Andrew Yang (45) - Entrepreneur, former presidential candidate in the 2020 Democratic Primary
website: Andrew Yang for Mayor of NYC - Forward New York (yangforny.com)
Save 15,000 small businesses in 2022.
The Yang administration will appoint a head of small business support and recovery so that there is a single responsible party and point of contact for small business owners to help them in their recovery efforts. The appointee will serve as a small business czar to coordinate all efforts across several different offices (Department of Consumer Affairs, Small Business Services, and Office of MWBE) to ensure that the City’s bureaucracy is not getting in the way of small businesses opening, while also providing advice on regulations and how to bid on government contracts. The goal will be to hold each department accountable to reach the goal of opening, preserving, and reopening 15,000 small businesses and to reach out to businesses to understand what they think should be done to make operating in New York easier. This czar will also be in charge of overseeing the implementation of the CURE (Collaborative Uniform Repair Enforcement) initiative (mentioned below).
Pass the Small Business Jobs Survival Act.
The bill has been around for over a decade, but its salience only continues to grow. Already, a majority of Council members support the bill, and the time is ripe to pass it. It protects small business owners during lease renegotiations so that landlords can’t hold them hostage for higher rents from others or for a piece of the business that the owners grew. By providing small business owners with the right to a 10-year renewal, these entrepreneurs will be able to have much-needed stability and needed foresight to trust that NYC is a worthwhile investment and a sound value proposition.
Contract with minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs).
Despite the city’s diversity, NYC has a long history of failing to contract with MWBEs. The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on MWBEs, with Black-owned businesses seeing more than twice the closure rate of white-owned ones. We should make it easier for MWBEs to get government contracts by overhauling the certification process for MWBEs; breaking up bigger contracts into smaller, more manageable chunks; targeting a doubling of procurement awards to MWBEs by 2025 (current level is at 4.9%); and appointing a former MWBE owner as next head of the MWBE Office.
Partner with the People’s Bank of New York, philanthropy and other financial institutions to help provide funds to businesses that are trying to reopen.
New York’s top philanthropies and financial institutions should allocate more resources and a larger proportion of their endowments to local causes. Big banks should be a partner with the People’s Bank and give out low-interest loans to businesses struggling to survive. They should also invest in neighborhoods traditionally overlooked. And local tech firms can donate their time to build out the NYC App that will allow for our own Akron- or London-style system to be built. And, lastly, large landlords should provide space for pop-ups and temporary programming to support the arts and fashion. It’s time to use the government to create these unique partnerships between businesses, individuals, and communities in order to rebuild this City.
We are reaching out to Mr. Wright for his position on Business and Professional Women, and will post the response(s) we receive.
Replies
How will you ensure that women’s participation and leadership are fully integrated across New York City government and that every decision made is considered through an anti-racist, gender-focused lens?
Equitable representation of women and non-binary folks in education, healthcare and more, results in greater success for teams and organizations overall – the same is true for public service. In order to have the best understanding of New Yorkers’ needs, all communities need to have a seat at the table. Growing up, I rarely saw Asian American politicians, and would be honored to serve as the first Asian American Mayor of New York. I would use my position to ensure that all groups, and all communities are represented in my administration. I will reach out to advocates, organizers, nonprofits, city employees and more for leadership recommendations and have strong diversity, equity and inclusion training for all city employees so that diversity, equity and inclusion are at the heart of our city government. In every decision my administration makes, we will center equity.
Affordable and Safe Housing
Some women and families live in New York City’s homeless shelters for over a year because they cannot find safe, affordable places to live with the current rate of NYC rental subsidy. As mayor, how will you address this reality and help families build their lives outside of the shelter system?
My administration will tackle homelessness head on. I believe that housing is a human right, and as mayor, I will work towards ensuring housing stability for those at risk of eviction and creating a pathway to permanent, affordable housing for those living in shelters. I have committed to reducing the length of stay in the shelter system by a third in a year and reducing the overall population and rate of return to shelter by 30% within two years. I will fulfill these commitments and move women and families living in shelter into safe, affordable permanent housing by:
Launching New Housing New York 25 (“NHNY25”), creating at least 25,000 new deeply affordable units, inclusive of supportive housing, using existing hotels that will not reopen.
Raising the allowance of City Family Homeless and Eviction Prevention Supplement (“CityFHEPS”) vouchers to match the amount given by section 8. From $1600 to $2000/month for a family of four, so that families can actually find units they can afford with vouchers.
