The immense financial and social disruption caused by COVID-19 serves as a stark reminder of how we need to rethink every element of government and do all that we can to make our communities stronger. And those are not just words to me — I’ve already laid out a number of plans to get started on Day 1 to lift up the economic and physical well-being of our communities. They include strategies to protect frontline workers, keep children attached to childcare and schools, protect the homeless, and lift up minority and women-owned businesses.

I’ve also laid out a sweeping plan to address the biggest driver of unaffordability — housing. I’ll build a new generation of social housing that’s actually affordable to those who need it most by setting my universal affordable housing plan in motion across the five boroughs, establishing a city land bank and community land trusts to develop real affordable units on city-owned land, while prioritizing housing for homeless families. At the same time, I’ll implement my vision for universal affordable childcare for children ages 0 to 3-year-old, “NYC Under 3,” minimizing the sky-high childcare costs that nearly equal rent for most families.

I’ll also work to get small businesses back on their feet, create green and well-paying jobs, and train New Yorkers for the jobs of the future. Part of that includes making CUNY community colleges free for all, so that today’s displaced workers can get the training or certificates they need to prepare themselves for the jobs of tomorrow.

In short, we need to ensure we don’t open the same way we closed — rife with economic and social inequities that led to tragedy for too many. Equity, environmental justice, and a sustainable future are the through-lines of my agenda for City Hall.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-releases-new-data-profiles-of-frontline-workers-and-calls-for-protections-amid-covid-19-pandemic/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-releases-recommendations-to-safely-reopen-new-york-city-schools-amid-the-covid-19-pandemic/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/as-winter-approaches-comptroller-stringer-calls-for-direct-support-to-help-new-yorkers-experiencing-homelessness-move-off-the-streets-into-shelter-and-housing/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-analysis-85-percent-of-m-wbes-report-they-will-be-out-of-business-in-six-months-due-to-economic-distress-of-covid-19-pandemic/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-proposes-sweeping-universal-affordable-housing-requirement-for-all-new-construction-in-the-city/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-proposes-landmark-nyc-under-3-plan-to-expand-affordable-child-care-access-to-new-york-city-working-families/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-proposes-save-main-street-initiative-for-small-businesses-fighting-for-survival/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-proposes-free-tuition-at-all-cuny-community-colleges-and-overhaul-of-new-york-citys-workforce-development-strategy/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

A study by my office in the early days of the pandemic revealed that 19% of frontline workers are non-citizens — they are heroes, and should not be excluded from any crisis relief or safety net programs, now or in the future. I have repeatedly called to fill gaps in the social safety net for undocumented and other excluded New Yorkers since the onset of the pandemic — from cash assistance and unemployment insurance, to an emergency relief fund, and a specific $25 million dedicated fund for emergency food programs. Going forward, we should use the federal funding, especially what is FEMA reimbursable, to create a state-level excluded workers income replacement fund.

In terms of gig workers, I have long advocated for rights and protections for independent workers, and was a supporter of the Freelance Isn’t Free Act and testified in support of its passage. As Comptroller, the city’s chief fiscal officer, I know well the tremendous contributions of freelance and independent workers to the New York City economy and the importance of promoting and protecting this crucial sector, and I’ve incorporated policies that support independent workers into a number of my economic analyses and policy reports.

These policies include expanding unemployment, healthcare, and all safety net programs to all freelance workers, supporting state legislation to broaden NYS DOL’s wage theft enforcement authority for freelancers, and creating new affordable housing and workspaces such as industrial spaces to fit individual, communal, commercial, and residential needs of freelance workers.

Under my watch, the city will redouble outreach and workers’ rights education to New Yorkers of all backgrounds, identify and stop repeat violators in their tracks, and work in partnership with worker organizations and the Council to creatively expand on existing protections through legislation.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-releases-new-data-profiles-of-frontline-workers-and-calls-for-protections-amid-covid-19-pandemic/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

A Stringer Administration would prioritize struggling New Yorkers in our policies — particularly in housing and childcare, two main drivers of unaffordability that are pushing New Yorkers to the brink.

