A Conversation With Shaun Abreu: Running for Reelection to UWS-Morningside Heights City Council Seat

The 2025 New York City primary elections are almost here, and West Side Rag is speaking with candidates running for the City Council District 7 seat, which includes the Upper West Side north of West 92nd Street, along with Morningside Heights and much of West Harlem.

City Councilmember Shaun Abreu is the incumbent; he is challenged by fellow Democrats Edafe Okporo (read WSR’s interview with Okporo here), Jomo Wiliiams, and Tiffany Khan. As of the beginning of June, there were no declared Republican candidates for the seat.

West Side Rag is seeking to interview all four candidates and present their views before voting begins. Today’s interview was conducted by phone in late May with Abreu, who has held his city council seat since 2022. Prior to that he worked as a tenants’ rights attorney and served as deputy campaign manager for Mark Levine’s successful 2013 run for city council. Abreu also previously held a seat on Community Board 9.

Answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

WSR: Could you start with pointing to specific accomplishments from your first term in office?

Abreu: In the last three-and-a-half years, my biggest priorities have been centered around housing, sanitation, sustainability, and overall well-being. When I first ran for office in 2021, I ran on a message of providing housing stability for families facing eviction. When I grew up in Washington Heights, I was evicted from my home. My family eventually got back on our feet after my mom landed a job at Zabar’s, where she still works today, and my dad as a janitor at the Port Authority, where he also still works. Later in life I became a tenants’ rights attorney, representing families like my own in housing court, and like so many families in my district. That’s why one of my proudest moments in office was securing $40 million during my second year for public defense funding. For me that’s very important. We want to make it easier for tenants. When they’re facing eviction, and they are 200 percent below the poverty line, getting access to adequate representation in court is incredibly important.

I’m also second on the bill to ban automatic broker fees. We passed legislation that says if a landlord hires a broker, they should pay for the fee. Another proud accomplishment is the $5 billion we were able to secure for the “City for All” initiative. There was the “City of Yes” that we were able to pass to make it easier in every neighborhood to build just a little more housing. Our vacancy rate is nearly 1 percent, so every neighborhood has to do its fair share. That $5 billion is going to help us build more infrastructure as we build more housing citywide.

In terms of what I’ve done in the last three years with sanitation, I’ve containerized trash in almost 80 percent of my district. That means if you had trash out on your sidewalks, that will no longer happen, the trash will be placed in a container. In places where we’ve implemented the trash containerization, rat sightings have gone down by 60 percent. On June 1, the entirety of Community Board District 9 became subject to all trash having to be in a container, so we expect the progress we saw in West Harlem will expand to the entire community board district. I also have a bill that would require all citywide trash at our public schools to be containerized. I also have legislation that would containerize all trash citywide.

WSR: And specific projects you have your sights set on in the future, if reelected?

Abreu: There is currently a proposal in the works to build more housing at 100th Street and Amsterdam that would renovate the library and the adjacent healthcare facility into a state of the art health facility and library, with housing on top. It’s an opportunity to leverage city-owned property to create the affordable housing we need.

One of my biggest goals is to also make sure we containerize trash south of 110th Street. To do that, it will require that we pass this citywide containerization bill.

WSR: When it comes to new development, what do you see as the right balance between creating new housing and preserving the fabric of the neighborhood?

Abreu: We always have to operate on balance. In Morningside Heights for instance, there is the rezoning of the historic district, but at the same time there is also a zoning proposal on the table that would add density to our local transit hubs around 110th and 125th streets. That’s why I’m very proud of the passing of City of Yes, because it recognizes that every neighborhood in the city needs to do more to get us out of this housing crisis. That being said, it doesn’t mean everything in our community is historic. When there are opportunities to build new housing, we have to leverage that in a way that gets us the most for the folks who need it the most.

WSR: It’s difficult to speak about new housing in Morningside Heights without talking about the role of Columbia University. Recently the school built two large towers on Claremont Avenue with zero affordable units. Do you see Columbia as having a responsibility to build affordable housing in the community? Or new development of any kind still supports the neighborhood?

Abreu: Columbia most definitely has an obligation to the community. I’ve been working hand in glove with the Morningside Heights Community Coalition. For instance, Columbia already has a rent-stabilized housing stock and we’ve had meetings with the school and with community groups to demand that they preserve their current rent-stabilized units for those already living in the units, as well as for those who will live there in the future. Second, we had also demanded that Columbia use its new towers on Claremont to include affordable housing for people in the neighborhood, and to my dismay, and to the dismay of people in the community, they didn’t do that.

What’s been so difficult with Columbia these past few years is their changing of leadership. It’s been four presidents in something like two years. There is no sense of predictability with them and it’s making it much harder for the neighborhood to negotiate. Columbia advertises themselves as “Columbia University in the city of New York,” so they are very integrated in the community, and we can’t treat them as independent. They owe an obligation to the community they benefit from. Their lack of commitment to housing and providing affordable housing to the community is a message that they don’t care about us. They have a lot of work to do.

