One of New York’s most iconic actors, Robert De Niro, has thrown his support to Julie Menin in her bid to become a member of the City Council.
The Menin campaign announced on Thursday that the Oscar-winning actor produced a video supporting the city’s former census director’s campaign for the 5th Council District seat. The district, which has been represented for the last eight years by Ben Kallos, covers the Upper East Side’s Yorkville, Lenox Hill, Carnegie Hill, Roosevelt Island, Midtown East, Sutton Place and El Barrio in East Harlem.
In the 30-second video, De Niro talked up Menin’s experience in helping to rebuild Lower Manhattan following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as chair of Community Board 1 and founder of the nonprofit Wall Street Rising. That experience, he told viewers, makes her uniquely qualified to help New York bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic.
