NYC Council District 39 Race: Brandon West Seeks Seat

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Voters in New York City's 39th Council District, which extends from the Columbia Waterfront District down to Borough Park, will see seven names on their ballots when they vote in the June 22 primary election.

One of those names will be Brandon West, a former president of the New Kings Democrats and a campaign manager for the Center for Popular Democracy on their national Voting Rights and Democracy program's campaign.

Patch reached out to all candidates in the election to create these profiles. West's responses are below.

Age (as of Election Day)

36

Position Sought

City Council Member for District 39

Party Affiliation

Democratic

Neighborhood of residence

Park Slope

Family

My parents were both public school teachers and members of their union.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No.

Education

Graduate Degree.

Occupation

Organizer (12+ years); Budget Analyst (5 years)

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

N/A

Campaign website

https://westforcouncil.com/

Why are you seeking elective office?

I’m the son of teachers--my father was from Jersey City, and my mother from Newark. I got involved in leftist organizing as soon as my parents let me get out of the house. After college, I knew that I wanted to get involved in community organizing, specifically around democracy and building power for black and brown people in our democracy. I was drawn to community organizing specifically, as opposed to legal advocacy or philanthropy, for example, because I believe change and justice have always come from the ground up. Just as plants grow deep roots into the soil to grow, the wisdom, energy, urgency, and creativity that are critical to the movement come from the communities themselves, ordinary working people who understand policy as a lived experience.

I am also a Black man, which means my very existence is political and politicized. Too often my community is talked about, but not talked to. We are statistics to white lawmakers and policy analysts who make decisions that shape our lives. As a leader in my own right, having been the president of New Kings Democrats and then working on critical issues of democracy at the Center for Popular Democracy, I’m ready to bring my folding chair to the table.
I’ve lived in the 39th District for over a decade. A lot has changed in my neighborhood in 10 years. When people think about Park Slope, a lot of stereotypes come to mind. To be frank, some of those associations are true: there is a lot of wealth out here. But, I can tell you that there is a less visible community here that has no political power, and struggles to make ends meet. There are folks priced out of where their families used to live, there are folks living in underfunded NYCHA buildings just across the district border in the shadow of new luxury developments, and there are big immigrant and BIPOC communities that face ICE raids and scarcity of opportunities.
In the last two years I’ve become even more radicalized. Running for office wasn’t always in my plan. I’m not someone who loves the limelight, to be frank. I see myself as a movement person, who works in collaboration with others.

But, I am just so deeply tired of seeing so many electeds who have good talking points, but are so quick to line up behind weak policy, urban planning intended to make developers a ton of money, and corrupt local party leadership. This is not working because it was not intended to work, and frankly working people know this. We need to throw a wrench in the whole system, and do it now. I just couldn’t stay behind the scenes anymore, so I grabbed a wrench and filed to run for City Council.

I’m running for City Council to represent everyone in District 39--not just those who have money, connections, and access to power--and to bring a Black organizer’s lens and voice to the decision making table.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The most pressing issue facing our district, and all of NYC, is a lack of budget justice. Our budget is a moral document. I have worked for the City’s Office of Management and Budget as well as the City Council Finance Committee as a budget analyst, and my experience showed me that our budget is only working for the wealthy few. We need a New York that works for all New Yorkers. We need to divest from over policing and invest that money back into our communities, including all forms of services that help the most vulnerable and marginalized. These are all the things our communities need, and we need a process to truly engage people in building that out.

Participatory budget is a small part of the budget. We have a $100 billion budget, but that money isn’t going to the people who need it most. We need a People’s Budget that is a year-long process of investing in meeting the needs of all New Yorkers.

I intend to address this issue by defunding $3 billion from the NYPD budget, specifically from headcount, overtime, school safety agents, and capital projects (particularly the most problematic and dubiously legal ones, such as facial recognition software, which was used to target a protester at his own home).

