City Council Member Rafael Espinal Jr. (D-Bushwick, Brownsville, Cypress Hills, East New York), who has announced he is running in the special election early next year to fill the city’s public advocate seat, launched his Campaign Website today to connect with all New Yorkers
Espinal, 34, has a plan to inspire millennials, hold the city accountable, sustain our environment and create a more liveable New York City.
New Yorkers checking out the campaign website at https://www.rafaelespinal.nyc can get information on the issues and Espinal’s plans to address: quality of life, greener NYC, healthier NYC, education, culture, transportation, housing and NYCHA, labor, and women’s health.
“In the spirit of achieving transparency, it is important New Yorkers know my views and my plans to create a more livable New York City. But, it is also important they know I have a platform where they can reach me and let me know their thoughts directly. I want to hear from New Yorkers from all neighborhoods, all walks of life, on the problems their facing and how the future Public Advocate can be there for them,” said Espinal.
Espinal was born on the cusp of Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant to working-class immigrants of the Dominican Republic in 1984 and is the third of six children. He attended public schools in East New York and grew up in Cypress Hills — one of the most disinvested neighborhoods in New York City, at the time.
Since first getting elected in 2013, Espinal was the top champion legislator in repealing the notoriously racist and bureaucratic “No Dancing” Cabaret Law. He also wrote the legislation creating the city’s new Office of Nightlife & Night Mayor to help protect cultural spaces and address local community concerns.
Espinal was also the prime mover behind the East New York mandatory inclusionary housing rezoning, which pumped millions of dollars in the neighborhood and created a large number of affordable housing in his district and opportunities for new manufacturing space as well as investments in roads, schools, parks and homeowner protections to fight the wave of gentrification.
Moving forward, Espinal is working to foster and protect community gardens and commercial urban farming across the five boroughs because locally grown food and space for community is vital to New Yorker’s health and well-being.
Espinal also believes cannabis reform is an absolute must as the city and state has been behind on the conversation and countless people of color have been affected by it.
The lawmaker is also involved in reducing single use plastic and leading the fight against plastic straws in the city as well as the scourge of bottles in parks and beaches. He is also a supporter of healthy school lunches and mindfulness / meditation in all classrooms, building on his work to require kosher and halal food options in public schools so no child goes hungry.
Finally, Espinal plans to hold the city accountable as he has on NYCHA, through the East New York Neighborhood Plan, and the L train shutdown.
With crises in housing, affordability, climate and transportation– not to mention the Trump threat– now, more than ever, we need an accountable local government for a more livable city.