We can start by acknowledging that for too long, the city has created goals around the number of housing units needed to be constructed, but failed to consider the level of affordability needed, fueling speculation, gentrification and displacement.

I believe the city should establish a needs-based model to serve those at risk of becoming homeless or those who are homeless themselves. Our first step should be getting shovels in the ground to develop affordable housing on some 2,500 vacant lots owned by the city, and setting them aside for those who are extremely low and very low income. The City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and other agencies have needlessly sat on these lots for decades. I would create a New York City Land Bank and work with Community Land Trusts to transform these lots from neighborhood blights into 100%, permanently affordable housing for New Yorkers in need.

In addition, I will require that every as-of-right development across New York City set aside 25% of their units to those making 60% of AMI or less. This will help to desegregate New York’s wealthiest communities and provide thousands of units of Universal Affordable Housing.

NYC Under 3 is my plan to deliver universal affordable childcare to all New Yorkers regardless of immigration status from birth to 3-years-old. As mayor, I would invest hundreds of millions of new dollars in childcare with the aim of lifting up and guaranteeing living-wage jobs for the care workforce — comprised overwhelmingly of low-wage women of color — and easing the financial burdens of securing paid care for low- and moderate-income families with children.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/

https://stringerformayor.com/plans/housing-affordability/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-proposes-sweeping-universal-affordable-housing-requirement-for-all-new-construction-in-the-city/

https://stringerformayor.com/plans/children-education/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-proposes-landmark-nyc-under-3-plan-to-expand-affordable-child-care-access-to-new-york-city-working-families/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

We need an all-levers approach to close next year’s budget gap while minimizing the impact on city services, taxpayers, and the amount of debt service the city will incur later on. We need a grand bargain in which everyone plays a part — but we also must prioritize New Yorkers most in need and ensure our budget is not balanced on the backs of workers.

As Comptroller, I’ve spent 7 ½ years pushing the mayor and City Council for budget efficiencies particularly in city agencies. My experience has uniquely given me a roadmap to order a 3% cut across all city agencies to save roughly $1 billion, without layoffs or a hit to vital services, by cutting back bureaucratic spending and spending on outside consultants. The city can draw down approximately $1 billion from our budgeted reserves and approximately half-a-billion dollars from the retiree health trust. To truly right-size spending and root out waste and inefficiency on an ongoing basis, I would return to the practice of routine Programs to Eliminate the Gap (PEGs), which the de Blasio Administration has abandoned.

We need massive amounts of help to support not just the city’s ongoing COVID-19 response, but for transportation, public housing, education, health care, childcare and paid family leave, affordable housing and more, and as mayor I will continue to fight for every dollar. To do that, we must create a more progressive tax system that raises taxes for those who have prospered during the pandemic and on companies that reaped huge profits from Republican tax cuts. It’s common sense and only right.

In sum, by using each of the tools at our disposal in a limited and balanced fashion, we would avoid relying on any single one of them to an extent that would be harmful to the city.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-scott-m-stringer-delivers-testimony-on-the-proposed-2021-2022-new-york-state-executive-budget/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

Just as we must put need at the center of our policies in housing, childcare, transportation, and so much else, so should we prioritize racial justice. The next mayor of this city has to do more than say the right thing — they have to back up their progressive words with progressive deeds because these next four years will set the future for our next generation.

One of the most critical areas for equity and accountability is in how the city allocates its own dollars on procurement of goods and services. As Comptroller, one of my first acts was to appoint the first-ever Chief Diversity Officer, charged with evaluating and improving the city’s partnership with certified businesses owned by women and people of color (aka M/WBEs). After the Comptroller’s office created this role, our own office improved spending with M/WBEs, from 13% of all contract spending to 50%.

