We testified today at the New York City Council Committee on Transportation's oversight hearing today regarding the shortcomings of the city's Vision Zero efforts, the epidemic of illegal parking, and related topics, and also voiced our support for bills that would prohibit the sale of illegal license plate covers and decriminalize jaywalking. Our full testimony follows below.

Brad Lander, Comptroller (Open Seat) – Brad Lander has dedicated himself to making streets safer since first winning elective office in 2009. He was an early supporter of the Prospect Park West redesign, and his refusal to waver in the face of some very politically connected opposition to the bike path was instrumental in facing down the years-long legal effort to remove it. In 2016, he patiently listened to constituents complaining about Citi Bike's expansion into his Brooklyn district, while firmly letting them know that the bike-share system was here to stay in a statement that Streetsblog called "pitch-perfect."

Mr. Lander was a vocal proponent of Fourth Avenue's road diet, pushing the Department of Transportation to speed up completion of the protected bike lanes that now span the four miles from Atlantic Avenue to 64th Street. He's fought for better accessibility at subway stations, and to restore the B71 bus.

Most notably, Mr. Lander's biggest safe-streets legislative accomplishment grew from a terrible tragedy that occurred just a block from his district office in 2018. Following the devastating crash that killed two young children at Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street, Mr. Lander, in partnership with advocates, developed the Reckless Driver Accountability Act, working deftly and relentlessly to steer the bill through the City Council, overcoming a number of legal and procedural hurdles. What became the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program will, once fully implemented, require the city's most persistent dangerous drivers to take a safe-driving class or have their vehicles impounded.

For good measure, Mr. Lander also made sure that DOT quickly redesigned Ninth Street following that deadly crash, adding protected bike lanes and pedestrian refuges.

Mr. Lander has put forth a number of detailed plans for how he would manage the Comptroller's office. He'll oversee the city's capital-projects tracker, which he legislated in the City Council, and is intended to bring transparency and accountability to the billions of dollars the city spends each year on infrastructure. He plans to use the Comptroller's powers to make the financial case for street redesigns, and to create an audit unit dedicated to transit and transportation. He will use audit and contract-registration powers to push for fleet reductions, and track implementation of the Better Bus Action Plan.

For both his track record, and his commitment to promoting progressive transportation policies as the city's next fiscal steward, we enthusiastically endorse Brad Lander to be New York City's next Comptroller.

Eric Adams, Mayor (Open Seat) – Eric Adams, who emerged victorious from a crowded and competitive Democratic mayoral primary in June, has been a reliable ally to advocates of safe and complete streets for more than a decade.

Mr. Adams, who was elected Brooklyn Borough President in 2013 after serving in the State Senate for seven years, has often credited a 2010 walk he took in Park Slope with "20's Plenty" founder Rod King for solidifying his views about the importance of traffic-safety issues.

As New York City's next Mayor, he is determined to revitalize the city's Vision Zero initiative. No elected official has shown up more often for victims of traffic crashes than Mr. Adams since he assumed the Borough President's role, and he clearly takes traffic violence personally. Come January, he'll be in a position to get Vision Zero back on track – with a focus on equity that has at times been missing from the program to date.

He introduced legislation while a State Senator calling for better education of drivers, has supported Neighborhood Slow Zones, and, with an eye to promoting equity in the city's cycling infrastructure, championed the Flatbush Avenue bike path, which now connects Grand Army Plaza and Ocean Avenue.

Mr. Adams's "Moving Forward Together" transportation plan calls for building true Bus Rapid Transit corridors, especially outside Manhattan, focusing first on wide corridors with service roads like Brooklyn's Linden Boulevard, and for accelerating the rollout of electric buses. He's pledged to stripe 150 new miles of bus lanes and busways, citing the success of Manhattan's 14th Street busway as a blueprint.

He also intends to go to bat for improved transit accessibility, such as faster implementation of elevators and ramps in the city's subway stations, reopening of existing-but-closed subway entrances, expansion of the Fair Fares program, and broad implementation of the Freedom Ticket. He's called for the speedy rollout of the city's congestion-pricing program.

