During my time as council member, I’ve committed every day of the past two years to fighting for District 18. That hard work paid off. I am proud to have brought over $34.5 million directly to our community to fund the necessary infrastructure upgrades and critical services we need. With 2024 marking the beginning of my second term, I wanted to take this moment to reflect on some of the most important investments I have made over the last two years as a first-term council member.
While on the City Council’s budget negotiation team, I fought alongside my colleagues to guarantee every school started fully funded with all their previous school year’s complete budget! Not a single one of our schools started this year with budget cuts. In addition, I allocated over $10 million to upgrade our school infrastructure, including new auditoriums, new technology and science labs, and more to increase opportunities for students. Lastly, I know we need after school options. I invested $680,000 in after school programs for everything from free sports programs to free chess classes.
Our community is lucky to have several green open spaces, but a number of those parks need a lot of love. I am proud to have invested $6.5 million to finally renovate Harding Park after 40+ years, $2.5 million for Space-Time Playground to complete its full renovation, and re-open Noble Playground with state-of-the-art equipment. I have also worked hard to bring us together as neighbors with fun and free activities like movie nights, skate parties and others.
But we don’t only gather in our parks — we are also home to so many busy and bustling community centers. I grew up learning and studying in our favorite community spaces: our libraries. I am proud to have brought new teen centers to our public libraries in Soundview and Parkchester, and soon to Castle Hill where we will be adding a whole new floor! For our older adults, I ensured every senior center is fully funded with over $400,000 to keep doors open with engaging programs and over $556,000 to support all the great activities that go on at our community centers across the district.
Prior to my first term, our community had extremely limited safety infrastructure — making mobility, sustainable transportation, and safe commuting unattainable — but not anymore! Now we have e-scooters to get us in between our transit hubs, bike lanes so we can move about safely, zipcars to help those of us without cars, and faster train service on the 6 line.
I’ve also worked hard to ensure our streets are not only safer, but cleaner. I dedicated $450,000 to clean and beautify our community, including over $100,000 just to supplemental sanitation services through local partners, ACE. You will see them in bright red around our community and they do an amazing job keeping some of our most chronic dumping spots cleaner than they have been in years! I was also happy to provide funding to both the Westchester Square BID and Castle Hill BID where we had our first ever tree lighting ceremony in Castle Hill.
Fighting food insecurity has been and will continue to be one of my top priorities. That’s why I committed over $375,000 to support local pantries, community gardens, and more with partners like GrowNYC. My office rolled out a new initiative giving out $25,000 in Health Bucks at the local farmers market for people to buy fresh produce. Through this initiative we helped over 1,000 people put healthy food on the table for their families.
It has been the honor of my life to continue to serve the community that raised me. I look forward to continuing to work with and for my neighbors every day and I urge you to continue to stay in touch with my office throughout the next two years.
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