Rebuild NYC
My parents, two working-class Costa Rican New Yorkers, raised me in our rent-stabilized apartment in Central Brooklyn. Today, my wife and I want to put down roots in the neighborhood that raised us — but this city has become unaffordable for millions of families like ours.
New Yorkers want leaders to think big — and are instead met with half measures. We demand solutions — and instead, receive excuses. Our leaders have been unwilling to put forward a bold, ambitious vision worthy of the greatest city in the world.
We cannot afford to think small because we are afraid of failure. Our current path of band aids and blinders is a choice — a choice to continue pushing New Yorkers out; a choice to keep families from growing; a choice to wish the problem away. Today, I am proposing we choose differently.
Today, I propose we rebuild New York City. Rebuild NYC is a plan for building and preserving one million homes. It is a plan for enough housing to house us all, young and old, single and families, in every stage of our lives. It is a solution as big as the challenge we face. It is a commitment to use every tool and lever available to deliver the housing we need and deserve.
Zellnor Myrie
Zellnor’s Track Record
Fighting for Affordable Housing
Zellnor Myrie is recognized as one of the most powerful advocates for affordable housing in the state legislature. In the face of the worst affordable housing crisis in generations, he helped lead the fight to protect tenants and preserve affordable apartments by passing the strongest rent laws in a generation. He’s been a strong voice for NYCHA residents, demanding speedy repairs of their units and the removal of unsightly scaffolding that lingers for years. He passed legislation to protect homeowners from deed theft, and wrote legislation to give more New Yorkers an opportunity to purchase the homes they rent and expand longtime homeowners’ eligibility for tax credits. And prior to his election to the State Senate, he helped craft the Tenants’ Bill of Rights as a Legislative Director in the New York City Council.
Stopping Gun Violence
From his first day in office, Zellnor Myrie has advanced a broad range of policies to stem gun violence in New York. He wrote and passed the first law in the nation to crack down on irresponsible gun dealers and manufacturers and hold them accountable. He’s voted to ban body armor sales in New York, limit access to semiautomatic rifles, and expand the state’s red flag laws to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others. Myrie has also worked to strengthen the state’s concealed-carry laws and expand violence intervention programs in our communities. In recognition of his leadership, Myrie was named the “Gun Sense Lawmaker of the Year” by Everytown for Gun Safety in 2021.
Strengthening Public Education
A product of New York City’s public school system, Senator Zellnor Myrie has been a fierce champion for public education in the state. He fought to deliver record aid to New York City’s public schools—ending decades of funding inequity—to give teachers the resources they need to succeed in our classrooms. He’s been an outspoken advocate for universal pre-K and for fully supporting our state-funded higher education across the state. And, this year, Myrie has spearheaded the call for free, universal after-school programs to help working parents and keep kids on the right track.
Enhancing Voting Rights
As Chair of the Senate’s Elections Committee, Zellnor Myrie has led the charge to bring New York’s antiquated voting laws into the 21st century and make the state a national leader in protecting voting rights. Among his most important reform efforts was introducing early voting across the state and closing the LLC loophole, which had long allowed wealthy donors to evade contribution limits. Myrie is the author of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York, which the Brennan Center for Justice said offers “the country’s strongest protections against racial discrimination in voting.”
Tackling Climate Change
Understanding the urgency of the moment, one of Senator Zellnor Myrie’s top priorities in his first term was to pass the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, described by the New York Times as “one of the world’s most ambitious climate plans.” The law’s emission goals and requirements have helped set the pace for the nation. Since then, Myrie has written the groundbreaking Climate Negligence Act, which would hold big oil and gas industry polluters accountable for their direct role in causing global warming. And Myrie has led efforts to get our public universities to help put students on paths to the green jobs of the future.
Defending Abortion Rights
Strongly pro-choice, one of Zellnor Myrie’s first votes in the State Senate was to pass the Reproductive Health Act which ensures abortion rights here in New York. And in the wake of the Supreme Court’s disastrous repeal of Roe v. Wade, Myrie has championed a host of laws to defend abortion access from red-state laws that criminalize abortion, including protecting New York doctors who prescribe abortion pills, like mifepristone, and protecting people who come to New York from other states to obtain abortions.
Demanding Better Healthcare
Throughout his three terms in the State Senate, Zellnor Myrie has been a powerful voice for expanding access to health care for New Yorkers. He has been an especially forceful advocate for addressing the maternal health crisis in Central Brooklyn and protecting funding for safety net hospitals. This year, he successfully led the fight to stop the closure of SUNY Downstate Medical Center along with a coalition of Brooklyn residents, healthcare workers and labor unions.
Moving the Criminal Justice System Forward
In the State Senate, Zellnor Myrie has worked to reform the criminal justice system in a way that balances public safety with the need for fundamental fairness. Myrie is the author of the Clean Slate Act, which removes employment barriers for many who’ve paid their debt to society, and he built a coalition of business, law enforcement, and reform advocates to pass it. He’s also authored the Fair Access to Victims Compensation Act to help crime victims get compensation from the state more quickly. And in his first term, Myrie fought to eliminate cash bail for many misdemeanors and non-violent felonies and to pass the Child Victims Act — and later the Adult Victims Act — to allow survivors of sexual abuse to seek justice.
Standing Up for Consumers
Senator Myrie has fought to keep more money in the pockets of New York’s hard-working families. He wrote the “COVID-19 Fraud Accountability Act,” which sharply increased civil financial penalties for unscrupulous COVID testing scams and other white collar crimes committed in connection with the pandemic or other future emergencies. Senator Myrie also wrote a law to help New York’s aging Holocaust survivors avoid costly bank fees on reparations payments from overseas. And in response to the high cost of prescription drugs, Senator Myrie wrote legislation in 2023 to regulate intermediaries in the pharmaceutical industry that drive up prices for consumers.