Kathryn Garcia
Level
Mayor
More Information
Campaign Site
2020 LID Questionnaire Response
Why are you running for Mayor?
I’m running for Mayor because I love New York, and our City needs a crisis manager who will be ready to get to work on day one to build back our City more sustainably and equitably than before. I believe our city needs someone that has dedicated their life to public service, not politics, to get us through this. We cannot afford another 4 years of planning without execution.
I have the most experience in city government and crisis management of any candidate running for Mayor. As Sanitation Commissioner, I led the world’s largest municipal waste management, recycling, street cleaning and snow response agency. As the former Interim Chair of NYCHA, I worked to reduce and prevent lead exposure in children. As COO of the Department of Environmental Protection, I made sure all NYers had clean drinking water and led the response to emergencies such as Hurricane Sandy. Most recently, I delivered over 150 million meals to New Yorkers in need after the COVID-19 crisis exacerbated food insecurity in our city. After a career in public service, not politics, I deeply understand how city government works and doesn’t work, and know that I am the best one to execute on how to fix it moving forward.
Please cite your top three-five priorities should you be elected Mayor and why you believe they are priorities.
My vision for New York City is one that has economic mobility for all. I want a New York City where regardless of what zip code you are in, you can be successful. This means accessible, middle class jobs- nothing is affordable if you don’t have good employment; dignified housing with paths to ownership for Black and Latinx communities; a resilient City that is a leader in climate change and the green economy; an accountable police force; and job pipelines into both the public and private sector for justice involved youth, CUNY college students, and trade school students.
If elected, what (if anything) would you do differently versus your predecessor (or previous Mayors) and why?
My Administration will be driven by data, transparency, and input from all stakeholders. If you’ve seen my work, you know that I do not just make plans or reports- I execute and deliver. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, I brought back 42 pumping stations and a water waste treatment plant within 72 hours. In the darkest hour of COVID when the virus was raging and many more New Yorkers were in danger of going hungry, I stood up an operation that would deliver millions of meals literally overnight. I work quickly but I am not afraid to reassess and improve when necessary, and know that you will not get to the best solution without bringing many voices to the table.
Lastly, I believe that government should be invisible if it works well--that we should get out of your way and do our jobs humbly, with no ego, and no expectation of praise for a job well done. Government is about improving the condition of people's lives, and that's what I'm going to deliver.
What is your plan to help NYC recover from the economic crisis caused by Covid-19?
When it comes to recovery, my Administration will be focused on equity. We will prioritize supplying the most vulnerable New Yorkers with meaningful economic relief and pathways for economic mobility. First, we will provide free childcare for working families, allowing guardians, especially women, to get back to work. Second, we will unlock barriers for small businesses by increasing access to credit, streamlining all laws and regulations governing restaurants and nightlife establishments, and cutting red tape for all permit and licensing processes. Third, we will create job pipelines into both the public and private sector for justice involved youth, CUNY colleges, and trade schools. We will guarantee graduates of our trade schools City employment, work with the private sector to offer 10,000 paid internships to high school students, and subsidize wages for youth who face barriers to employment.
Describe how you’d effectively address police misconduct and brutality, particularly as it affects communities of color.
As mayor, I would work to immediately implement police accountability measures. I would enforce quick, clear and consistent consequences and hold police officers accountable for everything from depraved acts to small infractions. I am the only candidate in the race that has managed a uniformed agency and understands what it takes to work with a uniformed labor workforce to change culture and enforce accountability. At Sanitation, we had a zero tolerance policy and I fired workers that crossed the line. It works. We need to hold our officers accountable for their actions and hold them to the right metrics--reducing crime and serving the public, not the number of arrests. I would reward and promote officers that prioritize community engagement and protection, and work to increase diversity of supervisors.
Describe your plan to address/reduce the NYPD budget while better ensuring public safety and meeting community needs?
