Bradford S. Lander (born July 8,1969) is an American politician,urban planner,and community organizer who currently serves as the New York City Comptroller. A member of the Democratic Party,Lander is a progressive politician,and has been described as "one of the most left-leaning politicians in the city."[1]
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.[10][7][11] 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).[12][10]
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.[7][13][14][15] He has also been a critic of the Atlantic Yards project.[16] 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.[17] 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.[18][19] He co-led the completion of the One City One Future platform,a progressive vision for economic development in New York City.[20][21] He stepped down as head of the organization in 2009 to seek a seat on the New York City Council.[22] Lander teaches as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School.[23]
New York City Council
Lander in 2010
Lander is a co-founder of the Progressive Caucus in the New York City Council,a group that was described by The New York Times as "the City Council's most liberal members."[24] For his first term,Lander shared the title of Co-Chair of the caucus with his Manhattan colleague Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.[25]
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.[26] Over half of the 51 New York City Council Districts now engage in participatory budgeting.[27]
Lander was reelected on the Democratic and Working Families Parties' lines in 2013 to serve for a second term.
In 2013,Lander played a key role in a campaign to pass paid sick leave over Mayor Bloomberg's veto,telling the Brooklyn Reporter the legislation would "make our city a fairer,more compassionate place to live and work."[30] In 2015,Lander passed legislation to ban discriminatory employment credit checks,ending the practice of companies discriminating against people because of their credit history.[31] In March 2015,Lander was arrested for blocking traffic in Park Slope to show support for eight striking car washers,outside a car wash that was closed at the time;it was his fourth arrest.[32][33][34] 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."[35]
In May 2016,Lander upset Asian community groups by calling supporters of Chinese-American Yungman Lee (a challenger of Representative Nydia Velázquez) "scumbags."[36] Unnamed Asian groups called his comment racist,and rallied at City Hall to denounce it.[36] Lee said Lander's comments were disrespectful,and his choice of words was especially distasteful,adding:"In my view it's over the top of what should be part of our political discourse... we shouldn't have language like that in our politics."[36] Lee demanded an apology,but Lander refused.[36]
In December 2017,Lander was arrested inside the United States 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".[37] In June 2018 he was arrested for blocking traffic,disorderly conduct,and failing to disperse at a protest outside the office of State Senator Martin Golden.[38]
Lander opposed rezoning the site of Long Island College Hospital to include affordable housing.[39] As of July 2017,he was the primary sponsor of 20 local laws enacted by the City Council and signed by the Mayor.[40] In addition,Lander played a role in helping shepherd the Community Safety Act to passage,with councilmember Jumaane Williams.[41] 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 &displacement of any law in the country.[42] Lander also led the campaign that secured air-conditioning in all NYC school classrooms,shining a spotlight on the fact that 25 percent of classrooms previously did not have A/C,as part of the #TooHotToLearn campaign.[43]
Lander has crafted a number of workers' rights policies. In 2017,Lander passed legislation to require fast food and retail companies to give their workers stable scheduling and restrict "on call" scheduling and last-minute changes.[44][45] 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.[46] 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.[47] In 2018,Lander won the first rule in the country to guarantee a living wage for Uber,Lyft and other for-hire drivers.[48] By April 2020,Lander had sponsored over 2,254 article of legislation.[49]City and State New York ranked Lander's performance in the lower half of NYC lawmakers,ranking him 30th out of the 51 councilmembers,on the criteria of the number of bills introduced,the number of bills signed into law,attendance,and responsiveness to questions from constituents and from the media.[50]
2018–2019
In November 2018,New York State Assemblymember Dov Hikind urged Lander to speak out against Lander's friend,pro-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour,for what Hikind described as her anti-Semitic views,criticisms of Israel,and reluctance to denounce Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan,and "Show us that the progressive movement is not a safe haven for haters."[8][7][51] Lander had defended Sarsour the year prior when some urged that she not be allowed to be the commencement speaker at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Public Health.[51][52] In 2020 he said he had:"traveled to the West Bank to get a glimpse of the horrors of life under occupation and the struggle against 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]
In 2019 Lander admitted to an ethics violation for using his official government position to solicit monetary donations for a progressive non-profit he helped to create,and of which he was Chairman.[61][62] Lander chairs the Council's Committee on Rules,Privileges and Ethics.[63] In his second term on the Council,Lander served as the deputy leader for policy.[2]
2020–2021
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.[64]
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).[65][66][67] The proposal drew intense criticism from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's New York City Department of Social Services,which called it
ham-fisted and reckless,self-defeatingly unilateral and ill-informed,and legally questionable and amateurish:insisting on using a one-size fits all approach for a system that is anything but,and forcing the involuntary rushed transfer of more than ten thousand people into hotels without appropriate services to match,putting individuals with higher service needs,including substance use challenges,at risk in the process.[67]
Lander called DSS's concerns "cartoonish insults."[67] 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.[68][66][69]
Lander said in December 2020 that it was a core ideal of his to "comfort the afflicted,and afflict the comfortable."[68]
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...."[73] He supported removing the statue of Christopher Columbus from Columbus Circle in Manhattan.[73]
Lander 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.[73] 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.[73] Lander received endorsements from the Working Families Party, unions including Communications Workers of America District 1, and various Democratic clubs and community organizations.[75] 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.[76][77][78]
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
Lander defeated Speaker Corey Johnson in the Democratic primary for comptroller and won the general election over Republican candidate Daby Carreras.[79]
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.[80] When the program was not renewed by the New York legislature, Lander said, "It's good that it is not being renewed."[80] Supporters of the tax incentive said it encouraged housing construction and alleviated the housing shortage in New York.[80]
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.[81] 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.[82] 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.[82]
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.[83]
On July 30, 2024, Lander announced that he would run for mayor of New York City against the incumbent, Eric Adams.[84]
On February 17 2025, Lander released a public letter to Mayor Eric Adams threatening to convene a meeting of the Inability Committee if Mayor Adams does not "develop and present a detailed contingency plan outlining how you intend to manage the City of New York."[85]
Lander lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Meg Barnette, a former executive at Planned Parenthood, now president of Nonprofit New York.[86][87] He also served as the 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.[88]
↑ Sanders, Anna (September 13, 2019). "NYC Councilman Brad Lander". New York Daily News. No.Apologizes after violating ethics rules. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
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