A strong proponent of active health and its many benefits, Borough President Adams can often be found riding his bicycle around Brooklyn, and he has for several years hosted a diverse Earth Day ride to call attention to the need for better street designs. In May, following a bike ride with members of our board, he announced his commitment to creating 300 miles of new protected bike lanes within his first four years in office, including bike "superhighways" running under elevated roadways and rail lines.

He intends to expand Citi Bike, and has cited development of a citywide network of electric bike- and scooter-share, especially in underserved areas, as a priority. Mr. Adams has also called for significantly increasing safe and secure bike-parking options for New Yorkers. He's a champion of the Harbor Ring, and will advocate for improved bike access on state-managed bridges beyond the Verrazzano-Narrows. He has a vision of a city in which it's safe for kids to bike to school.

Borough President Adams has also spoken frequently on the campaign trail about inequity in the city's built environment, and he plans to expand the Open Streets program, especially in lower-income communities of color. He's embraced Transportation Alternatives' 25x25 Challenge for reallocating the city's public space from cars to people, again with an eye to underserved corners of the city.

Mr. Adams has also talked often about his experience in European cities, and the creative ways in which they allocate street space and promote alternatives to driving. New York City has fallen behind a number of its peers when it comes to smart street design, but as Mayor, Eric Adams will have the opportunity to lead our transformation into a pedestrian-, bike-, and transit-friendly city that is the envy of the world.

As we head into the holiday weekend, we wanted to provide a brief update on where things stand with the results of the June 22nd primary election.

As many of you surely know, the New York City Board of Elections released preliminary results of in-person ballots on Tuesday, only to rescind those results a few hours later when it was discovered that the tally included some 135,000 test ballots that it had failed to clear from its system.

The corrected tally, released on Wednesday, showed Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams with a lead of 14,755 votes over StreetsPAC's endorsee, Kathryn Garcia, with about 125,000 absentee ballots still to be counted. An initial tally of those absentee ballots, which had to be received by NYCBOE by June 29th, will most likely be reported on July 6th.

Garcia gained votes steadily as other candidates were eliminated in the ranked-choice process, edging Maya Wiley by just 347 votes in the eighth round of rankings.

So the race still appears to be a contest among Adams, Garcia, and Wiley, with a fair possibility that absentee ballots will alter the outcome. We'll know more next week.

In the other competitive citywide primary, City Council Member Brad Lander holds a lead of about 21,000 votes over Council Speaker Corey Johnson in the race for Comptroller (Public Advocate Jumaane Williams easily won his primary with about 70% of the vote).

Manhattan District Attorney's Race

With runner-up Tali Farhadian Weinstein having conceded, StreetsPAC-endorsed Alvin Bragg has won the Democratic primary for Manhattan District Attorney (as a state office, the primary for DA was not conducted with ranked-choice voting). Given the overwhelming registration advantage that Democrats have in the borough, Bragg is almost certain to be the next Manhattan DA. We're proud to support him, and congratulate him on his victory.

City Council Races

The Board of Elections has not released any tally of ranked-choice results in City Council races to this point, and a number of races in which we endorsed are very close after the preliminary count of in-person votes. So again, we'll have to wait until next week for clarity.

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday. And no, we have not endorsed in the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest.

Today is Primary Day in New York City, and polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.! If you're registered with a political-party affiliation, you are eligible to vote in your party's primary.

We spent the past several months evaluating responses to our detailed candidate questionnaires, analyzing policy platforms, and conducting in-depth personal interviews with more than 100 candidates. We've made dozens of endorsements: for Mayor; Comptroller; Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn Borough President; Manhattan District Attorney; and City Council seats in all five boroughs. You can learn more about each of our endorsees below, as well as the safe-streets and transportation issues they'll champion in office.

This primary is likely to continue the trend of low-turnout elections, which means that your vote for a candidate who supports safe, complete and livable streets, and reliable, efficient and affordable public transit, could make a real difference in a close race.

To check your voter-registration status, find your polling location and hours, see a sample ballot, and learn more about Ranked Choice Voting, please visit vote.nyc. Remember that under the new ranked choice system, you may rank up to five candidates in a particular race in your order of preference.

We urge you to get out and vote for the StreetsPAC candidate of your choice! Read on for our full voter guide. Click the links at the top to jump to our endorsements in a particular borough. Council races are in numerical order by district.

Early voting continues through Sunday, June 20, before the June 22 primary election, and many of the outstanding candidates we've endorsed in the primary need your help to get out the vote.