We can find cost savings by reducing inefficiencies and redundancies in every agency- including the NYPD. For example, when I was at DEP, I identified and implemented more than $100 million in recurring annual savings over four years -- that's nearly 10% of the utility's operating budget. We identified opportunities to right-size maintenance practices, more efficiently deploy field staff and use DEP’s buying power to negotiate better rates for products. And all of this work happened in partnership with frontline workers and their union representatives. I don’t believe we need to reduce the amount of patrol cops; instead I believe we should be restructuring NYPD so that it is primarily a service for communities, in which they are held accountable for prioritizing community engagement and protection.
Also, the legalization of marijuana presents an opportunity to right past wrongs and meet community needs. A Garcia administration would use tax revenues generated for community reinvestment and to pay for intervention programs, such as cure violence and anti-violence programs, and alternatives to incarceration programs.
What would you do to further LGBTQ+ rights, equity, and justice if elected Mayor?
As mayor, I would focus on the immediate crisis of LGBTQ+ homelessness and lack of supportive services. First, we must dramatically expand the number of beds that are specifically available to LGBTQ+ teenagers and young adults. Unfortunately, many families in New York and across the country are still not accepting of their LGBTQ+ children, and in many cases it is not safe for them to remain at home, or they have no choice but to leave. NYC is a beacon of hope for many that seek safety, but we do not have the appropriate infrastructure to support LGBTQ+ youth’s needs. We must also increase support to the LGBTQ+ shelters that exist, such as Trinity Place, and use their holistic services as a model. Although I believe that the goal should be to place all homeless individuals into permanent housing, not shelter, I know that for many LGBTQ+ youth and young adults living in a family like environment with wraparound mental health, education, and career services is the best way to set them up for success.
I would also expand partnerships with longstanding LGBTQ+ service organizations, like SAGE, that serve older adults. The recent opening of Stonewall House, a senior affordable housing development, with a senior center operated by SAGE, is an incredibly important project that provides the first formal LGBTQ+ welcoming senior housing community in New York City.
I believe that hate is taught, and that we must make more efforts to expand LGBTQ+ visibility and affirmation in our educational system. This means incorporating the history of the fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights and the stories of the leaders in that space into curriculums in tandem with a broader push to create culturally responsive education and move away from teaching history and literature through a white, straight, cis-male lens.
Do you commit to retaining the New York City Unity Project, the City’s first Mayoral-level effort to coordinate LGBTQ+ policy efforts across city agencies, and if so, what actions would you take to build upon or revise the project?
I commit to the Unity Project, and as Mayor would build upon it by creating dedicated pipelines for LGBTQ+ youth, particularly those that are trans, gender non conforming, and people of color, into city government jobs- and not just as liaisons to the LGBTQ+ community, but across the board and in policy, decision making, and management roles.
What would you do differently than your predecessor(s) to address New York City’s affordable housing crisis?
As a manager, I am going to focus on the right metrics for housing rather than putting “affordable” units up on a scoreboard. For housing, those metrics are how many New Yorkers are rent-burdened, how many are living in homeless shelters, and how many are sleeping in the streets. In order to make a meaningful dent in the number of homeless New Yorkers and reduce the rent burden across the City, I will focus City investment where it’s needed most and create 50,000 units of deeply affordable housing (<30% AMI). We will also make it easier, faster, and legal for private partners to build more housing. We have added 500k New Yorkers over the last decade, but only 100k units of new housing - we cannot reduce the housing prices without increasing supply. We will end apartment bans and discriminatory zoning, and allow duplexes and triplexes to create more options for families. We will legalize basement apartments, accessory dwelling units, and single-room occupancy (SRO) apartments as a safe, sustainable and efficient means of providing housing to single-adult households--approximately one-third of households in New York City. We will also accelerate approvals for new housing construction, streamline the ULURP and environmental review process as well as permit applications and inspections at the Buildings Department and sister agencies.
Finally, my administration will start shifting meaningful resources from a shelter-based homelessness response to a solution that focuses on permanent housing. Shelters can be traumatic places for people and the goal should be to prevent evictions and place those experiencing homelessness into permanent housing quickly. We need to redesign rental assistance to keep tenants housed and to rapidly rehouse those experiencing homelessness.
