Title: Mayoral Primary 2025: State Sen. Zellnor Myrie.

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Brigid Bergin: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin from the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom. Now we'll continue our coverage of the New York City mayoral election with our second candidate interview. Joining me now is State Senator Zellnor Myrie, a Democrat from District 20, which includes parts of Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, South Slope, and Sunset Park in Brooklyn. He's also chair of the Codes Committee in the Senate, a new role for him. In addition to discussing his run for mayor of New York City, we'll talk about his work at his day job representing his constituents in Albany and get his reaction to Governor Hochul's State of the State address and Mayor Adams' preliminary budget from this week. Senator Myrie, welcome back to WNYC.

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: It's very good to be here, particularly to be here in studio with you, Brigid. It's exciting.

Brigid Bergin: Pretty fun.

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: Yes, I love it.

Brigid Bergin: Senator Myrie, we know each other, but why don't you start by introducing yourself to New Yorkers who you're meeting for the first time? Who are you and why should you be running their city?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: I would not be who I am today without this city. I'm a born and raised New Yorker. I'm the son of two immigrants who came to this city about 50 years ago. Both of them worked in factories. My parents came from Costa Rica. My dad actually made more as a minimum wage worker in a factory here in Brooklyn than he would back home with a college degree back in Costa Rica. Came here for opportunity. My mom worked in a linen factory, became a nurse, and then she opened up a small business, had a jewelry shop on Flatbush. They sent me to public schools in Central Brooklyn. I went to PS 161 in Crown Heights, went to Brooklyn Tech for high school, went to Fordham University for undergrad and grad school, and then had the opportunity to go to Cornell for law school.

Worked for one of the most prestigious law firms in the world, Davis Polk, for a couple of years before I got to run for State Senate and represent the very community that I was born and raised in. Got married a little over a year ago. My wife, whose birthday was yesterday, so happy birthday again, babe. My wife, born and raised in the city as well. Born and raised in Brooklyn. We actually went to the same elementary school and we live in the same neighborhood right now where we want to put down roots. We want a path to home ownership, but it feels impossible to afford a home now.

We want to expand our family. I want to have little Zellnors running around, but the average cost of childcare, $20,000 per kid per year, makes it prohibitive. The very opportunity that my parents had when they came here is slipping away for so many New Yorkers. At a time where we're looking for solutions to that problem, where we're looking for a focus on affordability and public safety, we do not have that in City Hall. That is why I'm running for mayor. We need real solutions. We need bold solutions, but we also need competence and integrity, people that care about the nuts and bolts. I have demonstrated that in the State Senate, and that's what I'm hoping to do in City Hall.

Brigid Bergin: We've got a crowded field of candidates running to unseat Mayor Adams. Last week, we hosted Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who had a very impressive fundraising haul in that first filing for him. You are both likely to receive public matching funds next month. Your colleague in the State Senate, Jessica Ramos, is also in the race. Other progressive candidates include Brad Lander and Scott Stringer. Both have held the position of New York City's comptroller. Then, of course, there's former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who could enter the race at any moment with fundraising prowess, staff, and very high name recognition. What sets you apart from these other candidates, and how do you plan to play catch up in terms of name recognition and that fundraising?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: It's still pretty early in this race. I think that, like most people across the country, New Yorkers were rightfully preoccupied with the national election, which some of those implications you were just discussing before we got on. I think people are turning their attention now to this race. We got a couple of weeks and months ahead of us where we're going to be talking to voters. I've been proud to be in many living rooms across the city. We got donations from every single council district, from every single community board district, so I'm excited about the support and looking forward to making my case.

New Yorkers are looking for fresh leadership, but also someone that has demonstrated the ability to actually get things done. I'm proud of what my record has been in the State Senate in that regard. The ability to build coalition, whether that was working on the Clean Slate Act, bringing together Fortune 500 companies, major labor organizations, faith leaders, and community leaders to get something done, or whether it was through my chairmanship of the elections committee, where we ushered in over 100 changes to the election law, some of the most forward-looking election legislation in the entire country. I've been proud of that legislative record.

I'm also a New Yorker. I got stuck on the train this morning, frustrated. I take it every single day, sometimes three to four times a day. I'm right now in my unlimited portion of my weekly transit. Like most New Yorkers, I am frustrated that we don't have the basics of government working. We shouldn't have to wait for delayed trains, then have to perform Olympic-level gymnastics to get into a crowded train, and in some circumstances, not feel safe on that train. I think at bottom, people want someone that can make government work and someone who has the ability to get it done.