Abreu has been endorsed by many elected officials and Democratic clubs, including U.S. Reps. Jerry Nadler and Adriano Espaillat, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, City Comptroller Brad Lander, State Assemblymembers Linda Rosenthal and Micah Lasher, and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, along with the New York Working Families Party, West Side Democrats, Broadway Democrats, Three Parks Independent Democrats, and the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club. You can see the full list – HERE.

WSR: A different lane of the real estate topic is vacant storefronts. We continue to hear about the number of empty stores in the 90s and 100s on the Upper West Side. How will you look to support small businesses and find a way to fill these storefronts?

Abreu: The loss of Silver Moon Bakery was gut-wrenching. The loss of Absolute Bagels was gut-wrenching. I’ve been working closely on these issues with Assemblymember Micah Lasher. Unfortunately, on the City Council, we do not have control over taxes for our commercial properties, so Micah has legislation in Albany for which I am putting in a council resolution to support. This would basically address the tax incentives for commercial landlords, in order to make it more attractive for them to continue to lease to these businesses that we cherish. When Absolute Bagels disappeared, Micah and I were working the phones, we shared our community’s concerns, even Zabar’s was willing to come to the table with the owners of Absolute and acquire them, but Absolute Bagels wanted to disappear. And of course we’re very grateful for them, but they did not want to come back.

WSR: On the topic of public safety, what do you do when a constituent walks into your office and says they don’t feel safe in the neighborhood?

Abreu: Any time a person doesn’t feel safe, we must treat that with high priority, regardless of what any statistics say. I support more police officers on the beat, especially in our subway system. We also have to address the roots of the problem. We need more psychiatric beds, we need more programs for our young kids to establish more afterschool activities to make sure they are using their time in a productive way. I also support involuntary commitment of people who cannot help themselves.

We also need supportive housing in terms of public safety. People can’t talk out of one side of their mouths and say we’re in a mental health crisis, but on the other side talk about how we’re not going to allow supportive housing. It’s a combination. We need to be willing to do all of these things.

WSR: And the topic of electric vehicles?

Abreu: In terms of the e-bike situation, I don’t support criminal enforcement. We don’t criminalize cars for going through a red light, we ticket them. I think most definitely we need to ramp up enforcement of electric bikes and scooters through civil penalties. I also support the licensing and registering of e-bikes. And another way to go after the reckless e-bikes is by going after the [delivery] apps. The apps have access to when employees are flouting traffic laws, so we can go after the apps for when the deliveristas flout the law. Every option needs to be on the table here because I do understand that my constituents care about this issue, and we need to be laser focused on it.

WSR: What is the best way a councilmember can support schools in the district?

Abreu: We need to keep giving schools the support that they need. On the west side, I’m proud to say as part of participatory budgeting Booker T. Washington Middle School just won new bleachers for their school. In terms of school funding, we need to make sure we are in compliance with small class size laws. We need to make sure through our oversight power in the city council that the Department of Education is coming into compliance to secure the funding that comes along with that new requirement.

What’s also very important is early childhood literacy, which is why City Reads is a huge priority for me. I was held back in the 4th grade because I failed my state reading exam. To me, the science of reading is the only real way to teach kids how to read, and that’s through sounding out the words. But also an importance on reading comprehension and reading fluency as well, how the words work with each other. This is an area that is very important for my own personal experience, but also if our kids can’t be at reading grade level by grade 3 or 4, there’s a possibility that we lose them forever. That’s why we need to make sure reading is important. More reading coaches. More support of the teachers. We can’t set our kids up for failure.

So far this campaign, Abreu has raised $108,368 from 654 donors. It is the largest amount of money raised by any candidate in the District 7 race.

WSR: A favorite place on the Upper West Side or in Morningside Heights?

Abreu: I used to work at the public library at 113th Street when I was in high school. I love that library. It’s where I learned to build community. It’s the place I got started in public service. It was the place where lots of older adults came to me not knowing how to use Microsoft Word or how to send an email or include an attachment, and I could show them how to get it done. It is where I started to build relationships with a lot of people that lived in that neighborhood. These are relationships that really shaped me. The library gave me my first dose of public service and it exposed me to what I wanted to do. I met people every day from the neighborhood, who had their own stories and cares.

WSR: And finally, a 30-second pitch to voters on why they should vote for you?

Abreu: I was born and raised in District 7. I went from being evicted as a child to becoming a tenants’ rights attorney and helping keep families in their homes. In the last three years, we’ve brought in more than $34 million for our parks, we are containerizing trash, reducing rat sightings, bringing in curbside composting, and we have also added free legal services for families facing eviction, and are investing in universal 3K. I hope to count on your support.

You can find out more about Abreu on his campaign website — HERE.

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