I oversaw the city budget when I worked at City Hall, so I understand the complexities of the budgeting process and I know that defunding the NYPD is realistic. The first shift would be school safety officers, followed by removing NYPD from Homeless Outreach and Subway Diversion Programs. This funding can go to adding more social workers and guidance counselors in schools, truly investing in restorative justice (ensuring that all schools have at least one full-time restorative justice coordinator, expanding the number of community schools, increasing DYCD’s budget (including expanding SYEP, COMPASS, and SONYC slots; expanding the scope of Beacon and Cornerstone services; and expanding the Learning Bridges model to provide permanent, universal, free childcare), and providing subsidies to get people into permanent homes. I think the community should also have an impact on what programs we choose for investment, and support participatory methods of working with my constituents on these priorities. I believe that the sheer scope of the police budget gives us space to create programs that will reduce what we associate with crime.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I set myself apart in three ways: the first is my experience. I have over a decade of experience as a political leader, organizer, campaigner, and government employee. I have been on all sides of the table with a deep understanding and analysis of the system as a whole. I don’t think there are many substitutes for actually having done the work: organizing communities, leading campaigns, and directly informing public policy. While working for the City, I held positions in the Office of Management and Budget and later the Finance Division, where I focused on budgeting for Education and Transportation. These experiences gave me a deep understanding of how city budgets are constructed and negotiated, and the ways in which it reflects the policy priorities of the Mayor and of the Council. Given that the budget is really where the rubber hits the road, I believe this experience will be critical to my being able to effectively advocate for priorities, including and especially creating a more just city for everyone. The second is my values. From the time I was young, I have been involved and passionate about politics, human rights, and the responsibility of each of us to join the struggle for transformative change. In particular, I have been focused on how to make democracy - the defining system and instrument of our society - actually work for working people and people of color, in a way that respects, rather than extracts, from the world around us. The system is not designed to serve us all, and if we want that change we have to demand it. The third is my demonstrated history of challenging the status quo when it is no longer serving the people. As President of New Kings Democrats, I challenged the Brooklyn machine. As co-chair of the local chapter of my union, I challenged my own employers to live their values and provide equal opportunity, pay, decision making power and more in the work we do. My commitment is never to a party or an institution, even those that are saying all the right things, my commitment is to a set of core values and to ensure that these are not just rhetorical flourishes but a blueprint for how we live.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

COVID further underscored the inequities that low-income BIPOC people in the district and citywide were facing prior to the pandemic. These populations were more susceptible to worse outcomes from COVID-19; reports on COVID-19 deaths in NYC show that Black New Yorkers have died at higher rates than any other group, even in areas where they are less than 10% of the population.

We will only create a more resilient city capable of being prepared for further waves of the pandemic if we provide healthcare and robust social services to all people. We have underfunded communities for years, but what we can do is make sure that we have more resources for community based organizations to promote vaccine access to hard-to-reach communities. Also, we should be bringing vaccines to seniors and NYCHA residents to their homes and places of work, so that there is less burden on them; and producing better, clear, consistent, and correctly translated information about access options. We may have future waves of this pandemic, so people also need to be able to miss work in order to quarantine, and often many do not and it leads to additional spread. We need to make sure paid sick leave is available for folks when a surge returns so that we are able to respond quicker to reports of increased cases. When our city shut down, entire industries closed, and the impact on gig workers, the immigrant community, and already struggling residents in the district was significant. For our district to recover, we have to focus on the aging community in our district, and pass a budget that directs support to those most marginalized.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

1- Housing Justice - Housing is a human right for all New Yorkers. We need to build housing for people who need it most, including adopting a Housing First approach, and ending homelessness, once and for all. We are experiencing a tenant rights crisis in NYC, because the developers and the landlords have all the power. We need to strengthen our tenant protection rights in New York City. New York City is in a housing crisis, and the only way out of it is to build more housing. However, the current Gowanus rezoning plan is flawed, and it’s simply not good enough. Much of the plan’s proposed development is in a flood zone, and it proposes building on toxic ground when the remediation of the area isn’t fleshed out. We need funding for folks living in NYCHA, as NYCHA buildings desperately need upgrades. There are alternative solutions for our communities: We need to create a comprehensive citywide plan that will balance citywide needs with neighborhood priorities, and we can do that by creating an independent Office of Community Planning that would provide real technical assistance to communities.

2- Education Justice for All - We need to get kids back in school safely, and we can do that when we invest in ALL of our schools to ensure that they are well ventilated, with adequate spacing, and that schools are supplied with the necessary items to keep everyone safe when they’re back to a fully in-person learning model. However, we had issues in our education system that precede COVID. We need an equitable school system. First thing we need to do is desegregate our schools, because School District 15 is one of the most segregated in our city. We also need to fully fund our schools by paying our teachers a living wage, promoting teacher retention. More teachers is how we decrease our classroom sizes, which is the best measure of student success. We also need an education system that doesn’t use our classrooms as cages. We need to replace police in our schools with more social workers, nurses, librarians, and counselors, so that we can implement restorative justice programs. These are kids, and we need to treat them as such.