We've collected below links to volunteer opportunities over the coming days with all the candidates we've endorsed. Even an hour or two of your time knocking on doors, phone-banking, or handing out literature could make the difference between winning or losing in a closely contested election – and the difference between electing a candidate who will support protected bike lanes or a dedicated busway and one who will defend the cars-first status quo.

Click on links below to learn more about upcoming volunteer shifts with StreetsPAC's 2021 endorsees!

Citywide Races

Kathryn Garcia, Mayor: All Volunteer Events

Corey Johnson, Comptroller (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Events

Brad Lander, Comptroller (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Events

Manhattan

Mark Levine, Manhattan Borough President: All Volunteer Opportunities

Alvin Bragg, Manhattan District Attorney: All Volunteer Opportunities

Christopher Marte, Council District 1 (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Gigi Li, Council District 1 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Carlina Rivera, Council District 2: All Volunteer Opportunities

Erik Bottcher, Council District 3: All Volunteer Opportunities

Keith Powers, Council District 4: Contact

Billy Freeland, Council District 5 (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Julie Menin, Council District 5 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Kim Moscaritolo, Council District 5 (Ranked #3): All Volunteer Opportunities

Sara Lind, Council District 6: Election Day Polling Sites | GOTV Canvassing | Phonebanking

Marti Allen-Cummings, Council District 7: GOTV Canvassing | Phonebanking | Election Day Polling Sites

Mario Rosser, Council District 9: All Volunteer Opportunities

Bronx

Shanequa Moore, Council District 12: All Volunteer Opportunities

Pierina Sanchez, Council District 14: All Volunteer Opportunities

John Sanchez, Council District 15: All Volunteer Opportunities

Amanda Farias, Council District 18: All Volunteer Opportunities

Queens

Donovan Richards, Queens Borough President (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Jimmy Van Bramer, Queens Borough President (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Austin Shafran, Council District 19: All Volunteer Opportunities

John Choe, Council District 20: All Volunteer Opportunities

Tiffany Cabán, Council District 22 (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Evie Hantzopolous, Council District 22 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Jaslin Kaur, Council District 23: All Volunteer Opportunities

Shekar Krishnan, Council District 25 (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Carolyn Tran, Council District 25 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Amit Bagga, Council District 26 (Co-Endorsement): All Volunteer Opportunities

Julie Won, Council District 26 (Co-Endorsement): All Volunteer Opportunities

Jesse Laymon, Council District 26 (Ranked #3): Contact

Nantasha Williams, Council District 27: All Volunteer Opportunities

Aleda Gagarin, Council District 29: All Volunteer Opportunities

Juan Ardila, Council District 30: All Volunteer Opportunities

Felicia Singh, Council District 32: GOTV Canvassing, June 21 | Phonebanking June 21 | Election Day Canvassing | Election Day Phonebanking

Brooklyn

Antonio Reynoso, Brooklyn Borough President (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Jo Anne Simon, Brooklyn Borough President (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Jen Gutiérrez, Council District 34: All Volunteer Opportunities

Crystal Hudson, Council District 35 (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Michael Hollingsworth, Council District 35 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Sandy Nurse, Council District 37: All Volunteer Opportunities

Rodrigo Camarena, Council District 38 (Co-Endorsement): All Volunteer Opportunities

César Zuñiga, Council District 38 (Co-Endorsement): All Volunteer Opportunities

Alexa Avilés, Council District 38 (Ranked #3): All Volunteer Opportunities

Brandon West, Council District 39 (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Shahana Hanif, Council District 39 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Justin Krebs, Council District 39 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Doug Schneider, Council District 39 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Rita Joseph, Council District 40 (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Josue Pierre, Council District 40 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Nikki Lucas, Council District 42 (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Wilfredo Florentino, Council District 42 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Justin Brannan, Council District 43: All Volunteer Opportunities

Anthony Beckford, Council District 45 (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Farah Louis, Council District 45 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

Staten Island

Amoy Barnes, Council District 49 (Ranked #1): All Volunteer Opportunities

Ranti Ogunleye, Council District 49 (Ranked #2): All Volunteer Opportunities

We submitted testimony to the New York City Council Committee on Consumer Affairs and Business Licensing yesterday in support of a package of legislation intended to improve conditions for working cyclists, including a Carlina Rivera bill requiring bathroom access for delivery workers, a Justin Brannan bill that would let Deliveristas set distance limits on orders made through third-party apps, and a Brad Lander bill that would lead to setting minimum per-trip payments for workers delivering on behalf of app companies. Our testimony follows below.

