From cold spells in Texas, to wildfires in California, to rising sea levels here in NYC, it’s clear that we’re facing a climate crisis. It’s time we start treating it like one.

In my role as national campaigns director at MoveOn, we supported the fight to push cities and states to opt into the Paris Agreement when Trump pulled out, amplified Youth Climate Strike's demand for a climate debate during the democratic presidential primary, and were early supporters of the Green New Deal.

I know how to pragmatically create coalitions that actually deliver victories for our climate — and not just talk about it. We need to think local, and generate national change.  This starts with a Green New Deal for NYC that invests in green buildings, transit and green jobs; but also includes making safer streets for all ages, and cleaning up the toxic legacy of the Gowanus Canal.

I’ll use my platform to relentlessly advocate for ambitious climate policy. We need big ideas to solve this crisis, and big ideas to be a world leader in environmental policy. And I’ll never accept a dollar from the fossil fuel industry or let their lobbying cloud my judgement.

But we can’t just look to the future. We need to invest in communities that have faced historic discrimination and environmental racism. The rewards of a green NYC can’t just go to the wealthy few. We will build a more equitable city in the process.

Together, we can do this:

Together, we can:

• Go big on rooftop solar by starting a broad, grassroots campaign for rooftop solar, starting a “public option” for community solar for renters, and use new financing tools to provide zero-upfront cost solar for apartment and commercial buildings

• Immediately implement and enforce the Climate Mobilization Act, with substantial funding to retrofit buildings quickly

• Decarbonize NYC’s own fleet of vehicles as quickly as possible, and lay the groundwork for decarbonizing all public and private transportation across NYC

• Divest every last penny from fossil fuels and other environmental bad actors

• Dramatically expand existing green job training programs, beginning with the implementation of Renewable Rikers—the conversion of Rikers Island from jail complex to a green energy center and job training center

• Support the Five-Borough Resiliency Bill, that will create a plan to ensure every waterfront neighborhood is protected from rising sea levels, violent weather, and coastal erosion brought about by climate change

Together, we can:

• Prioritize creating safe, livable, and complete streets through better design and enforcement. This starts with a number of actions I’ve proposed for the 39th Council District, including making at least one open street permanent in each neighborhood, piloting a pedestrian-first zone modeled after successes in other dense cities, and making neighborhood bike networks that are safe for bikers from ages 8 to 80  

• Make it easier for everyone to have a bike by piloting on-street, secure storage for bikes, make it cheaper for carless households to purchase e-bikes, and extend Citibike to the rest of Kensington

• Rethink our approach to traffic enforcement, removing it from the NYPD, fully funding and expanding the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program, using existing technology to augment investigations into crashes, and decriminalizing minor pedestrian and cyclist infractions including jaywalking

• Increase the expense budget and maintenance for our parks to keep them accessible, clean, maintained and programmed

• Integrate parks and open spaces fully into a holistic approach to neighborhood zoning and planning, and guarantee that every child lives within walking distance to a playground

Together, we can:

• Substantially invest in communities that have suffered from harmful environmental policies, including ensuring the City takes responsibility for its part of the Gowanus Canal cleanup

• Ensure that there are net zero new combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to the Gowanus from new development and put in place local oversight of an Environmental Justice Special District for the Gowanus

• Strengthen the City’s approach to eliminate lead poisoning 

Together, we can:

• Have government purchases of food, especially by the DOE, come from sustainable sources and reinvest in nutritional education

• Champion NYC’s Zero Waste goal by 2030, bring back composting, and create a program to go door-to-door to accelerate uptake of compost, e-waste and textile recycling

• End heaps of trash on the sidewalks by piloting containerization on commercial streets.

• Support the networking of cooperative economy initiatives, helping link together food coops, reuse centers, mutual aid groups, and buy nothing groups, among others to create further economies of scale for the cooperative economy and find ways that there can be more public support for these groups