NYC Council District 39 Race: Doug Schneider 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 Doug Schneider, civil rights attorney who serves as a district leader for the Brooklyn Democratic Party and has previously served on the District Committee for Lander's participatory budgeting.

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

Age (as of Election Day)

45

Position Sought

City Council, District 39

Party Affiliation

Democratic Party

Neighborhood of residence (i.e., East Village, Astoria, etc.)

Park Slope

Family

Joni Kletter (Spouse) Micah Schneider (son-7 years old) Evie Schneider (daughter - 3 years old)

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

Yes.

Education

JD, Cardozo Law School; BA, Union College

Occupation

Attorney

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

Democratic District Leader, 44th Assembly District

Campaign website

https://dougschneiderbk.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

I am running for City Council because our community is struggling with the economic impact from Covid-19, with an unaccountable police force that must be reformed, with traffic violence approaching an all-time high, and with a public school system in crisis. We need leaders who are prepared to lead from day one. We need to elect leaders committed to providing excellent constituent services. Councilmembers are the voice of their constituents. They must be problem solvers; provide constant, clear & transparent communication; and be responsive to every member of the community.

I will bring to the City Council the lived experience of a public school parent, struggling to balance my work as a lawyer with my responsibility to handle remote learning for our son. I will bring to the Council my experience of both owning a small business and representing small businesses throughout the district; and, I will bring the Council my years as a transportation safety advocate. I will be dedicated to being a problem solver for the residents of the 39th Council District, centered on my belief that the job of government is to meet people where they are.

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

Over the last ten years, the 39th Council District has seen an epidemic level of traffic violence. We suffer from dangerous street designs that cause unnecessary crashes, and our City’s disregard for the condition and accessibility of our sidewalks and crosswalks too often make it impossible for the disabled, elderly, and people pushing strollers to get around our City. Trucks making mid-day deliveries tie up our streets and create dangerous conditions for drivers, pedestrians and bikers. Our mass transit is inaccessible to thousands of New Yorkers, and our biking infrastructure is deficient.

Doug’s plan focuses on eliminating the traffic behaviors that put bikers and pedestrians at risk; significantly expanding automated enforcement measures; increasing sidewalk & crosswalk safety and accessibility; expanding open streets, and ensuring public transportation is 100% accessible for everyone.

We need to eliminate the traffic behaviors that put bikers and pedestrians at risk such as midday truck deliveries, double parked trucks, and the constant obstruction of bike lanes. We need to expand the use of red light and speed cameras to slow down traffic, and we need to make our sidewalks & crosswalks safer and more accessible, especially for people with mobility issues. We need to create more permanent, multi-use open streets supporting outdoor dining, playstreets, and public performances. Finally, we need to ensure public transportation is 100% accessible and efficient for everyone.

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

I decided to run for City Council because when I looked at the issues that I thought were at the forefront of both the 39th Council District and the City as a whole, they were the issues that I had been working on professionally and as an advocate for a long time. As a street safety advocate, I successfully lobbied the City to make necessary repairs to the Ocean Parkway bike lane and was part of the successful effort to renew the speed camera program. As a former Trustee of the Park Slope Civic Council, I helped prevent the Pavilion movie theater from being turned into luxury housing.

As a small business owner, and someone who represents small businesses throughout the district, I understand the burdens that NYC puts on our small businesses and what must be done to help them not just survive, but thrive. As a civil rights attorney and criminal defense attorney, I have taken on large companies that discriminate against their employees, and the NYPD. As a parent who has supervised remote learning for over a year, and an activist working with a diverse coalition of parents from all across NYC, I know first-hand how remote learning is hurting our children’s academic progress, social and emotional development, and their mental health. I know it is vital that our schools fully reopen, and stay open, with the support services students need to recover from the trauma of Covid-19. I have a record of progressive leadership and getting results.
Finally, I believe that my focus on and commitment to providing exceptional constituent services, above all else, sets me apart.

