lander led the push to secure air-conditioning for all New York City Public Schools classrooms,shining a spotlight on the 25 percent of classrooms that did not have it.[53]
Starting in 2019,Lander has drawn criticism and,in his words,"anger" and "suspicion",for vocally supporting contracts for two homeless shelters in particular.[54] Opponents of the shelters claimed that those contracts contain up to $89 million of unexplained cost compared to contracts for equivalent shelters,and that costs were too high at $10,557 per unit per month.[55][56][57][58][59][60] Starting in 2020,Lander has been a leading advocate of a program that has moved over 9,500 homeless people (Lander's goal is 30,000 homeless) to vacant hotel rooms across New York City to provide space for social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic,at an average cost of $174 per room per night (or $5,293 per person per month).[61][62][63] The proposal drew intense criticism from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's New York City Department of Social Services,which Lander called "cartoonish insults".[63] The program drew strong reactions from neighborhood residents,with some residents calling the homeless men "subhuman" and claiming the program led to increases in crime,open drug sales and drug use,public sex acts,and street harassment,and worrying about the risk of having sex offenders housed near a public school;other residents were more open to the program,and the owner of a restaurant next door to the hotel reported that,despite some residents' alarm,there had been no problems.[64][62][65]
Social justice
In January 2021 he said:"As a white man,[the work of racial justice] starts by listening as honestly as I can to Black people about the anger and pain they are feeling,and the system of white supremacy and systemic racism it reflects. That is not easy –because it implicates me...."[66] He supported removing the statue of Christopher Columbus from Columbus Circle in Manhattan.[66]
Israel and Palestine
Lander's district includes large numbers of Jewish and Muslim people. According to The Forward,Lander has worked to balance relationships with both groups,"befriending both the far-right Brooklyn politician Dov Hikind and the pro-Palestinian activist and organizer Linda Sarsour".[10] Hikind criticized Lander and other progressive politicians for not distancing themselves from Sarsour,citing her criticism of Israel and past associations with controversial figures such as Louis Farrakhan.[10][9][67]
In 2020,Lander wrote that he had visited the West Bank to learn more about conditions under Israeli occupation and expressed support for efforts to achieve Palestinian human rights.[68]
Public safety and policing
In March 2020,as the COVID-19 pandemic began,Lander urged that the police suspend criminal arrests,summonses,warrant enforcement,and parole violations for low-level offenses,and release most of the over 900 people incarcerated at Rikers Island who were over 50 years old.[69] Lander voiced support for defunding the police and limiting police powers by cutting their budget by $1 billion in 2020.[70] In June 2020,Lander announced:"It is time to defund the police".[71] In December he called for the disbandment of the New York City Police Department Vice Unit,and decriminalizing prostitution.[72][66]
Controversies
In May 2016,Lander was criticized by unnamed Asian-American groups for calling supporters of Yungman Lee,who was challenging Nydia Velazquez for her seat in the House of Representatives,"scumbags". Lander said he was talking about dark money entities supporting Lee.[73] In December 2017,Lander was arrested inside the U.S. Capitol while protesting a bill that decreased taxes on corporations and wealthy people while cutting healthcare;he tweeted,"Being arrested with Ady Barkan in the halls of Congress while ... fighting for a country where we provide health care for those who need it ... is something I'll remember for the rest of my life".[74] In June 2018 he was arrested for blocking traffic,disorderly conduct,and failing to disperse at a protest outside the Brooklyn office of State Senator Marty Golden.[75]
In 2019 Lander admitted to an ethics violation for using his official government position to solicit monetary donations for a progressive nonprofit he helped create and of which he was chairman.[76][77] Lander chairs the council's Committee on Rules,Privileges and Ethics.[78] In his second term on the council,Lander served as the deputy leader for policy.[3]
Brad Lander and skateboarding advocate Loren Michelle pose in front of the Pablo Forever Mural at Washington Skatepark in Park Slope on May 8, 2021
Facing term limits for his council seat after his third term, Lander announced his candidacy for the 2021 New York City Comptroller election,[3][14] an open race as the incumbent, Scott Stringer, also faced term limits.[3][14] He said that if elected he would expand the office to conduct equity audits to reduce disparities across race, gender, and ethnicity, including in how city agencies hire contractors.[66] He said he would also use the office as an organizing vehicle for advocates, and produce audits, draft reports, and release data in partnership with organizers running campaigns centered on racial, social, and economic justice.[66] Lander received endorsements from the Working Families Party, unions including Communications Workers of America District 1, and various Democratic clubs and community organizations.[79] He was endorsed by elected officials including NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and members of the New York City Council and New York State legislature.[80][81][82]
