Quality & Equitable Education for All

As a former public-school student and the mother of two public school students, Alexa has witnessed the inequities and injustices of NYC’s school system firsthand. Elected leaders at every level of government must recognize that fully funding our public schools and ensuring culturally appropriate and positive school environments are essential to the future of our city and our country. NYC public schools continue to be understaffed and lack the appropriate level of resources to ensure every student succeeds.  

During her tenure Alexa has centered the importance of funding and appropriate staffing for our diverse and differently abled children. She has strenuously advocated against mayoral funding cuts to both K-12 public education and CUNY and invested millions of dollars in facility improvements, equipment and programming for local schools across the district. She successfully advocated for NYC DOE to stop problematic regulations that would have rolled back student data privacy protections and successfully advocated a $3M investment in the creation of a Latino studies curriculum for K-12 schools.

She remains committed to advocating for appropriate levels of funding and services for children with special needs, especially for ENL students who face additional barriers. She will continue to work with her local schools, PTAs, students and advocates to fight for fully funded public schools. Lastly, Alexa is a staunch supporter of universal childcare and will continue to fight to obtain free, quality, accessible care for all New Yorkers.    

Safe, affordable and dignified housing

A people’s budget

In FY 25, New York City’s budget was $112.43 billion, bigger than some countries and many states across the US. Tucked in the opaque document, are thousands of funding commitments from the most mundane but necessary city services to bloated questionable contracts for private corporations. During Alexa’s tenure, she witnessed firsthand a mayoral administration cutting city services more than five times while sitting on extraordinary surpluses. She fought against austerity budgets and decimation of the city workforce we depend on for core services.  Alexa voted NO to a budget that defunded every critical city service while offering unlimited overtime to police budgets and handouts to private industries.

True safety is a result of fully funding what communities need to thrive which include investing in public infrastructure, education, healthcare, parks and green space, housing, transportation and arts and culture.  Alexa is fighting for a People’s Budget that is transparent and prioritizes the health and wellness of working people over ensuring corporate profit and maintaining the comfort of the 1%.  Public dollars must be used for the public good and to strengthen public institutions. 

Immigrant justice

District 38 is a community of immigrants — those who recently made our neighborhood home, and those who have been here for decades. All of them face ongoing discrimination and significant barriers to services and support. 

We must fight to strengthen protections for our beloved immigrant residents and advocate for deeper investments in service and support programs, like legal representation, immigration integration centers, and language access. We must also fight for municipal voting for resident immigrants, giving them the voice in government that they deserve as members of our community. 

Together, we can dismantle the structures that keep our immigrant neighbors living in fear. We can transform our city into one where everyone can thrive.

Healthcare for all

New Yorkers have a right to quality healthcare, and a right to live free from pollution and other environmental hazards.

But District 38 residents have not been afforded that right. Instead, our neighbors have some of the highest rates of being uninsured, coupled with limited access to public hospitals. This duality of inaccessibility is by design. And it’s why Alexa will fight for funding our public hospitals and expanding NYC Care.

The Council must fight for increased funding to strengthen the capacity of community-based organizations that work on health and resiliency directly with residents. Alexa will advocate for the institution of a resident-led Community Health Advisory Table that can map, guide, and vision a proactive set of new policies that serve our residents’ needs — not the for-profit, private health industry’s bottom line. 

Additionally, Alexa will demand the passage of the New York Health Act at the state level. This act will create a single-payer system for New York State, providing quality healthcare for all.

Environmental Justice & Climate Change

Most of our District has been carved up by a highway system and the siting of a disproportionate amount of polluting infrastructure because of environmental racism. Alexa believes the community must lead in the creation and implementation of solutions to mitigate and address the myriads of environmental justice & climate issues facing the district. De-carbonizing our city is critical for our long-term survival.  Locally, she has been fighting to address the negative health and community impacts of 

last-mile facilities, cruise terminal, Industrial/manufacturing sector, peaker plants and heavy truck and car traffic. 

During her time in office, she has been committed to mitigation and finding sustainable solutions to these challenges. Alexa passed legislation to update its truck routes which hadn’t been touched in over 30 years; fight air pollution with several anti-idling policies, along with passage of Our Air, Our Water mandating the electrification of NYC’s cruise ports. She successfully advocated for the development of a special permit for siting of last-mile facilities and strengthened our industrial manufacturing zones that call for healthier green initiatives to expand economic opportunity. 

She will continue her zealous advocacy for clean air through calling for the decommissioning the local Peaker Plant, passing the zero-emissions port study, implementing a study for the development of a local indirect source rule, protecting local law 97, expanding community-solar; and advancing the green re-industrialization of our working waterfront that includes expanding green union jobs.  Passed in 2023, Alexa is committed to the full implementation of the Build Public Renewables Act.  She will also continue to work with the NYC Department of Sanitation on the persistent illegal dumping across the district and called for improved sanitation services.

Arts and culture

To create a city where the arts can flourish, the City Council needs to plan for more than just COVID-19 recovery. While the pandemic has drastically impacted the livelihoods of arts and culture workers, artists have endured deep-rooted systemic obstacles for too long. We have to build a city that truly supports arts and culture workers and their families. Artists and musicians are workers, and their work contributes to thriving communities, just like ours. In District 38 and beyond, Alexa will fight to invest in making the arts accessible and sustainable for all.  

Make D38 an Arts Haven for its Residents

• Rectify decades-long cuts to NYCHA’s community centers, and co-create arts programing with Red Hook Houses residents.

• Offer Open Culture permits permanently, prioritizing performances in parks serving low income communities. Work with artists to establish a wage floor to pay performers, and split the cost.

Safety, Not Cops

• Abolish the surprise late-night raids of community arts spaces by dismantling the Multi-Agency Response to Community Hotspots (MARCH) task force. Invest in free safety resources and education for venues to help community spaces stay up-to-code.

Invest in Independent Artists

• Fund work programs for artists, like those established by the Works Progress Administration. Extend the recent City Artist Corps program and establish benchmarks to ensure funding increases over time. 

• Streamline the application process for artists to obtain Department of Cultural Affairs, Borough Councils of the Arts, or discretionary funding. 

• Establish a quota of Department of Cultural Affairs advisory board seats reserved for independent artists.