Brigid Bergin: Let's talk for a minute about how government is working now. Mayor Eric Adams released his preliminary budget for fiscal year 2026 yesterday. It doesn't cut spending for any key city agencies as we have seen in previous years, but there is funding that is missing. To the contrary, the budget actually has grown by $3 billion in comparison to last year. You put out a statement yesterday condemning the mayor during his budget announcement saying, "Today's budget confirms what we've known all along. The mayor has repeatedly mismanaged the city's finances and deliberately underfunded communities without justification." Can you unpack that frustration with the mayor's management of city funds a bit?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: Look, we have seen over the course of the past three years that the mayor would put forth projections for the budget, whether those are cuts or potential investments, only two months later, retract on those projections, or for the independent budget office to say, "Actually, this is what the real spending is and this is what the real cost is." That yo-yoing, that is frustrating, not just for everyday New Yorkers, but the people who have to provide these services.

Think about it. If you're a childcare provider who is told that your funding is going to be cut, you then lay off your staff, only to be told months later, "Actually, we're going to restore it," and not restore it fully. Then you can't actually, in fact, manage your staff. You cannot provide this service. There are a lot of service providers that are going through this. In this last budget proposal, he is unfathomably not fully funding pre-K and 3K again. This is something that is at the core of our affordability crisis. New York families who can't afford to stay here, who are making the choice about whether to leave New York City or not, and are only staying here because we have pre-K and 3K.

To me, it's unimaginable that he would not fully fund that and in fact, reduce the spending. We also saw the same thing for cityFHEPS for rental assistance, not investing in that at a time where the biggest affordability crisis we have is people's housing.

Brigid Bergin: We're going to get more into the details of your childcare and housing proposals in a moment. Just very briefly, we have to talk about the fact the mayor is in Florida right now meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago this afternoon. His aides put out a statement saying the trip was to discuss New York's priorities. Some of your fellow candidates have been very critical of the trip. How do you see the mayor's relationship to the incoming administration? Does this trip surprise you in any way?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: I think New Yorkers expect the mayor to have a relationship with the federal government. We receive close to $8 billion in funding from the federal government. There are going to be instances where we have to cooperate for the better interest of New Yorkers. That is not what this trip is about. This is a taxpayer-funded pilgrimage that seems to be outside of what we think the city needs. The Trump agenda is not going to move the city forward. He has already told us some of the things that he wants to do, whether it's cuts to our education, cuts to our healthcare, or going after vulnerable New Yorkers. This mayor could not meet with the current president, President Biden, on the city's priorities. In fact, had to come back because his aides were under investigation, but has somehow made this a priority to rush down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the incoming president. It is a head-scratching move and I think many New Yorkers are going to be looking for answers.

Brigid Bergin: Listeners. If you're just joining us, I'm Brigid Bergin, filling in for Brian Lehrer. I'm here with New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who is running to become the next mayor of our city. What do you want to know from him about his plans to become mayor? Is there an issue that you want to get on his radar? You can call or text us with your questions. The number is 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. Senator Myrie, I will tell you, before I even gave that number out, people were calling in. Let's go to Christopher in Woodside. Christopher, you're on WNYC.

Christopher: Yes, hi. Thank you for taking my call. Good morning, Senator Myrie. I'm concerned about the current trend of the Rent Guidelines Board or the RGB. Every year, the RGB provides a study of how much building operating costs have changed over the previous year. It's called the Price Index of Operating Costs or PIOC. Anybody can see that on the NYC Rent Guidelines Board website under the Research tab.

The RGB is supposed to use this information to help make its decisions on how much rent-stabilized apartments are allowed to increase on one or two-year leases. For the past three years, the RGB has increased rents by about 3% on one-year increases, which has been greater than in the previous years. The PIOC has been much greater. In fact, over the past eight years, operating costs have exceeded those one-year allowable increases, about 46% total increase of costs based on the RGB's number versus the 15% increase in rents.

Brigid Bergin: What's the expected question?

Christopher: In case you're wondering that trend has been that way for 23 or 25 years, I'm forced into austerity. You supported the 2019 rent laws. Do you think this trend is sustainable for building owners and managers? Do you think this trend helps eliminate jobs for small contractors and other skilled Laborers?

Brigid Bergin: Christopher, we're going to let Senator Myrie-- That was a long question. We thank you for your thoughtful approach to it, but I want to give him a chance to answer.

