• Let’s improve and enforce Jersey City’s rent control ordinance by closing the “demolition loophole” and funding enforcement officers who will address code violations. In addition, fund legal providers and community groups to educate tenants on their rights. 

• Residents frequently have no recourse when facing illegal living conditions. Let’s enact stricter enforcement for landlord code violations and failure to make repairs.

• Swiftly distribute rental assistance as the current administration lags behind, and keep the current freeze on rent increases in place until recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is complete. Read the Huffington Post report on how this administration made it unnecessarily harder for tenants to receive aid.

• We must pass and adequately fund a Right to Counsel ordinance that provides free legal representation for tenants in Landlord-Tenant court.

• Refund and repeal of municipal utilities waste disposal fee (garbage tax).

• Increase funding for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund using resident and non-residential development fees, city capital and operating funds, and other mechanisms like a real estate sales transfer tax, while also increasing oversight of the fund by creating a board composed of community members. Let’s ensure that the fund prioritizes deep and permanent affordable housing, through the preservation of existing housing and the creation of new housing with community land trusts.

• We must advocate for better PILOT (tax abatement) monitoring specifically enforcing required yearly audits which the developer is required to furnish to The City of all their income and expenses. This sets the amount of the PILOT that goes to The City. 

• We must pass a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase (TOPA) ordinance to prevent displacement, where property owners (non-owner occupied) must offer tenants the chance to purchase the property at fair market value and convert it to a limited-equity housing cooperative before it is sold on the open market.

• I will fight to make corporate developers pay their fair share to support our schools.

• No more secret taxes that disproportionately affect working class families, like the municipal waste/water tax.

• I’ll work with the Board of Education to request more funds from the city in their budget, as well as keep payroll tax. 

• We must reject any attempts to make the BOE an appointed body.

• Scitech Scity already has the funding of two of NJ’s biggest billionaires. City taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for a county school.

We need a Green New Deal, not just for the whole country, but for Ward B and for Jersey City. Following the lead of leaders and groups on the frontlines of environmental justice, I want to advance a participatory planning process that prioritizes justice and equity, is grounded in sound science, and reflects the needs of residents, rather than corporate interests. Elements of the plan would include:

• Retrofitting all public buildings, including public housing, to be energy efficient and/or include renewable energy and use local hiring and union labor. 

• Ending private contractor trash collection for residential areas. Making sanitation services a city, union service job with higher accountability and include remedial street trash collection.

• Utilizing green infrastructure (gardens, trees, bioswales, parks, etc.) to mitigate flooding and urban heat island effect and use local hiring and union labor.

• Creating a zero waste plan that will minimize trash going to incinerators and landfills, as well as littering our streets.

• Updating Jersey City's zoning ordinance to prohibit greenhouse gas- emitting power plants and incentivize the siting of renewable energy sources, as well as grandfathering non-conforming, nuisance uses with an amortization ordinance.

• Promoting and funding community farming programs and a farm-to-school initiative.

• Replacing lead pipes and other outdated infrastructure using local hiring and union labor to do so.

How is it that residents don’t feel safe in their neighborhoods when police budgets keep increasing, and police accountability is lacking? The current approach to public safety is not working for Jersey City and for Ward B. We need to stabilize and heal our communities, starting with those most impacted by violence.

True public safety includes:

• Fighting for a more equitable city budget that reallocates funds to youth and jobs programs; to mental health-based crisis response services; to violence mediation and restorative justice programs; to housing for all. The best way to tackle crime is to give folks jobs, support, and care. 

• Creating accountability for police who abuse their power, through a strong Civilian Complaint Review Board and an end to qualified immunity. Let’s elevate community voices in the conversation regarding what makes us safe.

• Creating transparency in regards to public safety reporting that is accessible to our whole community.

• Avoiding expensive cop-outs like consultant serviced de-escalation training.

There is still a public health crisis in Jersey City. We need to deliver healthcare to the frontlines and those most at-risk. In Jersey City, this looks like: 

• Expanded community health center locations and resources, including expanded preventive care and mental health services, available to all residents regardless of income.

• Funding for additional studies and surveys, to assess the most pressing health needs of residents by a variety of demographic metrics

• A healthcare workers’ Bill of Rights. Strengthened labor standards for health care workers, as permissible by municipal regulation.

• A municipal patients’ Bill of Rights. This would include price caps on specific services, as permissible by municipal regulation.  This would also work to ban egregious practices, like surprise medical billing, within city limits.

• Coordination with environmental, public health, nutritional and community groups to address the root causes of serious illness due to pollution and lack of access to proper nutrition and medical care.  

• Health services for those who are ill or injured due to proximity to severe pollution, due to lack of preventative care and adequate nutritional resources, or due to COVID-19.

• Expanded educational outreach to marginalized populations across the city regarding healthcare resources.

• Supporting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city employees. 

I understand that the lack of public transit options and increase in large, new developments have led to more cars in the neighborhood, without the infrastructure to sustain them. As a councilperson I would advocate for:

• Consistent road upkeep and proper construction, limiting sinkholes and cracking.

• Parking enforcement and traffic safety measures. West Side residents deserve safe, clean streets for drivers and pedestrians. 

• Transparency regarding the West Side light rail extension. This project may be above or below ground, and Joel will fight for a transparent process that engages residents.

• Increased public transit especially to transit deserts like Marion Gardens.

• Helping workers at VIA and other publicly subsidized transportation unionize their workplace. 

• A protected bike lane on JFK Boulevard.
  

Arts funding should be used to:

• Provide direct income assistance to local artists, many of whom are struggling to get back on their feet after a year plus of unemployment due to COVID. One way to do this would be to set aside local or state public funding to pay for public artworks (like with FDR’s WPA, and Federal Project Number One).  New York has recently set aside $25 million (of money allocated in the state budget) for a WPA-style “City Artist Corps.  Applicants are selected at random to receive a $5,000 grant, to be used in the creation of public art works/performances for the city.

• Similarly, the city should use the money from Pompidou to invest directly in a much greater number of existing and new smaller arts venues.  These places are already closing due to rising commercial rents, and due to COVID.  Supporting them would help sustain a rich cultural fabric equitably, across all neighborhoods in the city and not just the most affluent.

• Fund commercial rent control. This would help address displacement of small business owners and artists from the community that is exacerbated by larger projects like Pompidou. 

• Support arts enrichment and education for the city’s poor and marginalized populations.  This would take many forms, from reinvestment in public school arts programming, to community/neighborhood-based initiatives.  These kinds of projects would foster arts participation throughout Jersey City’s diverse communities, creating a sustainable (and not extractive) arts and culture ecosystem.

As a career-long labor organizer, I understand the needs of workers and will put them first as councilman. I will do this by:

• Fighting for construction projects that happen in the City and in Ward B to use union labor.

• Fighting for a living wage in Jersey City ($25) - $17 isn’t enough. 

• Ensuring existing local labor laws are better monitored and enforced. 

• Having unconditional solidarity for workers organizing in the city. 

• Investigating and cracking down on health and safety violations in the city.

• Refunding our crossing guards who were axed at the start of the pandemic and not supported.