Dear Councilwoman Julie Menin,<\/p>\n
Congratulations on securing enough votes to become the next New York City Council speaker. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a significant achievement, one many New Yorkers welcomed with a sigh of relief given your rival\u2019s progressivism.<\/p>\n
Most Gothamites did not sign up for the radicalism apparent in Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s transition team and are craving not sweeping social change but a moderating force to counter the policies that have already left our streets and subways less safe, our city more expensive, our schools less effective and our communities more divided.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a candidate for City Council and Manhattan district attorney<\/a> and as a Community Education Council<\/a> president, I have talked to people for years about their actual concerns. <\/p>\n New Yorkers throw in the towel and leave our great city when they lack real safety, business-friendly laws, good jobs, affordable rent, excellent schools and improved quality of life.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with public safety. <\/p>\n Just last week, we\u2019ve seen a young NYU student stalked and assaulted on Sixth Avenue by a serial attacker of young women, a Soho boutique robbed of $1 million worth of merchandise and a Molotov cocktail tossed in a West Village shop. <\/p>\n You must recognize and publicly support the urgent need to repeal bail reform, maintain the NYPD gang database and stop the proposed Department of Community Safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n As speaker, you\u2019ll have the platform to make a forceful case to Albany legislators and the governor to finally end bail reform. <\/p>\n Councilwoman Julie Menin has secured enough votes to become the next City Council speaker. LP Media<\/p>\n It\u2019s past time to repeal law that puts recidivists on our streets again and again. <\/p>\n You can also rally your council colleagues and build a coalition to demand the NYPD gang database remain in place. <\/p>\n And Mamdani\u2019s ludicrous Department of Community Safety, which is an unconvincing fig leaf for another attempt to \u201cDefund the Police,\u201d is a nonstarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reject Mamdani\u2019s green initiatives. Congestion pricing is a tax and not a panacea for cleaner air or crowded streets. <\/p>\n Stop taxing working-class New Yorkers while pushing us towards less safe, less clean, less reliable subways.\u00a0<\/p>\n New York\u2019s Democratic Socialists of America trumpet Mamdani\u2019s election win. @nycDSA\/X<\/p>\n Likewise, Mamdani\u2019s education plan needs to be checked. <\/p>\n His transition team is rife with warmed-over Bill de Blasio educrats who want equity over excellence and progressive lip service over meaningful results. <\/p>\n As a mom of a New York City public-school graduate and three current students, I\u2019ve seen firsthand how the push to eliminate and water down gifted programs, end specialized-high-school entrance exams and oppose any meritocratic program degrades our schools and harms bright students from all backgrounds, especially those from low-income families who rely on merit to climb the ladder. <\/p>\n Instead, champion policies that reward hard work and excellence and reject the equity-at-all-costs mantra.<\/p>\n