Issues

• Collaborate with teachers, schools and parents to optimize the remote learning experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
• Support a qualitative approach to education – rather than incentivizing “teaching to the test” to meet Common Core or other standards, help teachers meet the unique needs of their individual classes. 
• Increase funding and access for after-school programs to give our kids something fun and productive to do after their classes let out – and help parents who are still at work.
• Add more civics classes to the curriculum, emphasizing the importance of voting in local elections and what it means to be a citizen, as well as encouraging public service. 

• Support resilience planning to address growing threats of coastal storms and flooding, prevent future Hurricane Sandy levels of devastation and combat climate change.
• Work to keep our parks and beaches clean, including increased enforcement of litter and pollution laws where necessary.
• Require large buildings to cut emissions and support carbon neutrality and clean electricity goals.

• Champion modern updates to our infrastructure, such as municipal broadband to deliver high speed Internet to residents at lower costs.
• Expand access to health care, both in terms of coverage and facilities.
• Make sure adequate help is available for individuals with mental health challenges.
• Support treatment rather than incarceration for non-violent drug users.
• Use the City Council’s oversight authority to investigate city agencies that have failed us.
• Aggressively monitor locations of potholes, unpaved roads, flooding and graffiti and see that these issues are swiftly remedied.

• Having experience with staffers with housing insecurities, we have a personal stake in classifying housing as a human right.
• Create truly affordable housing to ensure every New Yorker has a roof over their head.
• Shift priority from dangerous warehouse style homeless shelters to assistance with sustainable housing.

• Promote more community policing and ensure officers are able to serve their own communities.
• Establish more incentives for officers to report bad actors amongst them.
• Explore new strategies to reduce the likelihood of unnecessary conflict and expand the range of services that a 911 call can provide our residents.
• Work with local NYPD officers to ensure successful community relations with the residents of our unique neighborhoods.

• Work with partners across all levels of government to build the QueensRail, reducing commutes to and from midtown Manhattan by up to 45 minutes for the working men and women in our district.
• Expand citywide ferry service, introducing larger vessels, identifying more local stops and integrating with the mass transit system.
• Support innovative “big ideas” such as smart traffic lights to help us reach our destinations faster and reduce engine idling.
• Advocate complete removal of the Cross Bay Bridge toll, the only intraborough fee in the city, which unjustly divides us and stifles economic growth.

• Provide neighborhoods notice and the opportunity for a public hearing before a controversial facility can be established.
• Ensure community boards are truly representative of their neighborhoods.
• Improve Participatory Budgeting by ensuring projects the neighborhood wants are fully vetted and can be completed prior to their appearance on the ballot.

• Work with small business partners to identify ways we can help them prosper, such as by removing red tape and creating greater tax incentives.
• Set robust local hiring goals for major projects in contracts with the city.

• Support our veterans by conducting more outreach via the Department of Veterans’ Services, including ensuring non-combat women veterans are provided resources available to them.
• Work with partners in state government on reciprocity so that veterans licensed to professions out of state can practice here.