A WSR Interview With the Upper East Side Candidate for Manhattan Borough President

By Gus Saltonstall

Election season is almost upon us in New York City.

The primary elections will take place on June 24 this year, with early voting starting on June 14. Among the races on Upper West Side ballots next month will be the Manhattan Borough President position.

Among the candidates in that race is City Councilmember Keith Powers, who represents a neighborhood West Side Rag generally avoids any mention of: the Upper East Side.

Powers is competing for the Manhattan Borough President spot against Upper West Side State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and Calvin Sun, a first-time candidate who works as a doctor. You can read more about the responsibilities of the Manhattan Borough President position — HERE.

The Rag interviewed Powers last week about the race, including questions related to his positions on a variety of topics, such as housing, public safety, vacant storefronts, bike lanes, and more.

Answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

INTERVIEW

WSR: It is a joke of sorts that there is a friendly rivalry between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side, but in what ways do you think the neighborhoods are similar?

Powers: This is Manhattan. We all share a deep passion for this amazing city and the tremendous borough that we live in. We share a park. We share many cultural institutions that we all enjoy. We’re all fast-talking, fast-walking, subway-riding New Yorkers.

WSR: You would be going from a city councilmember to a borough president. How would you navigate representing a larger group of people, as there are similarities between Manhattan neighborhoods, but also unique differences?

Powers: We are all motivated by the same few things. To live in a good, affordable neighborhood, to have a safe place to live, and to make sure the borough president is delivering on its promises of opportunity to every single neighborhood.

We have talked on this campaign about a few big ideas that unite all neighborhoods. One is driving down the cost of living and putting out housing ideas that can generate more housing and bring down the cost of housing. We’ve talked about something that connects all of our neighborhoods, our bus system, and improving and boosting buses throughout the borough that connect both the east side to the west side, and uptown to downtown. We’ve talked about specifically pointing out ways that city government can better provide services to every single neighborhood and leave none behind, something like an early childhood education program for this borough that would help new parents with the affordability crisis in the city. Our plans unite every neighborhood and lift them up, while also recognizing the uniqueness of each one.

Prior to winning the race for New York City Council District 4 in 2017, Powers served as chief of staff to Assemblymember Jonathan Bing, campaign manager to State Senator Liz Kreuger, and also held a position for many years on Manhattan’s Community Board 6.

WSR: You mention the housing issue. What do you see as the right balance between new development and the preservation of historical elements of the borough?

Powers: A good elected official understands the needs to preserve and save the special places that make a neighborhood, while also tackling a housing crisis that is driving working families out of the city and recognizing that a 1.4 percent vacancy housing rate is an unhealthy place to be for the Upper West Side or any other neighborhood. We always have to find that balance, but there is a difference between finding that balance and letting parochial interests dominate the conversation, so I’m always in favor of finding a balance between preservation and building new housing. But we have to recognize the challenge of a housing crisis, where the average rent is over $4,500 a month in the borough.

WSR: What are some of those ways you could look to create new housing?

Powers: The first is to empower the Borough President’s Office to play a much more central role in how we plan and grow housing in the borough. Many west siders often feel trapped in that conversation of what are we preserving and what are we building. We should have a more proactive conversation through the Borough President’s Office to talk about how we plan to grow and what sort of amenities we have to add in as we grow.

Frankly, most west siders believe in both, in preserving the great places that make the neighborhood special, but also wanting to see new growth happen. The second way, something I’ve been championing, are office conversions all throughout the borough that certainly include more of midtown and downtown, but if you want to generate more housing for all New Yorkers, you should be using every tool in our box. I’m championing a rezoning in Midtown South right now that would generate lots more affordable housing. Three, is using public sites, we’ve seen some creative proposals to take libraries and build new housing by incorporating new housing and a library in the same site. We’ll always be looking at using creative ways to turn existing public space into new housing.

WSR: The vacant storefront issue seems connected in some ways to the housing issue. How would you look to both better support existing small businesses, and also fill these storefronts that sit empty for years at a time?

Powers: My dad was a small business owner. He owned a restaurant on the east side when I was growing up. His story was the story of millions of New Yorkers who walked down the block from their house and decided to rent a storefront and open up a business, and what I have seen throughout my life is that those type of small-business owners are committed 24/7 to making sure their business can thrive. They can’t be in the business of also having to deal with a city government that throws a litany of alphabet-soup acronyms at them every time someone tries to open a business.

The process of opening a business in New York City is months longer than it should be. Restaurants are at the top of that list, but it’s other businesses too that are waiting for the Department of Buildings to show up and do an inspection so they can get open, waiting for the FDNY to sign off on paperwork, waiting on the Department of Health to show up. We can accelerate that process. I want to use the Manhattan Borough President’s Office to do that.

We should also continue to look at our outdoor dining to make sure it is working for the restaurants. We should be looking to reduce the fines and fees associated with running a business. But the key to this is making it much easier to open a business from the beginning, and that’s getting some of these agencies out of the way.