As mayor, I will expand the role of the Chief Diversity Officer in every agency to drive diversity and equity accountability more broadly. In that same spirit, I support the use of racial impact studies and audits to ensure city policymaking — such as the development of affordable housing — does not perpetuate or exacerbate racial disparities, but closes gaps and advances justice. All policy must be crafted and based in community engagement, with all stakeholders at the table. That’s why I’ve partnered with the Community Service Society in so many of my proposals, plans, and reports in the past and will continue to do so.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/making-the-grade/reports/making-the-grade-2020/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

Massive student debt levels are a major economic development challenge for our city and our nation, and I am optimistic that the new Biden-Harris Administration will take meaningful steps to forgive student debt, especially for low-income students. But we cannot wait for Washington to act. That’s why making CUNY community colleges tuition-free is a cornerstone of my workforce development approach. My office released a sweeping plan to overhaul and modernize the city’s approach to job training, job placement, and education to reflect the evolution of work, break down systemic barriers that have historically excluded women, immigrants, people of color, and first-generation college students from higher-wage industries, and bring our city forward from the COVID-19 economic recession.

In an important contrast to previous recessions, the last year has crucially impacted low-wage and service jobs, leading communities of color and low-wage workers to bear the brunt of the consequences. Many jobs have been permanently eliminated. Helping displaced workers in the restaurant, retail, accommodations, building, and personal services industries to gain access to education, training, and jobs has never been more vital.

One way to do that would be to expand CUNY’s successful Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) program, which provides extensive personal, academic, and financial supports. Sometimes all students need is some guidance on how to avoid debt in the first place — through scholarships and grants that they may not know exist — and ASAP has been extremely effective at providing that advice.

As mayor, I would also push Albany to expand New York State Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) funding from eight semesters to ten semesters and make it available year-round, recognizing the realities of working students and the need to give students more time to complete their degrees.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/jobs/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-proposes-free-tuition-at-all-cuny-community-colleges-and-overhaul-of-new-york-citys-workforce-development-strategy/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

A MetroCard should unlock the city for all New Yorkers — but if cost is prohibitive, our transportation system is failing. As the Community Service Society showed years back, one third of poor and low-income New Yorkers have struggled to afford bus and subway fares.

I’ve supported the Fair Fares program since it was first advanced by the Community Service Society and have held the mayor and City Council accountable for their execution on the program as well. I stood with CSS’s David R. Jones and transportation advocates in January of 2019, to demand the mayor detail plans to roll-out the program and get distribution to New Yorkers, despite the city’s own delays. When the city slimmed the program down from its original scope, I demanded a revamp on behalf of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers living below the poverty line who the city cut out.

With ridership on MTA buses and subways now at historic lows due to the pandemic, there has never been a better time to try and expand Fair Fares to more people. The system will not recover without riders, and there is no better way to jumpstart that recovery than by making it easier and more affordable to purchase a MetroCard.

Policy Statements
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-stringer-fair-fares-metro-cards-per-ride-20181226-story.html

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-times-up-for-city-to-detail-fair-fares-plan-for-low-income-bus-and-subway-riders/

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-stringer-deblasio-fair-fares-delay-20190102-story.html

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-fair-fares-rollout-becoming-an-indefinite-delay-for-hard-working-new-yorkers/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-delivers-testimony-on-fiscal-year-2020-executive-budget-to-the-new-york-city-council-committee-on-finance/

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-fair-fares-finally-on-track-20200118-me4upm5hnzhe5lqc7zvwpxmja4-story.html

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

As mayor, I will build affordable housing that is actually affordable to working people and New Yorkers on the brink, including the one-third of shelter residents who go to work every day. Too much of our so-called affordable housing today is built for families making $80,000 a year or more, and it’s not working.

We need to be targeting more of our resources towards extremely low and very low income families, those making $58,000 a year or less for a family of three (two parents working minimum wage jobs). But that’s just a start. As Comptroller, I have laid out specific plans to end the 421-a tax giveaway and re-invest those dollars in building more affordable units; to create a Land Bank/Community Land Trusts to turn city-owned vacant lots into 100% affordable units; and to triple from 5% to 15% the set-aside of new units for homeless families. Finally, my Universal Affordable Housing plan would require that every single new residential development in the city, in every neighborhood, set aside 25% of all units for affordable housing.