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

I think our local officials did an excellent job and showed real leadership responding to COVID-19. More than that, I am proud to live in a community that responded by caring for each other; by making sure people were housed and fed; and, by making the personal sacrifices that kept our friends and neighbors safe.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

In addition to street safety, which I detailed above, my other top issues are education and economic recovery.
As a public school parent — one who has spent over a year supervising remote learning — I know New York City must commit to equitably investing in our public schools, and our students, to fulfill our promise to provide a free, quality education for all New York City children. As an employer, I have seen, hired, and worked with, amazing graduates from our CUNY colleges and graduate programs and want to help CUNY students thrive.
I am passionate about the need to fully and safely reopen schools, and keep them open, by eliminating policies that are not supported by science and by creating a comprehensive pandemic playbook to make sure our kids are never locked out of schools this long ever again. I will fight for a historic investment in our schools, to modernize our facilities to address the harm that remote learning has done to our children’s social and emotional development and mental health. I am committed to eliminating the conditions and policies that make our schools among the most segregated in the country and getting all police out of our schools. Finally, I will not only fight for CUNY students, but will create pipelines from CUNY to the workplace, keeping local talent local.

My economic recovery plan focuses on supporting small businesses, closing the gender wage gap, and preparing workers for the jobs of tomorrow. The economy we rebuild must be equitable, racially and gender inclusive, and green.
Small businesses are the beating heart of our neighborhoods. COVID-19 has exacerbated an already existing crisis for small businesses. We need to reduce the burdens NYC places on small businesses or they won’t survive. Every dollar a small business can keep in its pocket is one step closer to survival. To do this, we have to address the biggest liabilities of most small businesses including taxes, rent, and the cost of water and utilities.
For a full recovery, we must address the gender wage gap for all women. From childcare or elder-care, women do an average of 75% of the unpaid-care work and are driven out of the workplace or forced to work less than full-time hours because of unpaid care responsibilities. The misalignment of school and work schedules has a disparate impact on working mothers.
We need to reduce the gender imbalance in child care responsibility and the attitudinal biases that cause it. As a husband and father who almost entirely stopped working to supervise remote learning, I am committed to helping change the antiquated view of childcare as a women’s issue and supporting policies that will equalize the workplace.

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

When developers came to Park Slope with a plan to convert the Pavilion Movie Theater into luxury condos, I did not tweet about it. Instead, I joined with my fellow Trustees of the Park Slope Civic Council and the amazing leaders of the 14th Street Block Association to oppose the development. Along with these activists, and other concerned, community members, I showed up and testified against it at the Landmark Preservation Commission. We did not give up. We did not give in. Finally, the developer gave up. Now, instead of one luxury condo, we have a brand new Nighthawk Cinema and a newly opened Ample Hills Creamery. Preserving and creating these community spaces is far more beneficial than one luxury condo.
Similarly, when I noticed dangerous conditions on the Ocean Parkway bike lane, I did not shrug my shoulders. Instead, I put together a power-point presentation about the dangerous conditions and presented it at the next Community Board 7 meeting. Within six months, the Department of Transportation had addressed the problem.
I am a doer, not a talker.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

The most important values in life are empathy for others, service to the community and commitment to family.

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

As the Democratic District Leader for the 44th Assembly District, I have shown what kind of leader I will be. I have shown that when I say I believe in something, I fight for it.
I forced out a 40+ year incumbent and have been one of the strongest voices for transparency and reform. Since being elected, I (1) have taken on the Democratic Party bosses and the undemocratic ways that Brooklyn Democratic Party operates; (2) I have fought against the corrupt way we elect judges in this state and supported qualified judges who would increase much needed diversity on the judiciary, including a Muslim woman who would have been the first Supreme Court Justice to wear a Hijab; (3) I have challenged the Board of Elections about its refusal to provide increased language access at the polls; (4) as a member of the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s Task Force on Gender and Gender Identity, I am proud to have fought against and denounced the Party’s exploitation of the TGNCNB community and to have helped pass an amendment to the Party rules that removed the barriers to TGNCNB participation in the Party.
Also, I make my own pickles.