Brad Lander

Political Parties:
Democratic Party
Working Families Party

http://www.bradlander.com

Candidate Submitted Biography:

As one of New York's leading voices for community-based development, Brad Lander has spent his career standing up for affordable, livable, and sustainable communities in Brooklyn and throughout New York City. Brad has run programs and helped to change city and state laws that have created and preserved thousands of units of affordable housing, strengthened local small businesses, and helped hundreds of low-income New Yorkers find living wage jobs.

Brad directs the Pratt Center for Community Development, which works for a more just, equitable, and sustainable city for all New Yorkers by empowering communities to plan and realize their futures. He also teaches community planning, housing, and urban policy in Pratt's graduate city planning department. Brad served for a decade as executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, an award-winning, not-for-profit community-based organization in Brooklyn that develops and manages affordable housing, creates economic opportunities, and organizes tenants and workers to fight for a better community. Brad serves as the Housing Chair of Brooklyn's Community Board 6, on the board of directors of the Jewish Funds for Justice, and as a little league coach in the 78th Precinct Youth Council. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago, University College London, and Pratt Institute. Brad lives in Park Slope with his wife, Meg Barnette, the Director of Finance and Operations at the Brennan Center for Justice, and their children, Marek and Rosa, who attend Public School 107 in Brooklyn.

City Council Survey (District 39): Brad Lander

Question 1:
What is the most important transportation need in your district? As a Council Member, how would you work to address this need?

The most important need in the district is improved F train service. We need to begin with more frequent service at rush hour and off-peak times with a goal of implementing F express service after the Culver Viaduct repair work is completed, provided that we make it work for neighbors of the line. In addition the new linkages to the G on this line should be made permanent.

If elected, I would work closely with transit advocacy groups, community residents, and other elected officials to monitor F train service (including establishing benchmarks for improved service), provide frequent information on service changes caused by the Culver Viaduct repairs, and hold meetings and oversight hearings to pressure the MTA to develop a plan now for studying and moving toward F express service.


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Question 2:
The intersection of Ft. Hamilton Pkwy and McDonald Ave is one of the most dangerous in your district, where 3 people died and 15 people were injured between 1995-2005 (NYS DOT). As a City Council member, what traffic enforcement policies or physical changes to the intersection infrastructure would you support to make this intersection safer for everyone who uses it (pedestrians, cyclists and drivers)?

If elected, I would convene a community planning session with DOT for the McDonald/Ft Hamilton Pkwy/Caton Ave intersection, similar to the one for Park Circle that I helped to initiate with Community Board 7, Stable Brooklyn, and the Prospect Park Alliance. That community planning session led to a great plan that is going to be implemented by DOT at Park Circle later this year.

Specific physical changes I would like to see in the McDonald/Ft. Hamilton/Caton area include more traffic lights on McDonald Ave up the hill from this intersection. Cars zoom down this isolated stretch of road, so a “road diet” implemented in other places by DOT may be appropriate. According to CrashStat 2.0, the intersection had at least 7 bicycle injuries during the same period. Therefore, bicycle safety improvements (Class I or Class II on-street bike facilities) must be included in some way.

Specific enforcement policies I would like to see include targeting speeding vehicles along McDonald Ave, Caton Ave and Ft. Hamilton Parkway, and more enforcement of truck routes and trucks idling along this stretch. There are three schools within several blocks of this intersection, and I would like to see a beefed-up Safe Routes to Schools program that addresses this intersection, if necessary.


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Question 3:
According to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles' most currently available data, in 2007 speeding was a contributing factor in over 3,000 motor vehicle crashes in New York City. Furthermore, the same data showed that the top human contributing factor to the 264 fatal crashes in New York City during 2007 was also speeding. Given these figures, what measures, if any, do you support to redress this problem? Finally, do you believe that New York City’s current speed limits are safe?

As TA’s report “Executive Order” showed, a recent decline in the enforcement of speeding by the NYPD is correlated to a rise in speed-related vehicular fatalities. I strongly support the measures called for by the report to create an Office of Road Safety and to have the NYPD crack down on speeding drivers. I would support the City Council taking legislative action to implement the recommendations that can be legislatively enacted.

I would support an effort to reexamine the citywide speed limit of 30 MPH on neighborhood streets and would call for the City Council Transportation Committee to hold a hearing on speeding in the City Council.


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Question 4:
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's website reports: "In New York City, obesity is epidemic: more than half of adult New Yorkers are overweight (34%) or obese (22%). Data show that obesity begins early in life: nearly half of all elementary school children and Head Start children are not a healthy weight. In New York City, 1 in 5 kindergarten students, and 1 in 4 Head Start children, is obese." Do you believe that increasing walking and biking in New York City would improve public health? If yes, how would you work to increase walking and biking in your district?

Yes, I absolutely believe that increasing walking and biking in NYC would improve public health. In my work at the Pratt Center for Community Development and in my service on Community Board 6, I have wholeheartedly supported the “complete streets” agenda, working for bike lanes (including helping lead the effort to win close votes at CB6 for the 9th Street and PPW bike lines), pedestrian and bike-friendly intersection redesigns, full implementation of the Brooklyn Greenway, and improvements to Park Circle. I have also ridden in the Tour de Brooklyn, Tour de Bronx, and the Century, and was one of the lead organizers of the Brooklyn PTA 5k run/walk for public schools.