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: Appreciate the question, Christopher. I'm someone that grew up in a rent-stabilized apartment on Flatbush Avenue. My mom still lives in a rent-stabilized apartment. I was proud to fight for the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act because, for years, there were certain bad actors in the industry that were using loopholes in our laws to kick out tenants in one of the biggest sources of affordable housing. I also think it's important that we think about how we are assisting property owners to keep their affordable units under the right standards.

The choice for people like my mom should not be to cling to a rent-stabilized apartment where the elevator breaks down every two months or where repairs are slow to be made or to literally win the lottery to get into an affordable unit. We have to do better as a city and as a government to ensure that we are keeping these units in good repair, that we are incentivizing it. I understand that property owners can't make decisions that don't pencil out for them and so we should be using the tools at our disposal to ensure that our rent-stabilized portfolios, our rent-stabilized tenants can stay there, but also that they can be maintained and upheld in good repair.

Brigid Bergin: I've got one more caller, Bernard in Brooklyn. Thanks for calling WNYC.

Bernard: Yes, thanks very much. I wanted to ask a question about the whole partisan primary system we have. Senator, I know you've chaired the elections committee in Albany. Ms. Bergin, I know you've been interested in this issue. Over a million registered voters in the city are not going to be allowed to weigh in on your candidacy in June if they're not registered Democrats. This is the year where we could have all sorts of gamemanship. Mayor Adams might get back from Mar-a-Lago and decide, "You know what, I'm going to run in the Republican primary because that'll give me a better chance." Curtis Sliwa, God help us, might emerge as the Republican candidate.

Most other American cities have open primaries where all candidates participate and all voters participate. The goal is to identify, let's say, the top two or three candidates that move on to the general election. There's an organization called Unite New York, another called Final Five. My question is, the Charter Revision Commission now is having hearings. Would you support moving towards nonpartisan primaries in New York State? It's too late for this year, but getting that on the ballot in November. We've got this crazy system where whoever wins the Democratic primary is-- You're all competing only among registered Democrats. I hope my question is clear.

Brigid Bergin: Bernard, thank you for that question. Senator Myrie?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: I appreciate the question as well, Bernard. I think this is a conversation that has been ongoing and that has picked up some steam over the past couple of years. We just made a sea change in the way that we conduct elections with ranked-choice voting. I think New Yorkers are just starting to become acclimated with that process. I think inviting another sea change would be a lot in the moment, but it's certainly something that we should be discussing.

Brigid Bergin: I want to go back to the conversation about childcare. As a New York state senator, you passed a law exploring universal free afterschool programs for all children in the state. Now, as you're running for mayor, on free afterschool for all of New York City students. Why is this a top priority for you? Why should it be a top priority for voters?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: Brigid, I would not be sitting across from you now if not for after-school programming. My mom, like most New Yorkers, did not get off at 2:30 PM to come pick me up after school. She needed a place for me to be where she could have peace of mind, where I could also reinforce some of the things that I learned during the day, but I could also be a kid. I could learn karate, play chess. I was the only boy on my step team, hoping to show some of that off as we go along the campaign trail.

It was a place that was safe. It is a public safety tool. We know that our kids get into trouble between the hours of 3:00 and 6:00 PM. Let's give them a place to be and let's provide some relief for working families. This is going to be a centerpiece of our campaign, universal afterschool for everyone. We know that every dollar that we invest in afterschool, it's a $3 return for the government. It provides relief, as I mentioned, for families, but it also allows for them to stay here, continue to work, continue to put food on the table.

Brigid Bergin: How much would the program cost? How would you pay for it and who would be eligible?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: As you mentioned, we passed a bill in the state legislature that would require the Office of Children and Family Services that oversees all afterschool programming in the state to tell us exactly how much it would cost. This study is going to be inclusive of labor costs, transportation costs, how much it would take to professionalize our afterschool providers to pay people a wage that they deserve. We are getting that report in June of this year. I'm hoping to use that report and that data to then phase in our afterschool programming. Right now, we have zip code-dependent afterschooling, and it is dependent sometimes on how wealthy the PTA is. I don't think that your zip code should determine whether or not you have access. I'd like to phase this in over the next couple of years in our administration. That cost is going to be more detailed once we get that report back from the Office of Children and Family Services.

Brigid Bergin: Just to be clear, when you're talking about a phase in, you're talking about a program that would be available to all public school students from K through 12? What's the population we're talking about?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: Yes. We're envisioning at the moment a K through 12. We know that our middle schoolers right now are probably the largest population that can take advantage of afterschool programming. I'd like to expand that and ensure that all of our elementary kids and that our high school students as well have those opportunities.