New York City has come a long way in eight years.

In 2013, Bill de Blasio was the only serious mayoral contender with even a mildly progressive street-safety and transportation platform. His embrace of Vision Zero set him apart from the pack, even if he did seem a little too sympathetic to drivers and, at times, not completely sold on his own policy proposals. To be sure, the Mayor has presided over significant improvements to the city's streets. But at the same time, too many opportunities have been squandered for want of better execution.

Fast forward to 2021, and nearly every serious candidate in the race for mayor has put forth an ambitious and progressive agenda for remaking the city's streets and improving its public transit system. All seven candidates who completed our questionnaire – Eric Adams, Shaun Donovan, Kathryn Garcia, Dianne Morales, Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley and Andrew Yang – told us they're committed to reducing New York City's reliance on cars, vastly improving transit service, and building a robust citywide network of protected bike lanes. Every one of them advocates the quick implementation of congestion pricing. They all say they intend to commit more city resources to Open Streets. And all seven have pledged support for Transportation Alternatives' ambitious 25x25 proposal to reallocate a quarter of the city's street space from cars to people.

This election marks a sea change. The race to the top among mayoral candidates on these issues is truly something to behold, and it's a testament to the relentlessly effective work that activists and advocacy organizations have done over the past several years. The next mayor will have the opportunity – and the responsibility – to truly transform New York City's streets and transportation system. That will require decisive action in addition to good ideas.

Among all these candidates who promise a better future, we believe Kathryn Garcia possesses the best combination of vision and an ability to successfully implement large-scale, transformational change, and we are excited to endorse her to be New York City's next mayor.

Ms. Garcia has held a number of important positions within New York City government over the past decade and a half. She served as operations chief for the Department of Environmental Protection under Mayor Bloomberg, with responsibility for the water supply, sewers, and wastewater treatment. Mayor de Blasio appointed Ms. Garcia Sanitation Commissioner in 2014, a position she held until she stepped down to run for mayor. As Sanitation Commissioner, her leadership was crucial to the passage of the city's Waste Equity law in 2018, and the Commercial Waste Zone law in 2019, the latter of which will reduce private-carting trips by millions of miles annually.

In response to a lead-poisoning crisis in 2018, Mayor de Blasio tapped Ms. Garcia as the city's "lead czar," and she also served as interim NYCHA boss in 2019. Last year, Mayor de Blasio put her in charge of the city's emergency pandemic food-distribution efforts. She has earned a reputation as a get-things-done leader, while also commanding the respect and loyalty of staff, including that of the Sanitation Department's 7,000+ uniformed rank-and-file workers.

That ability to lead and execute is key to our endorsement of Ms. Garcia. Setting aspirational goals is important, but so is having the wherewithal and expertise to implement them. While all of the leading candidates, Ms. Garcia included, have proposed ambitious transportation agendas, we firmly believe that she is best equipped to deliver on her promises.

She understands clearly that physically preventing crashes through street design is the key to reducing deaths and injuries, and she has pledged to implement roadway redesigns across the city that put pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders first. She'll commit more resources to Open Streets, and more of the city's street space to pedestrians, and will build 250 miles of new protected bike lanes, expand Citi Bike, and get the city moving on providing secure bike-parking solutions.

When it comes to public transit, Ms. Garcia is committed to creating more busways and dedicated bus lanes, and expanding off-board payment, all-door boarding, and signal priority at intersections. She'll expand the Fair Fares program, potentially by reallocating outsized ferry subsidies. She's determined to improve accessibility, with more and better-maintained subway elevators. And she'll advocate with the MTA to create a one-tap, in-city transit network that integrates the Long Island and Metro North Railroads, and, potentially, Citi Bike and the ferry system.