At the end of the day, we also need to recognize that our homelessness crisis and our housing crisis are not two separate challenges — they are one in the same, and the sooner we acknowledge that and stop addressing them in silos, the sooner we can make real progress. Building more affordable housing for people in greater need will also drive greater results in our quest to eradicate homelessness and provide safe, stable housing for all New Yorkers.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/housing-affordability/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-proposes-sweeping-universal-affordable-housing-requirement-for-all-new-construction-in-the-city/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-citys-housing-plan-leaves-behind-435000-of-new-yorks-lowest-income-households/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

NYCHA, homelessness, housing — these are not separate issues and should not be addressed in silos. As a former housing organizer, I understand that the public housing and homelessness challenges in our city are products of decades of policy failures from all levels of government to build the housing we need. That ends on my watch.

I’ve proposed a new “housing first” vision: to build universal affordable housing that is actually affordable to working people and New Yorkers on the brink, which I’ve explained in the previous question. When you build more affordable and supportive housing for those most in need, you help to keep struggling New Yorkers in their homes and bring New Yorkers from shelter to permanent, healthy, homes too. Preserving NYCHA and improving living conditions must be a pillar of preserving affordable housing across the city. Strengthening tenant protections, tackling real estate speculation, enforcing the law against bad actors will also help to expand stable housing. Increasing the value of rent vouchers to reflect actual market rates will help families find housing. And, the contraction in the hotel industry caused by COVID offers a rare opportunity for the city to purchase and convert hotels to safe, affordable housing or shelter for a broad range of New Yorkers.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/housing-affordability/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-proposes-sweeping-universal-affordable-housing-requirement-for-all-new-construction-in-the-city/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

The New York City Housing Authority is the most important source of deeply-affordable housing in the City. Unfortunately, decades of disinvestment, mismanagement, and neglect threaten the future of NYCHA itself. Today, the conditions in NYCHA apartments are often harrowing: lead paint, leaking roofs, broken elevators, and toxic mold. The longer we wait to fix the problems, the worse they get. In the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the world, that is simply unacceptable.

As Comptroller, I’ve audited NYCHA 15 times — more than any other comptroller — and I have a roadmap to NYCHA’s dysfunction. I also know that to stabilize NYCHA for the long term, the federal government has to step up with funding for capital repairs. But our city cannot afford to wait for Washington to realize the importance of public housing. We need to act now, and urgently, to save this precious resource.

As mayor, I will reroute hundreds of millions from the Battery Park City Authority to NYCHA. NYCHA’s needs are enormous and it will take sustained commitment at every level of government to address them. The Battery Park City Authority, the agency created to oversee the construction and maintenance of that Lower Manhattan neighborhood, currently runs a surplus of roughly $45 million a year. If ten years of that income were packaged together, the resulting $450 million could be bonded to finance NYCHA’s emergency capital and maintenance needs, until the federal government meets its financial obligations.

In addition, waste and mismanagement are themselves a chronic drain on precious resources, and my audits show to fix a full range of problems: from heating and boilers, to leaky roofs, to the lead paint crisis. Most importantly, we need to democratize NYCHA and create more opportunities for residents to have a voice in their own future.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/housing-affordability/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-calls-on-nycha-to-protect-tenants-during-winter-months-amid-covid-19/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-demands-answers-on-nycha-playgrounds/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/press-releases/comptroller-stringer-to-nycha-fix-heating-failures-and-boiler-inspection-problems-now-before-residents-are-left-in-the-cold/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-and-nycha-announce-new-level-of-transparency-accountability-and-public-disclosure-in-nycha-contracts/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-op-ed-in-the-new-york-post-fixing-nycha-is-up-to-the-mayor/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

Our city’s leadership used to understand that the private market alone will not deliver the housing we need. In the 1930s, Mayor LaGuardia created the first public housing in the nation, and built a legacy of permanent, deeply-affordable housing that exists to this day. In the 1950s and 60s, the Mitchell-Lama program resulted in over 100,000 homes for middle-class families. Together, these efforts gave generations of New Yorkers a secure, affordable home and a path to prosperity.