Lander won the Democratic primary against State Senator Brian Benjamin, entrepreneur and former US Marine Zach Iscol, New York State Senator Kevin Parker, former Public Advocate and former New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and New York State Assemblymember David Weprin, among others,[83] and went on to win the general election over Republican candidate Daby Carreras.[84]
Tenure
In 2022, Lander called for ending 421a, a program that provided tax incentives for developers of market-rate apartments who also added below-market rentals.[85] According to the New York Times, at the time it was "the most generous property tax break in the city, costing New York City about $1.77 billion annually in lost tax revenue".[85] Lander and other critics describe it as a subsidy for developers in exchange for few low-income units while supporters said it encouraged housing construction and alleviated the housing shortage in New York.[85] The program was not renewed by the New York legislature.[85]
In March 2022, Lander called on Mayor Eric Adams to abandon his effort to shift retired municipal workers onto a new Medicare program and comply with a court order declaring the move illegal.[86] He subsequently refused to register the city's contract with Aetna, citing pending legislation that called the program's legality into question, but Adams overrode his decision and registered the contract.[87] In 2024, the New York Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the Adams administration could not force the retirees to switch to the new health plan.[87]
Lander developed a reputation as a foil to Mayor Adams, frequently criticizing or using the comptroller's oversight role to challenge his policies.[88] In 2023, Politico called Lander Adams' "archrival".[88] In February 2025, Lander released a public letter to Mayor Eric Adams threatening to convene a meeting of the Inability Committee if Mayor Adams did not "develop and present a detailed contingency plan outlining how you intend to manage the City of New York."[89]
Lander is a member of the Vote Blue Coalition, a progressive group and federal PAC created to support Democrats in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania through voter outreach and mobilization efforts.[90]
In June 2025, as Donald Trump increased deportations of immigrants, Lander began accompanying defendants to immigration hearings.[91] On June 17, 2025, Lander was arrested and handcuffed by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials at an immigration court while linking arms with a person ICE was trying to detain.[92][93][94] The official reason provided for the arrest was "for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer" according to Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, although Lander was later released saying that he "certainly did not" assault an officer.[95][96][97] The arrest was quickly condemned by an array of Democratic politicians from the state, including New York State GovernorKathy Hochul, who called it "bullshit", NYS Attorney GeneralLetitia James, who described it as a "shocking abuse of power" and "grotesque escalation of tensions", and United States RepresentativeAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who described it as "political intimidation".[98]
On June 12, 2025, The New York Times Opinion panel chose Lander as its top choice for the Democratic primary for mayor.[99] According to the Opinion editors, the panel consisted of 15 New Yorkers, chosen based on their "experience in citywide or local community affairs, their knowledge of key issues, and their range of viewpoints."[99] Panelists noted Lander's extensive experience and accomplishments in city government, his demonstrated ability to listen and evolve on issues, his history of uniting opposing groups on housing and other issues, and his "smart instincts" as being among his strengths.[99] They defined his "integrity, competence and consensus building" as three crucial qualities for leadership, and his responsibility and efficiency were highlighted even by panelists who preferred other candidates.[99] The panel praised his policy stances, as well as what they described as his "capacity to manage New York’s sprawling bureaucracy" and "detailed knowledge of city government and finances."[99]
On June 13, 2025, Lander and Zohran Mamdani cross-endorsed each other in the Democratic primary.[100] He placed third in the first round. He was brought up on stage at Mamdani's victory party to celebrate.
Lander lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Meg Barnette, a former executive at Planned Parenthood, now president of Nonprofit New York.[102][103] He also served as housing chair of Brooklyn Community Board 6, served on the board of directors of the Jewish Funds for Justice, and is a Little League coach in the 78th Precinct Youth Council.[104]
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