3- Public Transit for All New Yorkers - District 39 represents some of the best and worst of New York City transportation infrastructure, and we need to rethink how New York approaches transportation by emphasizing public transit, pedestrian safety, cycling, and deemphasizing car usage and ownership. I’m proposing short-term and long-term solutions in order to make this happen. My short-term solutions are to support Vision Zero, bring back the B71, expand our open streets program, and strengthen and integrate our biking infrastructure, so that it is protected and better used. My long-term solutions are to bring the subway under democratic, city control, invest in city busses far more, and build mass transit infrastructure that’s alternative to cars.

4- Safety beyond policing - Real public safety means investing in communities- not over policing them. When people have their basic needs met, communities are safe. We need care; not cops. More policing doesn’t keep us safe. We need to immediately remove police from our schools, mental health and drug use response, subways, homeless "outreach", public shelters and hospitals. We need to replace them with social workers, nurses, and mental health crises professionals that are trained to de-escalate these types of situations safely. We tried reform; it doesn’t work. Our long-term solution is not the status quo.

5- A Green New Deal for NYC - No challenge we face is more urgent than the climate crisis. I will fight to create well-paying green jobs, end New York’s reliance on fossil fuels, prioritize public transit and cycling over cars, protect flood-prone areas, and bring utilities under truly public control.

6- Healthy New York - The COVID pandemic showed everyone what happens when we systematically divest from healthcare, decade after decade. I will fight for quality healthcare for all, including mental and reproductive care, and compassionate addiction treatment/harm reduction.

7- Opportunity for Working New Yorkers - New York has more billionaires than any other city on earth. Meanwhile, thousands can’t afford a MetroCard. I will fight for labor rights, minimum wage and paid sick leave enforcement, worker cooperatives, and democracy in the workplace.

8 - Building A City Where Arts & Culture Can Thrive - We must create a more equitable and diverse arts and culture industry. Brandon will work to rebuild New York City as a haven for musicians, artists, and creatives by dedicating budget dollars and resources to community arts spaces, independent venues, and everyday people.

9 - LGBTQIA+ Rights Are Human Rights - The LGBTQIA+ community is affected most seriously by homelessness, workplace discrimination, healthcare (or lack thereof) and police violence. This is particularly true for trans women and specifically for trans women of color. I am committed to the continued fight for liberation of all LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers.

10 - Justice for our Animal Friends - My governing agenda is based on empathy for all, including our animal friends. As a City Council member, I will stand up to corporations that profit off the abuse and commodification of animals. Locally, and across New York City, I will fight to reduce and eventually eliminate the unnecessary cruelty we inflict on animals. I believe we can create a New York where human beings and animals safely coexist without exploitation and abuse.
Full campaign platform may be accessed at https://westforcouncil.com/issues.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Being a major part of passing automatic voter registration and campaign finance at the New York State level is my chief employment accomplishment.

But, to really do this job well, you have to push against established power, stand up when it’s not only easy but when it’s hard, and build real coalitions.

As president of New Kings Democrats, I ran for President of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, with a reform slate of leadership meant to challenge the current party’s structure. While it was absolutely a group effort, because I was running as Chair, the crosshairs were on me in a really intense way. We came very close to changing party leadership because our message of what the Democratic Party could be spoke to people. It was a wake-up call to the state of Brooklyn politics, and it also made me realize I needed to get off the sidelines and consider running for office.
Another accomplishment was being a part of the Free Black Radicals, and the Occupy City Hall encampment, which called on the Mayor and the Speaker to defund the police and invest in our communities. It became something incredible. It was also incredibly challenging. But seeing the amount of people learning from each other, building and organizing together was really special. Seeing hundreds of people together to watch the City Council budget process felt like an amazing radical change to civic engagement. While I did experience police violence at that encampment while trying to protect people, something I’ve had to take time to truly process, I’m so proud to have been a part of that action.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

The best advice ever shared with me came from my father. My dad taught me to be a person of my word. My dad always said, “Let your yes mean yes, and let your no mean no,” which is a biblical reference.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I am committed to fighting on behalf of working-class people, while bringing working New Yorkers into the political decision-making process. New Yorkers have been left out of the fold for too long, while being directly impacted by the decisions they’re being kept in the dark about. I am running to represent everyday New Yorkers on the City Council and do it with a level of transparency that we haven’t seen in far too long.