If elected, I would support a “complete streets” agenda, and design roads for all users, not only cars but also bikes, pedestrians, people with disabilities. I would also support increased bike transportation, by adopting a bike-sharing plan and closely monitoring the implementation of new bike parking requirements, and continue to expand municipal bike parking in strategic locations.


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Question 5:
Road pricing, including such measures as non-stop tolling, fees based on vehicle miles travelled or entry into a highly congested zone, has been the source of much discussion in New York City and other major metropolitan areas. London famously uses a congestion charge to fund its transit system, Oregon recently piloted a program to replace the gas tax with a fee for miles driven and Seattle recently studied how road pricing could be introduced on a regional basis. Seattle's study, “Traffic Choices Study" (http://psrc.org/projects/trafficchoices/index.htm), found that introducing new tolls on major corridors during peak traffic hours influenced drivers’ behavior and projected that a region-wide road pricing scheme could significantly reduce vehicular traffic congestion. Do you think that introducing a road pricing strategy would change New Yorkers’ travel choices? Do you think that this would be an effective way for the City to reduce backups on high-traffic roadways like the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the Gowanus Expressway or the Long Island Expressway? Finally, do you believe there are additional benefits in the surrounding neighborhoods which could be realized from the reduction of vehicular congestion on these routes?

I support establishing a congestion pricing system for the central business district in Lower Manhattan and worked actively on this in my role as director of the Pratt Center as part of the Campaign for NY’s Future and COMMUTE! (see question #8) during both the congestion pricing and Ravitch Commission debates. This would discourage driving, reduce congestion, and provide revenue that could be dedicated to the MTA. If the revenue were structured as City revenue, the City Council would have some input into (and, to my preference, a seat on) the MTA Board, so that we could hold the MTA accountable.

A road pricing strategy would change New Yorker’s travel choices in a just way as long as we provide decent, safe, and convenient alternatives. Therefore, congestion fees should fund new transit routes for places underserved by transit (express buses and ferries near-term, BRT and light rail soon thereafter).

Successful road pricing should also incentivize smarter freight movement in the city and region. For 5 years, I have helped lead “Move NY&NJ,” the coalition for Cross Harbor Rail Freight, which has achieved substantial progress both on near-term projects to increase the movement of freight by rail, and long-term progress toward the Cross Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel.


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Question 6:
Do you believe that reducing residential parking requirements as set forth within NYC zoning regulations would affect neighborhood traffic congestion, and if so, in what way?

Yes, I believe that reducing required on-site parking would reduce congestion over the long run. TA’s report “Suburbanizing the City” (written jointly with MAS, RPA and other organizations) pointed out how parking requirements incentivize auto-dependence. New developments close to public transit should have less parking than currently required. Parking minimums in most residential and commercial zones should be converted to parking maximums. The on-site parking waiver process should be simplified and affordable housing developments should as-of-right be allowed to waive off-street parking requirements in transit-rich areas.

Another way to concurrently tackle neighborhood traffic congestion in the short run would be to experiment with parking management strategies, such as those proposed for 5th Avenue and 7th Avenue in Park Slope, designed to encourage turnover, reduce congestion, and disincentivize short driving trips.


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Question 7:
The NYC Department of Transportation's Public Plaza Program, Pedestrian Street Program and Summer Streets events are intended to diversify the use of public space and provide more places for New Yorkers to recreate and socialize. Do you support the temporary or permanent repurposing of street space for pedestrians and cyclists?

Yes. I strongly support more events where we make streets into temporary public space — the Halloween and baseball parades on 7th Avenue, Bastille Day on Smith Street, the Pride Parade, You Gotta Have Park, and block parties are some of the best days in our community, and remind us of how precious our public space is. I am sorry that our community is not already participating in the City’s Summer Streets program, and I would work actively to identify streets for participation next summer.

I also strongly support the Public Plaza Program. We were honored to host the launch of the program by DOT Commissioner Sadik-Khan at the Pratt Institute, and to help design the RFP and the model for working with community groups. I would support efforts by local organizations and the DOT to identify areas in the 39th council district that could be made into permanent pedestrian plazas, through a participatory planning process, a high-quality design, and a plan to minimize impacts on businesses.


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Question 8:
The City recently released plans for Bus Rapid Transit and expressed interest in bringing a bike share program to New York City. Do you think these new projects would enhance the city's transportation network? Please explain.

Yes, absolutely. Under my leadership, the Pratt Center helped advance BRT by organizing the Communities United for Transportation Equity (COMMUTE!) coalition. This coalition has been advocating for an expansive new system of bus rapid transit (BRT), that builds upon the City’s experiment with Select Bus Service in the Bronx, in order to provide significantly improved transit options in all five boroughs, especially for areas currently underserved by subways (including non-radial trips, that do not go to and from the central business district). I am pleased that the DOT and the MTA have taken significant steps forward toward a robust BRT system.

I would strongly support the implementation of a public bike share program in New York City at a scale large enough to ensure its success, as the recent City-issued report indicated was necessary.


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Submitted by BradLanderBrooklyn on Sun, 08/09/2009 - 12:00.
Submitted by BradLanderBrooklyn on Thu, 07/30/2009 - 13:04.