Brigid Bergin: Given the ongoing affordability crisis, there is a growing push for the city to support universal 2-Care that's childcare for the city's two-year-olds. Do you support that program?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: I do support that. We, of course, have to ensure that the details are worked out, that they can be supported, that we have enough providers to do this, and that we have a system that is efficient in delivering it. I think it is a common sense next step in this process and it is fundamental to people being able to stay in this city.

Brigid Bergin: You think it should be available to families regardless of income, it should be a universal program?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: I think that's exactly right. I think that we have really amazing magic in the city, and that is that everybody wants to come here, everybody wants to thrive here. In order for you to be successful, you have to have some relief for raising a family. That is why people come here. You can be great and you can also raise a family. That opportunity is slipping away. I think this is a step in the other direction.

Brigid Bergin: I want to shift to some of your proposals around housing. At first, you want to create a million homes in New York City. You'd build 700,000 and then repair and maintain 300,000. How are you going to get New Yorkers and their city council members to sign on to this much construction? Where would you like to see this housing built?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: This plan, a mandate for a million homes rebuild NYC, which you can read in full at zellnor.nyc--

Brigid Bergin: Nice plug.

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: Yes, got a plug. This has three basic tenets. We want production, we want preservation, and we want protection. On the production side, as you mentioned, we want 700,000 units over the next 10 years. There are places that are already dense in the city that can be doing more. There are some potentials for rezonings in areas that, I think, have opportunity for that development. We also have some streamlining to do on the administrative front for smaller developments to allow for more family-oriented building.

On the protection side, we have a pretty strong right-to-council program that is not fully funded. I'm going to fully fund it. I also want to expand it to homeowners who are facing foreclosure and facing deed theft and who often are going into court without protection and without counsel. I think it's also important that we preserve some of our most important sources of affordable housing, whether that's our rent-stabilized portfolio or whether that's NYCHA. We have, for years, talked about what the issues are and what the problems are in NYCHA, but we have not come up with solutions.

Meanwhile, the capital needs are close to $80 billion, it has quintupled over the past two decades and we have not had any innovative solutions there. That is part of our Rebuild NYC program. There's a reason, Brigid, why I am centering my campaign on this. It's important that we have a political mandate to build housing in this city. When we win and when we get into City Hall, we are going to be going into every community and working very closely with everybody to say this is what the voters wanted, this is what people need. We cannot shrink as a city and we cannot continue to put proposals that are not big enough to meet the scale of the problem.

Brigid Bergin: If you're just joining us, I'm Brigid Bergin from the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom, filling in for Brian Lehrer. My guest is New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie and we are talking about his plans to run for New York City Mayor. Just currently talking about his housing proposals. Senator Myrie, there are three candidates currently running for mayor who say that they would freeze New Yorkers' rent through their appointments to the Rent Guidelines Board. Why haven't you joined that list?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: I think it's important for us to appoint members to the RGB that are going to be putting tenants first. I'm someone that has grown up in rent-stabilized housing. As I mentioned before, my mom is currently still in a rent-stabilized unit. I fought very hard for the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act. In fact, I led on that passage in our state legislature where we have seen drops in evictions and protections that did not exist for over half a century. I think it's important to let the RGB do its work and to determine what those percentages are going to be.

Brigid Bergin: Your housing plan, Rebuild NYC, also calls for reallocating funding from some of the New York City shelters to the construction of 50,000 homes. Given the mental and physical health issues impacting many homeless New Yorkers, is building housing sufficient to address their needs, or is this a plan for supportive housing?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: This is one part of the plan. This is for permanent housing for individuals that need it. We know that homelessness is many times a housing issue. It's important for us, I think, to get out of the business of just building shelters. We should be building permanent housing for these individuals and providing the supports that they need. This is one part of how to deal with a really challenging mental health crisis that we are under. As far as housing goes, I think it's important that the city use its precious resources to build permanent housing that gives them the supports that they need and not just to build shelters.

Brigid Bergin: Senator Myrie, we've been getting several texts from listeners. One listener writes, "I'm a fan of Zellnor Myrie. I wanted to know what he thought--" Excuse me one second. I lost my text there. "I wanted to know what he thought about Adams calling the NYPD on protesters at Columbia."

