By Gus Saltonstall
Micah Lasher has been a leading name in the race to replace Assemblymember Danny O’Donnell in District 69 since January. Lasher, the former policy director for Gov. Kathy Hochul, director of state legislative affairs under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and aide to Rep. Jerry Nadler, has been endorsed by a slew of Upper West Side and Morningside Heights elected officials.
Nadler, Councilmembers Gale Brewer and Shaun Abreu, Borough President Mark Levine, multiple local Democratic clubs, and others, have all announced their support of Lasher.
For those who might not have been following the race until now, it raises the question — where does Lasher stand on local issues?
Members of the Assembly create legislation on the state level, which includes elements that affect our daily lives, such as Good Cause eviction, bail reform, and, in general, helping to craft the budget for the entirety of New York each year.
Election Day for the primary is on June 25, with the Early Voting period starting in the 10 days prior.
West Side Rag continues its coverage of the upcoming election in the following conversation with Lasher. It has been condensed and edited for clarity.
We also spoke and published interviews on Thursday with candidates Eli Northrup and Melissa Rosenberg.
We also spoke and published interviews Thursday with candidates Eli Northrup and Micah Lasher. Additionally, the Rag reached out to candidates Jack Kellner and Carmen Quinones, and we will be publishing their interviews next week.
There are no Republican candidates at this point who have filed to run in the race.
We asked all the candidates versions of the same questions, in hopes of giving prospective voters a heightened understanding of where the different candidates stand on important local issues.
The Interview
West Side Rag: What would be one of the first pieces of legislation you’d look to introduce, and which committees would you seek to join? Is there a member you’d most look forward to working with?
Lasher: I’d like to introduce two pieces of legislation dealing with the scaffolding and vacant storefront problems that are acute in our neighborhood. There are property tax incentives and potentially penalties that could encourage the prompt completion of facade work, and not have sidewalk sheds left up indefinitely.
There are perverse incentives in our property tax system, and also in how banks lend money to building owners that make it more likely that an owner would hold out and not lease a storefront. I would look at legislation to address both of those issues.
Certainly, the Housing Committee, the Committee on Cities, and the Committee on Mental Health are all on the top of my list. I’m fortunate to have a lot of very positive relationships in the legislature. I would look forward to working with Linda Rosenthal, both because of longstanding friendship and because she is the Assembly’s leader on housing issues.
West Side Rag: Zoning laws in Morningside Heights haven’t changed since the 1960s. It is one of the few areas in Manhattan where there are no requirements to building affordable housing. In recent years, there has been a community push on the city-side of the legislature to rezone the neighborhood. Do you have a stance on whether the neighborhood should be rezoned, and the topic of new housing in general?
Lasher: First of all, I would approach rezoning questions in general with a lot of deference to our municipal elected officials. The Morningside Heights Community Coalition and the local Community Board deserve an enormous amount of credit for crafting a truly community-led rezoning plan. And I will certainly look to work closely with them and our local elected officials as the process unfolds.
It is important that we create significant amounts of new housing, including income-restricted housing. We also have to take into consideration impacts of rezoning on surrounding communities, and those are all questions that would be explored through the ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure).
West Side Rag: Does Columbia University have an obligation to build affordable units for non-school community members?
Lasher: Columbia should see the value in maintaining the vibrancy that comes with socio-economic diversity in their community. It would be a wise and reasonable thing for Columbia to include affordable, non-affiliated housing in their real estate development.
West Side Rag: Continuing on the housing front, do you think the version of Good Cause Eviction that passed in this year’s budget went far enough in protecting tenant’s rights?
Lasher: At a time when a lot of tenants are facing enormous economic pressure, it was a very important and significant expansion of tenant’s rights. We have to see how it works in practice and adjust as necessary. One thing that strikes me as likely to be problematic is the portfolio exemption, in which buildings are exempt from the requirements of Good Cause Eviction based on the aggregate number of units owned by the landlord of the building, and that has the potential to make it very hard for tenants to know what their rights are.
As a general matter, I view our laws as living documents. Very often, sometimes for good reason, sometimes not, the legislature does not get it right on the first shot, and we shouldn’t hesitate to fix things.
West Side Rag: There seems to be a Venn diagram of sorts between storefront vacancies, the proliferation of illegal smoke shops, and the state’s struggle to roll out legal cannabis sales. How can the Assembly play a part in helping local businesses, and with this topic in general?
