HELLO, BROOKLYN!
I am so excited to represent you as your next Borough President. Growing up on the Southside of Williamsburg, I never could have imagined that one day I would represent every resident of this great borough. I am honored that you put your faith in me.
I know that my term is beginning at a particularly challenging time. As we (hopefully) begin to emerge from the pandemic, its impacts are still very much with us. We’ve lost loved ones, we may be experiencing financial hardships, we’re stressed out, and we’ve been separated from our friends and neighbors. Many of us have been missing our communities and our support systems.
Yet I remain hopeful that we can build together to recover from this crisis. I have big plans for this borough! We can come back stronger than we were before the pandemic. We can invest in our underserved communities. We can implement policies and programs that proactively address the racial disparities in our borough that the pandemic has laid bare. We can rebuild in a way that is resilient to climate change; that supports our youth, our small businesses, and our local entrepreneurs; and that celebrates the diversity and creativity that makes this borough so dynamic and exciting.
Of course, doing this takes all of us. And so, I pulled together a group of leaders who intersect with all aspects of life in this borough, who represent communities from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge to East New York. Organized into nine Committees, this Transition Team helped me create this document, which will serve as a guide for my work over the next four (or hopefully eight!) years. Their suggestions are organized into seven themes: Green Brooklyn, Equitable Brooklyn, Working Brooklyn, Healthy Brooklyn, Creative and Cultural Brooklyn, Educated Brooklyn, and Civically Engaged Brooklyn. I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all the Transition Team members for dedicating their time to this process. I couldn’t be more excited to get to work!
Spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way,