Unfortunately, in recent decades, our city has taken the backseat to developers — and slid our city into crisis. As mayor, I will invest in a new generation of social housing — permanently affordable, dignified and safe. I will end broken tax breaks like 421-a that utterly failed to address housing needs — and only widened inequality. I will require that 25% of all new units are truly affordable to working people. I will create a NYC Land Bank and turn every city-owned vacant lot into 100%, permanently affordable housing. And I will grant tenants of distressed buildings the “right of first refusal” and the opportunity to purchase buildings before the speculators can.

We also need to recognize that even when the government steps up to help build low-income housing, the need for continued financial support to pay for maintenance and other costs goes unaddressed — effectively undercutting the subsidy program to begin with. The result is fewer deeply-affordable units being built, and substandard living conditions being allowed to fester. As mayor, I will develop a system of operating subsidies to fill the gap between revenues and ongoing costs, to make sure repairs are not deferred and that affordable homes stay that way.

Policy Statement
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/housing-affordability/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

New York City is America’s front door, and we welcome people from all over the world to come and make their home, without fear and in an environment that recognizes the hardships they may have faced prior to arrival. This must include healthcare, where systems must be inviting and receptive to their needs, allowing them to engage proactively in healthcare, rather than waiting until they are acutely ill or deferring care altogether. We will expand investment at H+H into trauma-informed healthcare and other delivery models tailored to the needs of people with unique cultural needs and histories of violence or trauma. We will also center the patient experience in our healthcare system and ensure that patient rights are advocated for.

As mayor, I will drive an expansion of NYC Care, a program that guarantees low-cost and no-cost services to New Yorkers who do not qualify for or cannot afford health insurance and offers the opportunity to allow more New Yorkers to get quality care. I will put more resources into NYC Care and into the Get Covered NYC campaign, and will ensure that community outreach is culturally and linguistically competent, expansive, and addresses racial and social disparities in access to care, including due to immigration status.

I will also push the state to expand access to its Essential plan so that all New Yorkers, regardless of immigration status, can unlock more comprehensive healthcare services. I will expand investment at H+H into trauma-informed healthcare and other delivery models tailored to the needs of people with unique cultural needs and histories of violence or trauma. We will also center the patient experience in our healthcare system and ensure that patients know their rights.

Policy Statement
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/healthcare/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

New York is one of the most unequal cities on Earth, especially when it comes to public health. Taking the subway from the Upper East Side to Central Brooklyn corresponds to an 11 year drop in life expectancy. Chronic illness, obesity, substance use, mental health, healthcare access and healthcare quality are all unequally distributed and experienced in our city, particularly among communities of color.

We know the causes of these disparities — chronic underinvestment, the legacy of structural racism and redlining, and bias in our healthcare system.

We also know that communities with more primary care facilities have better overall health outcomes. Primary care is the front-door to the health system: it’s a trusted, community resource that can encourage routine engagement and preventive care and break down access barriers. As mayor, I will leverage a wide range of capital instruments, including debt financing, public and private loans, and grant dollars to prioritize the construction and renovation of primary care facilities in all underserved neighborhoods that fall below the NYC average of 9.2 primary care providers per 10,000 people. Special emphasis will be placed on expansion of the NYC H+H Gotham and other FQHC programs. We also need to invest in workforce training to rid bias from healthcare.

I will also invest in tele-health. We have seen an explosion in tele-health utilization during COVID-19, which has been instrumental in maintaining access to care during the pandemic and stay-at-home orders. As mayor, I'll work with the state and federal government to make tele-health reimbursement flexibilities permanent, and expand tele-health services in the H+H system.

Last, public health is and will be the through-line in my policymaking, from housing to transportation and the environment — to tackle disparities at the root, not just the symptoms.

Policy Statement
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/healthcare/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

Our safety net public hospital system, NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H) is the best in the nation, and yet consistently operates an annual deficit of over $3 billion. This is because of barriers to access, lower quality care (especially primary care), and poor billing and cost recovery infrastructure. Government support will always be vital, but we need to transform H+H into an efficient healthcare system that provides the highest quality care and incentivizes people to choose and to remain with H+H providers. As mayor, I will:

- Support efforts to improve MetroPlus and efforts to retain its members within the H+H system by improving the member experience and providing streamlined access to care; improve wait times and call center quality; expand access to care navigator services and community health workers; and continue investment into digital technology that will encourage MetroPlus members to seek care at H+H, thereby retaining reimbursement revenue within the public system.

