New York Metropolis Council member Shahana Hanif talking at a rally at Metropolis Corridor in New York Metropolis on January 30, 2024.
(Melissa Bender / NurPhoto through AP
A whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} from actual property builders, finance executives, and the Israel foyer are flooding into New York Metropolis’s District 39 council race in an try to unseat Councilwoman Shahana Hanif.
Hanif, the daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, grew up in Kensington—a neighborhood inside her district referred to as Brooklyn’s Little Bangladesh—which is residence to numerous supply staff and rideshare drivers. She has been an outspoken critic of the companies funding her opponent, similar to Uber, together with sponsoring laws that raised the minimal wage of drivers. She, would develop entry to sick time, and would stop deactivating drivers with out simply trigger.
Elected in 2021, she grew to become the primary girl to characterize the district and the primary Muslim on the Metropolis Council. Now, she is on the middle of a litmus check in New York politics: Can billionaires purchase native elections and oust legislators with a confirmed progressive observe document?
—Peter Lucas
Peter Lucas: New York Metropolis as soon as boasted sturdy public applications like free school via CUNY and a strong transit system. However that’s since been rolled again, and the town is presently suffering from Eric Adams’s disinvestment and austerity. How are you preventing to manipulate otherwise?
Shahana Hanif: I’ve been an unapologetic opponent of Eric Adams’s austerity, and from him on down, management in our metropolis is in disaster. All the pieces from housing to childcare and important companies feels very out of attain for on a regular basis New Yorkers. It’s evident that this administration doesn’t prioritize working folks and households and is OK with peeling off investments from public faculties, childcare, parks, and a lot extra.
As Progressive Caucus cochair, I consider that our battle on the Metropolis Council is to serve working households, make sure that we preserve a test on the mayor, and spend money on applications like Homes Now, Homes for Generation, which was considered one of our campaigns that revived two present Housing Preservation & Improvement (HPD) applications for reasonably priced housing. It is rather clear that the mayor is under no circumstances within the materials wants of our constituents.
PL: Housing is a serious a part of your platform and the work that you simply’ve finished within the workplace. Are you able to speak just a little bit extra about your method to housing coverage? And may we help insurance policies that construct extra housing that’s nonetheless reasonably priced and accessible, as an alternative of being a possibility for actual property corporations to line their pockets?
SH: New York Metropolis is in an reasonably priced housing disaster and addressing the scarcity of housing inventory is crucial. I’m not of the point of view that if it’s not all reasonably priced, we are able to’t construct something. And I don’t assume that this may be solved solely via market-rate improvement.
Take the Arrow Linen rezoning. It was a manufacturing facility for restaurant linens, and after a couple of century, the household determined they had been going to transition the constructing to residential, which required a change in zoning. We ended up securing a 10-story constructing with 100 reasonably priced models out of 240 whole. Not everybody goes to be a zoning legislation knowledgeable, however that shouldn’t exclude you from shaping how we clear up this disaster.
PL: One other facet of housing is tenant protections—issues like lease management and implementing fines on predatory and negligent landlords. How does that slot in?
SH: As a tenant organizer, I used to arrange public housing residents at Queensbridge. In my place on the council, I’ve championed a lease freeze for rent-stabilized residents. With the Progressive Caucus, I helped introduce Chi Ossé’s FARE Act, which is able to change lives. I battle unhealthy landlords in my district and encourage residents who attain out with a difficulty pertaining to their landlord to file a 3-1-1 case, as a result of it’s essential that these are lodged. We’ve been organizing to move the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act and the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act.
We have to defend all rent-controlled housing inventory. The Hire Pointers Board, which the mayor appoints a majority of—beneath Adams, now we have seen the rents spike. I need folks to have the ability to keep of their houses and never have to decide on between whether or not they’re saving for lease or childcare or groceries.
One other huge situation with constructing reasonably priced housing is that the company that’s tasked with that, HPD, is lagging. They aren’t a strong metropolis company that’s going via the entire proposals that had been authorised for reasonably priced housing as a result of our administration has not prioritized totally funding and staffing it.
PL: You’ve the backing of main labor unions and staff’ rights teams within the metropolis. Specifically, you’ve got been an advocate of supply staff and Uber drivers. Why is it so vital so that you can have the backing of labor—and likewise to again labor?
SH: I grew up in Kensington—Brooklyn’s Little Bangladesh—which is made from majority working-class folks, lots of whom are Bangladeshi Muslims who drive and ship all day simply to have the ability to make lease, pay for groceries, and help their households. Their fights on the job have been my fights on the council, the place I’ve pushed for the town to implement a good minimal wage for drivers and supply staff.