Ms. Garcia will crack down on placard abuse by deploying electronic readers to remove "professional courtesy" from the equation. She'll pursue camera enforcement of failure-to-yield violations and bike-lane blocking, and has indicated support for Steve Levin's bill that would enable citizen-reporting of illegal parking. Furthermore, she intends to expand the city's loading zones, in both commercial and residential areas, and to expand the Clean Curbs program to containerize trash and keep sidewalks clear for pedestrians.

Finally, Ms. Garcia has pledged to treat the city's working cyclists like the essential workers they are, making sure they're protected from wage theft and unfair conditions, and deploying her long-coveted Multihogs to promptly clear bike lanes of snow and ice. In embracing TA's 25x25 challenge, she explicitly cited the safety of delivery workers.

For her commitment to reimagining the city's streets, remaking and upgrading our transit system, and reinvigorating Vision Zero, coupled with her highly regarded ability to deliver results and her belief that pedestrian- and bike-friendly street transformations will accelerate the city's economic recovery, we enthusiastically endorse Kathryn Garcia for mayor, and urge you to rank her #1 on your ballot in the June 22nd Democratic primary.

Note: In reaching our decision, we reviewed the positions of all the leading mayoral candidates, including their responses to our detailed 50-question questionnaire, and were able to sit down for personal interviews with Mr. Adams, Mr. Donovan, and Mr. Yang, in addition to Ms. Garcia, a prerequisite for our endorsement. We've included highlights of the other candidates' résumés and refreshingly progressive transportation platforms below.

We've had to make a lot of tough endorsement choices over the past few weeks. None yet has been tougher than our decision in the contest for New York City's next Comptroller.

Three candidates completed our endorsement process, submitting detailed and compelling responses to our questionnaire, and sitting down for in-depth interviews with our board: Corey Johnson, the current Speaker of the New York City Council; Brad Lander, the three-term Council Member representing Brooklyn's 39th District; and Zach Iscol, a non-profit entrepreneur and former Marine.

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Lander are well known to people in the world of safe-streets and transit advocacy. StreetsPAC endorsed them both when we launched in 2013, and supported their respective re-election bids in 2017. Both have championed a number of critical initiatives and causes. Each of them heaped praise on the other when we interviewed them.

Under different circumstances, Mr. Iscol might merit greater consideration. He has an impressive résumé and record of public service, and the no-nonsense, confident demeanor you'd expect from a Marine veteran. He's put in a lot of miles on a bike in New York City. And he demonstrated a good grasp of the powers and limits of the Comptroller's office, and how they intersect with transportation issues.

But Mr. Johnson and Mr. Lander are exceptional public servants, with years of accomplishment in elective office, and we believe this contest is very much between the two of them.

After much deliberation and consideration, we have opted for a ranked endorsement, giving Corey Johnson a slight edge over Brad Lander. We believe Mr. Johnson's role as Speaker, dealing regularly and directly with the Mayor and the highest levels of city agencies, is a notable advantage in experience. And secondly, harder to quantify, is Mr. Johnson's outsized personality. He has the potential to be able to draw attention to the Comptroller's office, and its critically important but often dry focus on audits and numbers, that his predecessors have not. As Mr. Johnson told us, "the numbers really don't lie," but we think he might be able to make them fly.

Read on below for more about Corey Johnson's and Brad Lander's platforms and accomplishments.

We're excited to announce our endorsements for the June 22nd primary election in borough-wide races in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.

As with the candidates we've endorsed for City Council, we're greatly impressed by the degree to which candidates for higher office have emphasized the importance of safe and livable streets in their campaigns. And we've had to make some very difficult endorsement decisions, given the quality of the fields in numerous races. This is especially so as elected officials whom we've supported in the past – most notably sitting City Council Members who are term-limited – face off against each other in races for higher offices. It's not easy to endorse one reliable ally over another, but at the same time, and luckily for New York City, there are many more good candidates than there are elective offices.

About 150 candidates have sought StreetsPAC's endorsement in this election cycle, about twice the number as in any previous election. To be considered, a candidate must complete a detailed questionnaire, and meet with our board. We sought the broadest possible participation, contacting more than 400 campaigns; those candidates who did not participate fully in our process were not considered for endorsement.

Read on below to learn about our endorsees and their positions on street-safety and transportation issues, and check back soon for our endorsements in citywide races.

2021 Borough-Wide Endorsees: Manhattan BP | Queens BP | Brooklyn BP | Manhattan DA