1st Upper East Side Candidate Forum: 6 Quick Takeaways

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Seven people vying for the Upper East Side's hotly contested City Council seat came together for the first time Thursday in a candidate forum focused on neighborhood issues.

The District 5 forum, hosted by the East 72nd Street Neighborhood Association, zeroed in on four key topics: homelessness, the proposed New York Blood Center expansion, police reform and public safety, and the condition of the East River Esplanade.

Several hundred neighbors tuned into the forum, but if you didn't, here are a few key takeaways.

The candidates

First, here's who participated:

• Billy Freeland, an attorney, activist and community board member
• Rebecca Lamorte, a labor organizer, activist and community board member
• Julie Menin, the city's outgoing census director, former city commissioner and Community Board 1 chair
• Kim Moscaritolo, a journalist, activist and community leader
• Tricia Shimamura, a community board member, social worker and former staffer for U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney
• Christopher Sosa, a former journalist and state senate staffer
• Marco Tamayo, an architect and community board member

An eighth candidate, Mark Foley, registered an account with the city in recent weeks but has little visible campaign presence.

Supportive housing in the district

Citing the new Safe Haven set to be built on East 91st Street, moderator Cameron Koffman asked the candidates if they would support more supportive housing in District 5.

All candidates said they did.

Police reform is needed, contenders agree

Would the candidates have voted for last year's City Council budget, which shifted about $1 billion from the NYPD but which critics said did not include enough cuts?

Moscaritolo said she supported the cuts, while Sosa and Lamorte both called them insufficient. All candidates agreed that some of NYPD's responsibilities should be shifted to other agencies — Menin singled out mental health and routine traffic stops as examples.

"These aren’t problems we can police our ways out of," Sosa said of the public safety issues that have festered during the pandemic. "We need to address these causes at the root."

Blood Center skepticism

The candidates were asked to weigh in on the New York Blood Center's proposed expansion on East 67th Street. The plan has rankled neighbors for its height (16 stories), its effect on a nearby school and park, and the precedent that would be set by rezoning the midblock site to allow for taller construction.

All seven expressed deep skepticism toward the proposal, especially the zoning changes it would require.

"This is going to be the most important and most pressing land use decision that’s going to be before our next leadership," Shimamura said.

Moscaritolo said it took too long for the community to learn about the proposal, reflecting shortcomings in the city's land-use process. That led to a discussion about Speaker Corey Johnson's comprehensive planning proposal, which only Tamayo said he supported in its current form. (The others said it lacked enough community input.)

Each contender's top two quality-of-life issues

• Lamorte: Affordable housing and sanitation
• Sosa: affordable housing and local business economy
• Tamayo: overdevelopment and recreation areas
• Menin: affordable housing, public safety and sanitation
• Moscaritolo: sanitation and vacant storefronts
• Shimamura: garbage and affordable housing
• Freeland: affordability for renters and small businesses; and sanitation

Which Council committee would they choose to serve on, if elected?

• Menin: government and oversight
• Lamorte, Sosa, Shimamura: housing and buildings
• Moscaritolo: sanitation
• Tamayo: land use
• Freeland: environmental protection

Above what income level would they support raising taxes?

• Lamorte, Moscaritolo: $1 million
• Freeland, Sosa: $500,000
• Shimamura: supports a wealth tax, but would focus on city-level cuts since state handles taxing
• Menin: declines to name a number; would focus on city budget
• Tamayo: does not support raising taxes

The open seat in District 5 is one of more than 30 across the city, as term limits will install new members in nearly two-thirds of the City Council's 51 seats.

Ben Kallos, who has represented the neighborhood since 2014, is running for Manhattan Borough President. Fellow incumbent Keith Powers is seeking re-election in neighboring District 4.

Upper East Side Patch will have ongoing coverage of the City Council race ahead of the June 22 primary, including candidate responses to the issues raised in our neighborhood survey.