In 2021, I went on a starvation strike with the New York Taxi Employees Alliance, fellow Metropolis Council member Shekar Krishnan, and State Meeting Consultant Zohran Mamdani [who is currently running for mayor]. In direction of the top of the primary week, we bought arrested for civil disobedience, and I’ll always remember the a whole lot of drivers who confirmed up of their taxis that day. These staff had been preventing for this for years, and I do know folks inside the group who’ve suffered because of their debt, together with these pushed to suicide. After 15 days, we secured tens of millions in taxi medallion debt mortgage forgiveness.
Presently, now we have a invoice supporting restitution for the wages Uber stole from staff. I authored laws that might develop paid sick time for gig staff. I’ve prioritized staff who haven’t any authorized standing or are within the course of, together with the Employees’ Invoice of Rights, which mandates that each one employers in New York Metropolis present their staff with sturdy labor protections. That laws was supported by the Central Labor Council, which partnered with us though the employees we’re preventing for won’t but be unionized. My historical past of preventing for staff is one thing I’m very happy with, and it’s why 12 unions have endorsed me. My opponent doesn’t have one.
PL: Have you ever confronted backlash for this?
SH: Uber has given my opponent a ton of cash due to the paid sick time invoice—and billionaires like James Dolan are spending huge due to my laws that might ban facial recognition know-how at locations of public lodging [which Dolan instituted at Madison Square Garden].
However, past the precise laws, my document a progressive who has championed issues like reasonably priced housing, staff’ rights and labor protections, and local weather justice, additionally makes me a goal.
PL: Former chair of the Committee on Immigration, you’ve got been vocal about defending immigrants, particularly as assaults on them beneath Trump—in coordination with Adams—intensify. Are you able to inform me about your work on safeguarding immigrants’ rights, together with the New York City Trust Act?
SH: I’m the proud daughter of Bangladesh immigrants. My mother and father weren’t residents after I was rising up, so the battle for immigrant rights can also be my household’s story.
The New York Metropolis Belief Act, which now has 30 sponsors, is laws that might permit for a personal proper of motion for anybody who has been a sufferer of unlawful collusion beneath our sanctuary legal guidelines. New York is a sanctuary metropolis, however we’re nonetheless seeing ICE, with the assistance of native legislation enforcement and backing of our mayor, choose folks up virtually every day. It’s an enormous rights violation, and hopefully this invoice will cease the collusion.
PL: You had been among the many first metropolis councilors to endorse the ceasefire in Gaza, and have continued to name for an finish to the genocide. Some folks would possibly ask, why is it vital for a neighborhood politician to touch upon a global situation?
SH: I known as for a bilateral ceasefire, and sadly since then, the violence has solely gotten worse. In contrast to different cities, New York has nonetheless not adopted a ceasefire decision, which my colleagues and I pushed for. Why are we so scared to name for peace and acknowledge Palestinians as folks? In my district, folks of all faiths are involved and need to see an finish to the bloodshed. It’s additionally vital to notice that our cash is funding this genocide. We desperately want a ceasefire, which suggests a launch of all of the hostages and the prevention of any extra US {dollars} going to bomb Palestinian kids.
PL: Once more, we’ve seen this peak the curiosity of huge cash, significantly within the type of help from Israeli teams like Solidarity PAC.
SH: I’m not shocked. Their coalition is a right-wing Israeli PAC that desires to pit us in opposition to each other—and it contains individuals who have opposed progressive causes for years.
PL: A whole lot of the cash is coming from folks with a historical past of supporting the GOP, together with Len Blavatnik, who donated 1,000,000 {dollars} to Trump’s inaugural fund. Your opponent, sarcastically, has written concerning the affect of huge cash politics. What do you make of her willingness to just accept their help and their eagerness to again her
SH: To begin with, I’m embarrassed. My opponent has not as soon as mentioned something about rejecting darkish cash or their connection to Republicans. The cash that’s being spent on her behalf actually reveals the curiosity of firms and billionaires—together with folks with ties to the Trump administration.
Personally, I don’t know any billionaires. Our metropolis deserves representatives who perceive their struggles and can battle for them, not somebody who’s purchased and offered by the very corporations that exploit them.
She has introduced herself as a pro-democracy candidate and spoken about cash in politics, however her marketing campaign’s funds mirror the other. So, as a constituent, I’m simply confused. Who’re you actually? We want sincere leaders, and proper now, it’s actually exhausting to see who she is.
PL: What’s your marketing campaign’s antidote to this cascade of company spending?
SH: I all the time attempt to make selections that deliver folks into our motion. Now we have a ton of volunteers, from “Jews for Shahana” to our Bangla operation in Kensington, and our grounded recreation is wonderful. Individuals know this can be a high-stakes race, and I’m so proud that the message we’re sending is: We don’t need outdoors cash, as a result of no amount of cash goes to cease us from preventing for a greater, extra compassionate metropolis that helps staff, not squeezes them. Our coalition is huge, various, and it’s one that may efficiently battle again in opposition to Adams and Trump.