WSR: To the topic of public safety. How do you make New Yorkers feel safer?

Powers: There are two big pieces of this. We still have to continue to tweak laws in Albany that have been bringing down our city’s ability to tackle the public safety crisis in this city. The second is headcount in our police precincts. In far too many, we are seeing an undercount of how many officers we need to do the basics of policing in our neighborhoods. We’re seeing response times going in the wrong direction, we’re anecdotally talking to Manhattanites who feel like it’s taking too long to get attention, and we have a broad mandate to tackle both quality of life issues that are popping up and to make sure we are going up against serious crime.

The 20th-Precinct story is one that we are seeing across the city. Some resources go in and some go out. All of our local precincts need a more steady, reliable headcount, so they can deploy resources to the hardest hit places. The last thing I’d say is, leadership is really important, and I think with the new commissioner, Jessica Tisch, we’ve seen someone who is bringing things in the right direction. Crime numbers are coming down, and I think we should consider keeping her on no matter who the next mayor is. She’s proven that leadership and deployment of resources really matters.

WSR: Within public safety is the electric bikes topic. Are you in favor of expanding bike lanes in Manhattan? And also, are there more enforcement needs for electric vehicles and bikes?

Powers: Bikes without question need more enforcement. Any room I walk into right now, including on the Upper West Side, we are hearing from people that they feel this trepidation at being a pedestrian walking on the street right now, both from vehicles and from the influx of bikes passing by every day. So, we definitely need more enforcement, but part of that is having safe infrastructure, so we are planning our streets out in the appropriate way. It’s more dangerous if you have no idea where people are coming from, the bike lanes give you a safer sorting out of the street, but that does not excuse running red lights or going on sidewalks, or any of the behavior that is putting people in danger. Without question, we need better and more enforcement around bikes.

My proposal is, get every single one of these delivery companies licensed with the city of New York, just like we do for for-hire vehicle companies, and then you can have a process where you have better oversight and regulation over the people working for them, and then you can start thinking about more manual and automated enforcement. With complicated issues like this, it is an all-of-the-above strategy, and you need all the city agencies sitting at the table and participating in a conversation about how to make our streets safer, and I think that is a great role for the borough president.

WSR: What do you see as the role of government in supporting our parks? Both the larger ones that have conservancies and the smaller green spaces across Manhattan?

Powers: What I tell people is, your local park is your Central Park. The park that you walk down the block to, that is your Central or Riverside Park. Those are the places that you choose to take refuge in from your everyday life; whether you bring your kids or just go to enjoy it yourself, it is essential to fund every one of those parks. I support the 1 percent for parks proposal of our budget, which would give them a baseline understanding of what their funding would be every year. But, we also have to champion our big, keystone parks. Central Park is more than just a West Side or East Side park, it is the entire city’s park. It is a huge asset to this city, and a beautiful space for us New Yorkers to take refuge. So, we have to make sure we support the conservancies. As borough president I’m going to champion in the budget the 1 percent for parks proposal, and employ my own capital funding to make sure our small and amazing big parks get the funding and upgrades they need.

WSR: While some improvement has taken place, schools continue to struggle coming out of the COVID pandemic. How would you look to help Manhattan schools continue to rebound?

Powers: The key to that is a couple of things. We are seeing head counts start to go up again. We have to make sure the education that students are receiving is high quality. I’ve spoken to a lot of families who left during the pandemic because they were nervous about the future of the city. We have to restore confidence to anyone who is considering leaving or moving back in, convince them the city is a safe place, and tackle the affordable housing crisis. So, first make sure we are boosting our schools, two is tackling the cost of living, and three is give them confidence in the neighborhood that they live in.

WSR: Any personal favorite places on the Upper West Side?

Powers: I was sad because the restaurant, Abigail’s, just closed and that was a place I used to go to all the time post campaigning. You will find me at any given morning at the 72nd Street subway. I’m at the 79th Street farmer’s market on most Sundays, which I think is one of the best markets in the entire city. Of course, I have to give a shoutout to the American Museum of Natural History, which is one of my favorite spots as well.

WSR: Any final message to Upper West Siders, especially those who might not have been familiar with you?

Powers: I’m a lifelong New Yorker who has fought for affordable housing throughout my career, and tried to create a much safer Manhattan. I’m ready to be the Borough President for the West Side and the entire borough that we live in. I’ve been endorsed by my friend, former Upper West Side Councilmember Helen Rosenthal, who I’ve worked with on a number of issues in the past in the City Council. My message to West Siders is it’s time that we bring more common sense to Manhattan and have a champion for the entire borough.

Along with Rosenthal, Powers has been endorsed by Rep. Nydia Velazquez, Rep. Adriano Espaillat, former Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Rep. Ritchie Torres, multiple councilmembers and other electeds, worker unions, and political organizations. You can check out the full list — HERE.

For more information on Powers’ campaign you can check out his website.

Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.