Brad Lander Crusades for Neighborhood Preservation

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Brad Lander, one of New York City Council's newest members, has made neighborhood preservation one of his signature issues. From his years working as a city planner to his first term in the council, Lander has helped fix up abandoned properties, supported small businesses, and strived to develop new affordable housing and maintain what there is.

Lander, a Democrat, was elected to the City Council in November of 2009, replacing Bill de Blasio, who is now the city's public advocate. He serves the 39th District, encompassing Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, and Borough Park. He lives in Park Slope.

For six years, Lander was the director of the Pratt Center for Community Development, a community advocacy group based at the Pratt Institute. During his time as director, he worked with politicians and other housing advocates to set up an inclusionary zoning law during the rezoning of the Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront. The law requires that developers who build larger buildings must set aside 20% of space for low- and middle-income housing.

"What I feel a lot of passion about is, shouldn’t this growth and development bring us new parks and affordable housing and jobs?" he told New York magazine's Daily Intel blog in 2007. "It seems like all they bring is luxury condos."

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Before joining Pratt, Lander was the executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, a community advocacy non-profit working in South Brooklyn. The Fifth Avenue Committee, during the economic downturn of the early 90s, bought abandoned or potentially abandoned buildings from the City or out of foreclosure and renovated them, preserving residents' homes and supporting business growth by renting out retail space in Fifth Avenue Committee-owned buildings. The Committee also helped found a non-profit temp agency, FirstSource Staffing, that helps ensure for wages for temporary wages.

In his first two months on the City Council, Lander has been appointed to serve on the Land Use, Housing, General Welfare, Environmental Protection, Economic Development and Waterfront committees, as well as chair of the Land Use subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting, and Maritime Uses. He has also launched a website, stalleddevelopment.com, that has an interactive of stalled, abandoned, or vacant development sites in his district. Lander hopes that the website will help community members stay involved in getting these spaces developed.


"These developments cause real hazards for their neighbors," Lander said in a press release. "We need to get a better handle on these sites, and to take action to convert local blight into community benefit.”

Lander was embroiled in some controversy over the summer when an ad in the Borough Park Yiddish newspaper Der Blatt used homophobic language in endorsing him. Lander denied having anything to do with the ad.

"People in Borough Park know of my support of marriage equality and no one would believe that we would have placed this ad," Lander told YourNabe.com. "It could only serve to do me harm.”