COVID hit New York hard. When we build back, we can’t repeat the mistakes of the past and build a city that just works for the well-connected and well-resourced. We need to build a city that truly works for all — fighting for real living wages, universal healthcare, workers rights, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, civil rights, freelancer rights, and a plan that puts unions at the forefront.

As the national campaigns director at MoveOn, I’ve been at the forefront of all of those fights — running a team that mobilized millions of MoveOn members in saving the Affordable Care Act, standing with Dreamers to reinstate DACA, battling against the Trump tax giveaway to the 1%, raising hundreds of thousands for abortion funds, fighting tooth and nail against the nominations of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, and forcing meaningful measures to confront gun violence. 

Not all of this work will happen on the local level. I’m committed to using the megaphone of the office, and my national organizing experience, to advocate for, and ultimately deliver, big change on the state and federal level.

Justin has spent his career fighting to bring on progressive change — first as the founder of Living Liberally, a social network that connected progressives from across the US, and later as the National Campaigns Director at MoveOn. He fought and defeated Trump’s agenda in Washington and is looking to bring that organizing experience to our local government.

Justin believes that we can make substantial legislative change to deliver real victories for workers—as the City Council has in the past with Paid Sick Leave, the Freelance Isn’t Free Act, and measures to protect workers against unfair termination. We can go further, mandating fair pay from big businesses and companies who have city government contracts, spending more on higher touch work readiness job development programs, strengthening protections for freelancers, expanding access to healthcare, and defending the rights of all immigrants.

The city that works for everyone respects our fundamental civil rights and civil liberties—from reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights to privacy rights to rights for incarcerated people, and more. As a former board member of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Justin has worked with leaders across these issues—and has a long term commitment to making this a city where everyone belongs and everyone can thrive. 

Together, we can do this:

Together, we can:

• Use legislation, advocacy, purchasing power, contracts and land use to demand a high level of investment in our workers from big corporations, institutions, and employers doing business in our city

• Support efforts that tackle the monopolistic advantages of Amazon and other online retailers—reducing their structural advantages that allow them to abuse workers, hurt small business, and dominate consumers

• Fight for good paying union jobs in every industry and common sense union protections, like protecting the right to organize and strike and protecting the rights of whistleblowers

• Reinvent our workforce development programs to invest in higher touch skill building that provide career pathways, like the HOPE program, rather than work readiness programs that serve as a barrier to accessing needed benefits

• Fight for a >$15 minimum wage to meet increasing cost of living in NYC

• Use the megaphone of the office to advocate for increased EBT/SNAP payments adjusted to the cost of living in NYC, incentivize supermarkets to offer specific discounts for EBT/SNAP, advocate for expanded EBT/SNAP access to retail outlets and school supplies, and ensure that all EBT/SNAP cardholders are offered free admission to all NYC controlled cultural institutions

Together, we can:

• Fortify the Freelance Isn’t Free Act by blacklisting any companies that commit wage theft or other abuses, holding hiring companies accountable, strengthening the Office of Labor and Policy Standards, and increase fines and penalties for wage theft

• Require companies that accept public funding or grants to pay their employees and independent contractors—including musicians and other artists—a fair wage

• Finance a portable benefits fund through employer contributions—ensuring that freelancers do not lose benefits just because they’re moving in and out of employment

• Increase funding for the enforcement of workplace abuses including, but not limited to, wage theft, overtime abuse, and workplace harassment

Together, we can:

• Have NYC use its purchasing power to negotiate against big pharma and big insurance — driving down costs for all

• Prioritize funding for implicit bias trainings across the hospital system

• Expand access to healthcare with low-cost local clinics and community health centers

• Champion the NY Health Act and Medicare for All and use the megaphone of the office to organize for radical change on the state and federal level

• Follow the lead of midwife-, doula- and women-of-color-led groups like Ancient Song Doula Services, which contributed to the NYS Task Force on Maternal Mortality, and the national Every Mother Counts which has taken in New York’s Choices in Childbirth

• Facilitate the development of more birth centers and commit that the right to a safe abortion, if wanted, will never be infringed

Together, we can:

• Impede ICE’s access to hospitals and courthouses as well as refusing to comply and coordinate with ICE 

• Champion efforts to support non-citizen voting in local elections

• Elevate language justice as a key component of every government agency’s responsibility and invest substantially in resources for multilingual learners

Together, we can:

• Defend the rights of protesters across New York City

• Expand the District 15 Integration Plan to contribute to the larger work of desegregating our school system

• Update and enforce a Data Privacy Bill of Rights for all New Yorkers 

• Advocate for modernization of the Board of Elections

Together, we can:

• Champion equitable education for all by increasing building accessibility, maximizing transportation access, and fully funding all programs

• Commit to make my Council Office a supportive resource for parents seeking to get their students IEPs or getting appropriate services; expanding the ASD NEST program originally piloted in our district; and promoting social-emotional learning that supports students with disabilities.

• Reform Access-A-Ride to be a more useful service for the mobility of the disabled as recommended by the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled

• Improve access to the DRIE rent freeze program for the disabled, incentivize landlords to make existing apartments accessible, and expand the right to counsel to individuals suing their landlords to create or maintain accessibility

• Ensure that Open Streets improve access for everyone and do not create sidewalk impediments

• Eliminate admissions costs to NYC controlled cultural institutions as well as institutions that receive NYC grants or funding for New Yorkers with disabilities in addition to free admission for one caregiver

• Expand education around the 55-A employment program while prioritizing long-term job training

• Expand city financial and technical support to make independent and small arts, community, and non-profit spaces accessible to New Yorkers with disabilities