Clarisa Alayeto, who currently chairs Bronx Community Board 1, announced Wednesday that she is running for City Council District 8, which covers East Harlem and the South Bronx.
Alayeto, who made the announcement on Instagram, aims to take the seat currently held by Diana Ayala, who has been in office since 2018 and is term limited. Alayeto recently left a leadership position at DREAM Charter School to work on her campaign. She was born in East Harlem—into a family with deep roots in the neighborhood—and grew up in the NYCHA Patterson Houses in Mott Haven.
“I understand the struggle of our community firsthand,” Alayeto said in a call with the Bronx Times following the announcement.
Alayeto was elected to the unpaid leadership role with the community board in late 2023, unseating longtime chair Arline Parks. This is her first time seeking citywide office.
“I think this is about putting community first, no matter what,” she said.
Alayeto said she believes there is an appetite for someone new in the political sphere. Many have “lost hope” in civic engagement, she said.
“I don’t see that our communities would feel moved by any candidate who’s in this race, because we’re over the same old, same old,” she said. “We need to get our people engaged, and it’s not gonna happen from the top down. It’s gonna happen from the bottom, from the ground.”
In her role as community board chair, Alayeto said she heard about the need for increased transparency, engagement and communication between government and residents, and the same principles apply to her council candidacy.
Alayeto said her number one priority is affordable housing. “It’s expensive to raise a family here,” she said. “People can’t afford to stay where they grew up, where their roots are.”
She pointed to a legacy of displacement that affected her own family, when tenement housing in East Harlem was torn down and her great- grandmother and grandmother were moved to NYCHA housing. Alayeto said she is concerned about low voter turnout in District 8 despite the large number of public housing residents. Leaders “need to activate that” for more voices to be heard, she said.
Alayeto said sanitation is another top concern, as is safety, especially for women. As an avid runner, she often goes out in the evenings or early mornings, and everyone in the community should feel safer in doing things like that, she said.
“We need to do [public safety] in a way that it works for our community, but also, we’re holding people accountable that are hurting our community,” said Alayeto.
Preventing obesity is an issue that Alayeto said she will champion based on her own circumstances. In 2016, she was diagnosed with diabetes and managed to reverse the diagnosis through her wellness journey, which she has documented on Instagram. But since 2020, Alayeto said she has had a “frustrating” experience that many can relate to in trying to fend off weight gain.
With the Bronx being one of the state’s most unhealthy counties, the borough needs better healthcare and resources aimed at preventing obesity. “We need to do work around that.”
Alayeto said she “wrestled” for years with the decision to run for City Council, but now she is all-in, working to qualify for city matching funds and get her campaign going. She joins several other candidates for District 8: Assembly Member Edward Gibbs, Daniel Aulbach-Sidibe, Federico Colon, Hector Feliciano, Wilfredo Lopez, Nicholas Reyes and Ayala’s current chief of staff, Elsie Encarnacion.
Alayeto said she has strong local support, and although politics can get ugly, she looks forward to the challenge ahead.
“It’s not just me running for office,” she said. “I’m running with the community.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