- Improve billing and cost recovery infrastructure at H+H, especially for outpatient services that are driving H+H’s deficit.

- Work with the state to improve reimbursement from Medicaid and other payers, which drives 75% of the deficit.

- Establish clear financial and operational accountability for H+H operations, benchmarked against goals used by other safety net systems, that can be used to drive deficit reduction over my first term.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/healthcare/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-investigation-finds-insufficient-preparedness-and-coordination-hindered-nyc-hh-response-to-covid-19-pandemic/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

For starters, we can pass the Patient Medical Debt Protection Act, which CSS has rightly championed. The legislation, introduced last year by Assembly Member Richard Gottfried and Senator Gustavo Rivera (S6757A/A8639A), would bar charitable hospitals from charging such high interest rates and improve transparency for patients.

We all know how it goes – you choose in-network providers, you ask a lot of questions before going to the doctor, and still you end up with huge bills that are basically impossible to decipher.

We need to end surprise billing, and require hospitals to provide one clear and comprehensive bill for all services, ensure that all patients have access to financial assistance that hospitals are required to provide by state law. And we need to hold consumers harmless for surprise out of network bills caused by plan misinformation.

As mayor, I would also use the bully pulpit to encourage hospitals to find inspiration in Northwell Health, which earlier this year promised to stop suing patients for medical debt during the pandemic, and agreed to discontinue thousands of lawsuits it initiated in the first nine months of the pandemic. Northwell should be commended, and my message to other hospitals would be that it is never too late to do the right thing.

Policy Statement
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/healthcare/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

Our country has the highest maternal mortality rate of our peers — and this crisis disproportionately hurts Black women. Black women giving birth in New York City are 8 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. It’s a shameful disparity that is driven by many factors, including anti-Black racism, as well as disparities in access to preventive healthcare and prenatal care, and an overall lack of investment in maternal health.

As a city, we need to draw on and elevate the expertise of community-based doulas and midwives — many of whom are Black women and have been filling gaps in prenatal care services without any public support. I would work to expand access to these community-based caregivers, making sure we are reaching Black women early, providing individualized support during pregnancy and labor, and providing culturally competent care through the postpartum period. A critical step both in reaching New Yorkers who are among the most vulnerable to pregnancy-related complications, and in addressing economic insecurity among community-based providers, is to ensure doulas are adequately reimbursed by Medicaid.

We should invest in maternal health workforce training and rid our public health system of biases that result in disparate treatment, diagnoses, and outcomes. Moreover, our hospitals need to be better prepared to address life-threatening complications from childbirth, ensuring standardized protocols are applied equally for all patients, regardless of race or background.

And we must reevaluate how our health system intersects with the legal system, which can push New Yorkers away from care they need. The recent step by H+H to end the drug testing that has entangled Black women and their families in the child welfare system, and led some Black women to delay accessing prenatal care, was long overdue and should serve as an example.

Policy Statement
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/healthcare/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

We need leadership that understands the NYPD is not an autonomous agency and cannot be allowed to act with impunity. As mayor, I will appoint a police commissioner that shares my progressive values and is not afraid to make change. Beyond that, one of the most effective tools we have to prevent police violence is to reduce police interactions with New Yorkers, particularly in communities of color, and remove police from a broad array of frontline responses to which they are poorly suited, including in our schools.

We also need real, independent oversight to hold the department and individual officers accountable for misconduct. The police should not police themselves, and the NYPD Commissioner should not be the sole arbiter of discipline. That is why I support stripping the NYPD of that role and empowering the CCRB to have final authority to impose discipline — and to investigate and prosecute a wider range of claims, including of racial profiling.