Ending source of income distribution by bolstering the efforts of the NYC Commission on Human Rights to go after landlords who refuse to accept vouchers.
Urging the State to Pass Home Stability Support Bill, which provides a rent supplement of 85% of the difference between the fair market value of a two bedroom apartment ($1,951) in NYC and the current “shelter supplement” of $400 per month for a family.
Expanding the number of domestic violence shelters in the city to meet the needs of survivors, focusing attention on families with DV experience moving out of shelter and into permanent apartments and NYCHA.
Fair Wages
While all women continue to earn less on average than men in New York City, women of color and immigrants, who are more likely to work in low-paid jobs in the public and private sectors, face significantly larger gaps and higher poverty rates. What are your plans for eliminating these disparities in New York City?
Pay disparities for women, particularly women of color and immigrants, is not only unacceptable, it’s illegal. I will direct my human rights commission to root it out and level harsh penalties on any employers who are found to condone this practice, or look the other way.
Moreover, the pandemic has hit working women, and women of color especially, particularly hard. In-person service jobs disproportionately held by women have been ravaged and the closure of schools and daycares has forced many women to take on the burden of childcare. As we recover from the pandemic, we must tackle the lack of affordable, quality child care to help get women back into the workforce. To do so, I have committed to making universal high-quality early childhood education affordable, available, and accessible for all NYC children 0-3 years old.
In 2018, 20.4% of female New Yorkers lived below the poverty line compared to only 17.6 of male New Yorkers. I am running to be the anti-poverty mayor and have a plan to eradicate extreme poverty citywide, which will disproportionately uplift women. I will start with implementing the largest cash relief program in the US for the poorest and most vulnerable in our city. We will uplift those furthest on the margins, out of poverty and give these folks a real path to employment, education, housing and a life of dignity.
Accessible Caregiving
This pandemic has exacerbated the big holes in our caregiving systems, including childcare and long-term care. How do you propose addressing these issues and creating a fair and equitable system both for families and the caregiving workforce?
A Yang administration will strengthen the early learning experiences for all infants and toddlers in child care across the city and make affordable early childhood education available to all families. This has been made possible under Biden’s proposed American Families Plan. However, the city currently only has enough licensed child care to accommodate 23% of infants and toddlers. Moreover, childcare workers, who are disproportionately women of color, are devalued, lack access to the meaningful training necessary to ensure the highest quality programming, and are so underpaid that a quarter of NYC’s childcare workers lives in poverty. To support these workers, I will:
Provide universal affordable childcare through a diverse delivery system that taps into the existing ecosystem of businesses, including community based organizations, center-based care and family child care providers;
Establish an apprenticeship model for experienced educators to continue working while advancing their skills and deepening their expertise as they work toward higher degrees and credentials in child development;
And increase compensation for infant and toddler educators to eradicate pay disparities and ensure that the childcare profession is fairly compensated and pays all childcare workers a living NYC wage.
Moreover, to recruit more childcare workers, I will work with institutions of higher education and professional development intermediaries to create a strong education pipeline for childcare workers.
I have also expressed my support for home healthcare workers and other care providers by being the first and currently only candidate to sign Ain’t I A Woman’s pledge to end the 24 hour workday for home care workers. I have also committed to:
Advocating on the state level to raise the annual wages of home care workers;
Enforcing New York’s Domestic Workers Bill of Rights;
Supporting the creation of a statewide domestic and caregivers labor standards board;
Expanding New York City’s human rights law to include protections for domestic workers;
Creating a portable benefits fund for workers
Ending Gender-Based Violence
There has been a significant uptick in reports of sexual harassment and violence against women and gender expansive people during the pandemic. What is your plan to address gender-based violence in New York City in both the private and public sectors?
As many people know, my wife Evelyn, was sexually assaulted by her gynecologist while pregnant and has been a very vocal advocate in supporting women who have been victims of sexual assault. What Evelyn went through is horrific and I am so proud of my wife for speaking out against these injustices. This is issue is, thus, incredibly personal to me and combatting sexual harassment and violence in NYC will be a major priority of my Administration.
