UWS Attorney Vies For Gender Parity, And A Seat, On City Council

UPPER WEST SIDE, MANHATTAN — As the head of an organization hoping to bring gender parity to City Council next year, Sara Lind can relate to the scores of women who for the first time have become empowered to run for office.

Mostly, because she was that woman four years ago.

Lind, whose is running for the City Council's 6th District, says she was always politically motivated, but it wasn't until the 2016 presidential race when she shifted from life as a corporate attorney to one of full-time public service.

Breaking the news to her six-year-old daughter that Hilary Clinton, whose campaign Lind worked on, lost, was the turning point, Lind said.

"She came running out so excited the next morning and I had to tell her that Hilary lost," she said. "It was a moment — and I think a moment for a lot of people — where I said, 'Okay, it's time to get engaged.'"

Lind earned a masters in public policy from Columbia, ran for her local community board, where she is now the co-secretary, and eventually signed on as the executive director of 21 in '21, the organization focused on electing at least 21 women to New York City Council.

Only 12 of the 51 seats on City Council are held by women and when term limits expire for many incumbents, like Council Member Helen Rosenthal's seat that Lind hopes to fill, there could be as few as five.

"It's wild to have fewer than 25 percent of women on the council," Lind said. "Not only should our government be representative [of the population], but every issue is a women's issue...It's important to have women at the table."

For Lind, those issues include everything from climate change, to education, to transportation, to the Upper West Side's retail economy.

The six-year Upper West Side resident said her tenure should she be elected will focus on things like ensuring more equal educational opportunities, improving public transportation for the neighborhood's aging population and tackling the city's homelessness crisis.

For all issues, Lind said, a seat on City Council will be the next step in a love of public service she's had since she was young.

"I've been very engaged on the local level and on the ground," Lind said. "That is something I've been doing my whole life."

Lind will be up against another attorney and Upper West Sider who's hoping to fill a void of representation on the city's legislative body. Seth Rosen, who is running in part to ensure the LGBTQ community is represented on the council, will face off against Lind in the Democratic primary.