Lasher: There’s no question in my mind that the initial legislation made it incredibly difficult to shut down illegal smoke shops, and that in the most recent budget, this was largely, if not entirely corrected. What we have to see is whether the city of New York effectively uses the authority it has now been given to start shutting these places down at scale, broadly and quickly. If they don’t, then we have to to ask the question, is that a function of operational failure on the part of enforcing agencies, or are there still additional issues with the law?
There are perverse incentives that run in two directions that make it more likely a building owner will hold out, rather than enter into a lease agreement. The first is that your property tax assessment is driven by the income from the property, so a vacant storefront results in a reduced property tax burden. Conversely, when you’re borrowing against your property, the evaluation is typically done at a projected rent, so you actually pay no penalty on that side for having the storefront vacant, and at the same time, may be able to borrow more based on an effectively imaginary rent projection.
We do need to look at whether through law or regulation, we can attack those perverse incentives. I also would like to look at providing at least some incentives, if not grant funding, to encourage short-term leases and leases to nonprofits. Another part of the challenge is that commercial leases are typically long-term and there are a lot of entities that might add enormous value to the community that are not able to immediately enter into a 5 or 10-year lease, but given some support, might become long-term tenants.
West Side Rag: Parks are a major part of Assembly District 69, something you know well as the chair of the Riverside Park Conservancy. What do you see as government’s role in helping our green spaces flourish?
Lasher: I’ve been on the board of the Riverside Park Conservancy for the last decade and served as chair for the last five years. While both Riverside and Central Park are incredible, truly singular public spaces, certainly speaking for Riverside, it is hard to overstate the scope of the need. Those needs are everything from fields that need to be resurfaced, to staircases that are crumbling, to larger scope projects. These are significant needs and government doesn’t always keep up with them, and it requires pressure from local elected officials to bring that money back to the district.
West Side Rag: On the question of public safety. It seems like many residents don’t feel as comfortable walking around their neighborhood as they did before the pandemic. How do we make locals feel safer in the district?
Lasher: We have to start with an honest conversation about public safety. Two things can be true at the same time. New York is safer than many other cities, and at the same time, our crime rates are much higher today than they were before the pandemic. It is still an extraordinarily safe city, we are not back to the 80s, but we should not pretend away a meaningful diminishment of safety, and that requires a thoughtful approach. You can’t begin to have a thoughtful approach unless everybody is acting from a shared set of facts.
A response to legitimate concerns of safety has to look at the long-term: how do you deal with structural issues, questions of poverty, questions of community investment, such that people will live productive lives and not engage in activities that endanger public safety. But we also have an obligation to tell people how we’ll make people safer today, and that requires effective work from our police department and our district attorneys. We shouldn’t hesitate to expect and demand that.
West Side Rag: Continuing on the topic of safety, street safety has become a louder conversation since the pandemic. Electric bikes are a leading topic among constituents within that subject. What do you see as ways to improve the conditions around e-bikes in the district right now?
Lasher: As a basic matter, I think there could be a lot more done under current law to enforce against reckless e-bike driving. While I am running for the state legislature, it’s important not to skip past if a problem can be better addressed under current law. At the same time, I would support a licensing and registration regimen under state legislation, if necessary. We also have to hold the app-based delivery companies accountable for the conditions they create that spur reckless driving.
West Side Rag: Stepping back, you’ve run for elected office once before. Why was this the right moment and right district to step back into the ring and seek a leadership position?
Lasher: I struggle to find the words to capture how much I love the West Side, how fortunate I feel to have grown up here, and how fortunate I feel to raise my kids here. I love the parks, I love the restaurants, I love the schools, I love my community of friends and family. Any opportunity to serve this district, to try to speak to residents of this district, and try to make their lives better, was an opportunity that at any time of my life I would have jumped at. When Assemblymember O’Donnell announced he was departing after 22 years of extraordinary service, it wasn’t a difficult decision to step up.
West Side Rag: Finally, any favorite places of yours you could tell us about within the district?
Lasher: On many mornings, after dropping my daughter off, I will go sit in the West Side Community Garden to reflect and take a beat, and to prepare for the day ahead. I love Barney Greengrass and Absolute Bagels as a Sunday morning family brunch combo. Dive Bar is a great place to get a drink. The Red Clay tennis courts in Riverside Park are maybe the most beautiful setting I’ve ever played tennis. Ellington in the Park…a lot of my life has been spent in Riverside Park, I learned to a ride a bike in Riverside Park, my kids learned to ride their bikes in Riverside Park. Riverside and many of its locations are near and dear to my heart.
You can check out Lasher’s candidate website, which also includes his full list of endorsements — HERE.