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: Look, I think the job of the mayor of certainly the greatest city in the world is to be level-headed, to de-escalate, and to allow for people to exercise and communicate their positions. I don't think that it is helpful for us to escalate with rhetoric or to increase tensions in circumstances. I think there was an opportunity for the mayor to go in himself with faith leaders, with folks in the administration, both on the campuses and from student representatives, to have a conversation about what was going on. I was disappointed to see the way that it was administered. I think there is, of course, when there are individuals posing a threat to students or the public, that our police department is charged with keeping people safe. I think the role of the leader of this city is to step in to de-escalate and allow for people to express their opinions.

Brigid Bergin: We heard from Governor Hochul earlier this week. Among her plans was to send police officers into subway stations between 9:00 PM and 5:00 AM to help civilians feel safer. We know that crime and, really, the perception of crime have been major issues in our city and in the state in the post-COVID era. According to the governor, this program would cost $154 million, with $77 million coming from the city and $77 million from the state. I also know that reducing gun violence is one of the top priorities of your campaign. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on this proposal and do you think of cops on overnight trains as a solution to gun violence that we're seeing here in the city?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: I say this not just as a candidate, Brigid, but as someone who was born and raised here, someone who was with my mom when she was robbed at gunpoint when I was very young in an elevator. Her worldview is informed by that experience. She feels safer when she sees cops. I also am someone who was pepper sprayed and arrested. For my mom, she has had to hold two truths together at the same time, that she wants police officers, they do make her feel more safe, and that they also should be held accountable if they step over the line. I think we have to continue holding those two truths as we move forward in trying to address our public safety needs.

I've been taking public transit all my life and it does feel different. We got to be clear-eyed about that. People do need to feel safe. I think the governor is taking a step in the right direction. Of course, I would like to see more details on what the deployment is actually going to look like. I do think that people want to feel safe and I do think that police officers are a part of that. What we've also seen on the gun violence front is the city tout and the mayor tout the reductions in gun violence while in our public housing, as reported by one of your colleagues this morning in Gothamist, in public housing, it's gone up. In my public service authority area, in my district, it's up almost 44%. Your reporting has also told us that 4% of the city's blocks are responsible for an outsized amount of the gun violence in the rest of the city.

We should not accept that as a government. We should not accept that certain communities can take gun violence and other communities cannot. What I'd like to do as the next mayor of this city is to focus on solving every single shooting in this city. People have said, "Z, well, that's a radical thing. How are you going to get that done?" There are other jurisdictions that have detective bureaus that are solely focused on solving shootings.

We've seen shootings go down. We've seen homicides go down. We've seen crime go down. We should do the same thing here in this city. Because if you are a victim of gun violence and you feel that you're not going to get a response from law enforcement, they're not going to solve your issue, why would you go to them? Also, if you're someone that's going to resort to gun violence to resolve conflict, you also know that you won't be held accountable. We have to be serious about solving this issue. This is going to be one of our top priorities, solving every single shooting in New York City.

Brigid Bergin: It's a huge, ambitious goal. It is putting more of a burden on an agency, the NYPD, which we know is roiled by its own problems as of late. The news this morning of a federal investigation into a pay-to-play scheme within the ranks of the NYPD stemming from sexual harassment allegations against former Adams aide and NYPD Sergeant Timothy Pearson. According to the New York Daily News, federal investigators believe police officers may have paid bribes or offered other gratuities in exchange for promotions. What's your reaction to this news?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: It has been incredibly disheartening to watch the headlines this morning over the holidays for the past couple of months. The allegations of corruption are corrosive to our faith in government and institutions. We're talking about an agency that is responsible for keeping the public safe, that is under investigation, that is under federal indictment. We can't continue in this direction. I think that most New Yorkers would like to see a police department that is one of integrity and one that they can have confidence will solely be focused on keeping them safe. I think the overwhelming majority of police officers put on that uniform. They leave their families in the morning not knowing if they're going to return, focused on trying to keep us safe. We have structures and we have leadership that has failed those everyday police officers. We have to change that culture in the next City Hall administration.

Brigid Bergin: Senator Myrie, I know that we could keep talking for a lot more. I know there are more callers who want to talk to you, but we're grateful that we've had this first conversation together and we hope that you'll come back for another. My guest has been State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who represents the 20th district in Brooklyn, which includes parts of Brownsville, Crowns Heights, East Flatbush, Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, South Slope, and Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Did I leave anything out?

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: You're good. I'm very much looking forward to coming back.

Brigid Bergin: Great to have you. Thanks so much, Senator Myrie.

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: Thank you.

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