In June, I was the first elected official in the city to present a tangible plan to begin scaling back the department’s multi-billion dollar budget. My plan moved more than $1 billion away from the NYPD over four years, and I believe additional cuts can and should be made. More recently, my office released a detailed blueprint outlining how the city needs to take a “public health first” approach to public safety, responding to homelessness, mental health crises, substance use, wellness checks, youth at risk of violence, and so many other challenges not with armed police officers but with wraparound services and deep investments in public health interventions. We need to take alternative approaches to building safety — through investments in community health, supportive housing, youth programming, and more.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/justice/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-to-mayor-de-blasio-cut-1-1-billion-in-nypd-spending-over-four-years-and-reinvest-in-vulnerable-communities-and-vital-services/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/strengthening-public-safety-in-new-york-city/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-op-ed-create-real-accountability-for-nypd-misconduct-by-strengthening-oversight-authority-of-the-civilian-complaint-review-board/

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We must create a new public health paradigm for public safety based redirecting resources from the NYPD to alternative responses, and building out long-term investments in the supports that communities need to feel safe in their neighborhoods: housing, education, healthcare, and jobs with family-sustaining wages.

In June, I was the first elected official in the city to present a tangible plan to begin scaling back the department’s multi-billion dollar budget by at least $1 billion over four years — a baseline to build on. The city must invest in alternative frontline responses to challenges of homelessness, mental health, substance use, and more. We have to think more holistically about what builds community safety and reinvest resources into wraparound services and deep public health interventions, from safe haven beds and crisis respite centers to safe consumption facilities and overdose prevention programs. This shift will help to dramatically limit the number of interactions between New Yorkers and the criminal legal system.

Decades of disinvestment from our communities and over-policing have failed young people, disproportionately youth of color, and swept far too many into our criminal legal system. My plan includes the addition of thousands of social workers and guidance counselors, investment in restorative justice and behavioral health, and the removal of armed NYPD officers from our schools.

Pretrial incarceration is a stain on our society represented by the Rikers Island jail complex which must be shuttered. As Comptroller, I advanced initiatives to abolish for-profit bail and eliminate the web of fines and fees and mandatory court fines that fuel a cycle of incarceration and poverty for too many New Yorkers, creating that second “civil sentence." As mayor, I would pursue a comprehensive decarceration agenda, working with legislators in Albany and the district attorneys as appropriate, to reduce the city jail population.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/justice/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-to-mayor-de-blasio-cut-1-1-billion-in-nypd-spending-over-four-years-and-reinvest-in-vulnerable-communities-and-vital-services/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/strengthening-public-safety-in-new-york-city/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.

Even with recent progress on issues like “ban the box” and restoring voting rights, a criminal record unduly restricts opportunities — in employment, social services, transportation, education, and housing — for New Yorkers who have experienced incarceration. As detailed in my blueprint for public safety, I believe these barriers to access should be broadly repealed and criminal records should sunset after five years, allowing people to exit the endless cycle of prison and recidivism. This is an issue of economic justice and something the state can and should work to do.

We also must dismantle the maze of fines, surcharges, and fees that follow New Yorkers after becoming involved with the criminal legal system. I have worked with State Senator Julia Salazar and Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou on legislation to do just that. Criminalizing poverty is a self-fulfilling prophecy that keeps New Yorkers — overwhelmingly Black and Latinx New Yorkers and families — entrapped in and in literal debt to the criminal legal system, making it harder to access new opportunities and gain stability.

Similarly, we need real parole reform to stop the revolving door of incarceration and end unnecessary police surveillance. And, the city should also create an automatic expungement process for New Yorkers whose DNA are captured in interactions with police yet are not convicted of a crime. This will particularly impact a large number of children whose DNA is currently indexed.

As mayor, I would also work to improve re-entry services and ensure that a background in the criminal legal system is not a barrier by building out a citywide workforce development and apprenticeship program targeted to formerly incarcerated individuals and those detained in city jails, including expanding successful pilot that have guaranteed employment and subsidized wages. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice would assume responsibility for workforce development and discharge planning in NYC jails.

Policy Statements
https://stringerformayor.com/plans/justice/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/strengthening-public-safety-in-new-york-city/

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/lifting-up-new-yorkers/

We are currently waiting on a response to this question.