The city is the largest employer in NYC and should set the highest standard for what a model workplace looks like. Under my leadership, I will ensure that NYC sets the best example for how to create a safe work environment where people feel comfortable coming forward and every allegation is taken seriously. Every city employee will be part of mandatory anti-bias and anti-harassment training that will be interactive and ongoing. Open dialogue and available resources for all employees who are victims, supporting victims, or trying to educate themselves on how to create a better and safer work environment will be key.
By modeling the best example of a safe workplace, other New York businesses will hopefully start to reflect those changes in their own workspaces. Also, by introducing mandatory sexual education classes in all NYC schools, we will educate and embolden the next generation of New Yorkers. Consent will be a key focus for young students, empowering all students by giving them the language and tools to speak up against harassment and assault for themselves and the people around them.
Education
Cities across the country, including several in New York, have begun to take steps to remove police from schools. As mayor, would you remove police from schools in New York City, and if so, would you reinvest the money toward educational programs and support resources?
I support taking NYPD out of schools when possible, and taking a school-by-school policy for school safety agents. Moreover, I think it is crucially important that we get student’s families’ input when making these decisions. Overall, I am supportive of a measured process and one that helps the 5,000 school safety agents, who are disproportionately women of color, to transition into other positions with the same salary and benefits.
Even before COVID-19, students suffering from a range of emotional crises often do not have the resources to address the underlying issues. Instead, school staff revert to their most familiar option — calling in law enforcement. Over 1,500 students were restrained by school safety agents of the NYPD from the first quarter of 2019 through the first quarter of 2020, with 89% of those being children of color. And in 2019-2020, 58% of students in emotional crises handcuffed by police were Black. This can often lead to further emotional distress and trauma for children, with students as young as 5-years-old being taken away in handcuffs. This results in missed school and further emotional damage. I promise to prohibit the NYPD from handcuffing students in emotional distress and encouraging schools to implement alternative interventions using trained mental health professionals who take a trauma informed approach to hold students accountable for their actions without creating further trauma, teach positive behaviors and build trusting relationships between students and authority figures.
Maternal Health
How will you use city agencies, the budget, and your role as a public figure to address the crisis of maternal mortality and specifically the disproportionate impact on Black women in NYC?
One of the most shocking statistics facing our City is that Black women in New York are eight times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women. To address this outrageous reality, I will:
Amend the New York City charter to make ending racial health disparities the mandate of DOHMH
Build a diverse and culturally competent public health workforce by creating a pipeline program for prospective healthcare providers of color to serve communities of color across the five boroughs
Require Racial Equity Competency for All Healthcare Providers in New York City
Expand neighborhood action centers, focusing on communities hardest hit by the pandemic
Expand doula care by providing direct support to all parents who seek doula care with one-time grants to pay for this critical healthcare service, work with DOHMH to create a pipeline for more people of color to become birth workers and doulas, and advocate for all private insurance and Medicaid to cover doula care for all patients.
Legal Justice
Low income New York City families, many headed by single mothers, continue to be impacted negatively by the lack of early civil legal representation in their interaction with City entities, such as the Administration for Children’s Services and Family Court. How would you reform the NYC civil justice system so that all NYC families have access to timely, competent legal assistance to protect their families, homes and livelihoods?
Access to a housing attorney is one of the surest ways that tenants who are taken to court by their landlords can remain in their homes. As New York City has piloted Right to Counsel and grown the Office of Civil Justice, 84% of tenants who had access to an attorney in housing court have been able to remain in their homes, and the eviction rate has declined by over 30 percent since the program’s implementation began. Keeping families in their homes is crucially important and providing parents with legal counsel is obviously the way to do so. As mayor, I will ensure that tenants in all five boroughs have access to a lawyer in housing court, by expanding the Right to Counsel program so that more New Yorkers who make up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Line can access an attorney. I will also ensure undocumented New Yorkers are eligible for this right.
Moreover, my administration will work to prevent eviction by encouraging efficient alternatives to housing court. All landlords pursuing rent non-payment cases against tenants will be given the option of entering into an eviction diversion process where the City or City-funded non-profit will match a tenant’s repayment of rent owed if a landlord agrees to a reasonable repayment plan and forgoes eviction during the repayment period. After a successful pilot, my administration will advocate for changes to State law to require eviction diversion before a landlord can evict for unpaid rent.
Similarly, keeping families together whenever possible is deeply important to me and I will fight for parents’ access to legal counsel when interacting with the Administration for Children’s Services and in Family Court.
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