Relatedly, and keeping in mind the City’s legal and moral obligation to provide shelter, how would you improve shelter and services for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness, particularly as it relates to reducing the number in need of shelter?
First and foremost, we need housing that heals. Health and housing are linked. Residents who do not have stable or quality housing are less healthy. Safe, secure, affordable housing is a basic human right. That means moving away from shelter strategy and to a housing strategy. We spend ~$3 billion annually on homeless shelters and services that fail to adequately serve NYC neighborhoods and families. Of that $400M goes to rent hotel rooms that are temporary and don't provide necessary support. Instead, we need to address street homelessness as a housing issue, with urgency and compassion, and the right solutions for families, single individuals and people living with mental illness.
My administration will build 10,000 units of supportive housing to provide permanent shelter, services and support for people experiencing street homelessness and those most at risk -- including buying empty or underused private properties for conversion. For families, women and children, we will ensure wraparound services in shelters, including education, health, and job readiness. We will open 10 drop-in centers in key neighborhoods to provide bathrooms and critical services 24 hours a day and begin the engagement process to get homeless New Yorkers into shelter.
Keeping in mind the specific needs of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers experiencing homelessness, will you commit to increasing capacity for clients (youth and adults) who require single room placement for reasons of health and safety including clients with mobility issues and/or who identify as TGNC (because placement in traditional single adult shelter may compromise their safety)?
Yes, however as I stated above, my focus would be on getting those experiencing homelessness permanent housing that meets their needs and connecting them with resources- not shelter.
Describe what you believe is meant by “gender equity” and what steps you’ve taken to date and will take if elected Mayor to support and further gender equity?
I view gender equity as opportunities for success being as available and accessible for non cis-male people as they are for cis-male people. In my career, I have never shied away from roles in which I was perceived as an outsider because I am a woman. I was only the second female Sanitation Commissioner, and I used my position to level the playing field and make it easier for others. In an agency that is 98% male, I promoted the first female four-star chief, Director of the Operations Management Division, and the highest ranking uniformed female employee in department history. In my administration, not only will I have gender diversity, including gender fluid and non conforming people, at the highest ranks of city government- I’m also going to listen to them. One of the reasons I am running for mayor is to break the glass ceiling of 400+ years of male mayors. I want to see the first woman mayor of NYC so that we can open the door for non cis-male people to reach leadership positions.
If elected, do you commit to using inclusive and gender neutral language in all official documents and press releases, and will you order city agencies to do the same?
Yes.
How much money has your campaign raised to date and what are your key sources of support? Relatedly, are you rejecting contributions from specific sectors, such as lobbyists, real estate interests, pension fund managers, police unions, etc.?
In our first filing submitted in January, we reported $300,000 raised from a grassroots coalition of more than 1,500 donors, 75% of whom are New Yorkers and more than 70% of whom reside in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. The campaign will qualify for matching funds in the next filing and have the resources we need to be successful. I did not raise a single dollar until I resigned as Sanitation Commissioner, Food Czar and Interim Chair of NYCHA--unlike other candidates who have been fundraising while receiving taxpayer funded salaries. I am not accepting contributions from police or correctional unions.
Why do you want LID's endorsement? If LID endorses you do you commit to including that endorsement on your website, social media, and all campaign literature on which you list or make mention of endorsements?
Although Lambda Independent Democrats is a Brooklyn club, it, along with NYC’s other LGBTQ+ clubs, leads the conversation in the fight for civil rights across the state and sets the tone of where we should be headed as a country. Your commitment to diversity is something I have always strived to exemplify- from promoting the first female Four Star Chief to promoting the first Latinx First Deputy Commissioner at Sanitation. It would be an honor to have not only your endorsement and support of my vision for NYC, but also your feedback and guidance on what New Yorkers on the ground need most. If I earn the support of LID, I would proudly list your endorsement across all platforms and literature.