Press Room

"As the cost of living continues to rise for New Yorkers, immediate and long-term affordability for working families across our city and state is a vital focus. We’ve fought to raise the minimum wage for over a decade, and both increasing and indexing it to inflation are crucial, as is using the reach and resources of state government to provide relief, security, and economic opportunity.

"Nowhere is this more clear than the single largest expense for New Yorkers - housing. Many of the governor’s proposals were encouraging, including setting new targets for creating hundreds of thousands of units and making it easier to create that housing statewide. As I argued before the speech, making these new homes income-targeted is just as important, if not more so. If the government is taking steps to encourage responsible development, whether through subsidizing or streamlining, that support should only come in exchange for deeply affordable housing.

"Additionally, no housing plan is real without including preservation strategies, and new housing without sufficient tenant protections and foreclosure prevention will not be enough to keep New Yorkers in their homes. The progressive path forward to address the housing and homelessness crisis in our state is one that puts people over profits, communities over corporations. The housing headlines from the governor’s speech are promising, but the real challenges and fights lay ahead in the specifics, and I will continue to fight for true housing justice as these plans are moved toward action."

As Governor Kathy Hochul is set to deliver her State of the State address, City Limits has published an op-ed by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams entitled 'Governor Hochul’s State of Housing,' which explores the shortcomings of the housing policies of this and previous governors, and sets a bold, urgent, necessary agenda to meet the crisis in New York City and statewide – not just in number of units, but in levels of affordability. The Public Advocate calls for the Governor to pursue housing strategies that put people over profit, in this speech and throughout her upcoming term.

"As Governor Kathy Hochul is set to deliver the speech that could define her first full term, she has an opportunity to set a path of real progress on housing. But she will have to break the patterns of past leadership—and her own first year in office," argues Public Advocate Williams after harkening back to the resistance of then-Governor Cuomo to housing reforms. "... If steps are going to be taken by the government to encourage responsible development, whether through subsidizing or streamlining, that support should only come in exchange for deeply affordable housing, not market-rate. Everything is “affordable” to someone, and too often we have seen that label applied to housing entirely unaffordable to the current residents of a community, which only spurs gentrification and displacement while neither meeting the housing crisis in a neighborhood nor providing the supply that could lower costs city and statewide."

After calling for the overdue passage of Good Cause Eviction protections, the Worst Landlord Accountability Act on the city level, and a model of housing owned by communities of tenants, the Public Advocate makes clear that "Enacting all of this means rejecting those in real estate who stand as power players and powerful donors—one area where the governor is at best following, if not going further in the wrong direction than, her predecessor. The answers to New York’s housing and homelessness crisis do not come in private fundraisers and are not fueled by big checks—they come from the tenants and would-be owners struggling to find and remain in their homes. In this year’s State of the State, I hope to see a governor ready to listen to those voices, not provide lip service in service of the status quo."

Read the Public Advocate’s full piece below, and find it online here.

Governor Hochul's State of Housing

By New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams

When we asked the last governor for housing reforms, he had us arrested.

In June of 2019, I joined hundreds of advocates for a sit-in outside then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office—an act of civil disobedience in support of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, which would ultimately be the largest advancement for tenant rights in decades.

That monumental achievement, fueled by a coalition of advocates and elected officials from all across the state, provided vital security and relief for tenants. But the reluctance of past city and state leaders to embrace—in some cases, their efforts to actively oppose—true housing justice have left New York mired in a housing and homelessness crisis that sees shelters full and failing, rents rising to historic highs, conditions deteriorating, and ownership entirely out of reach for many New Yorkers. Moving forward requires leadership that recognizes the scope of this failure and is willing to make housing New Yorkers a true top priority, with a truly bold agenda.

As Gov. Kathy Hochul is set to deliver the speech that could define her first full term, she has an opportunity to set a path of real progress on housing. But she will have to break the patterns of past leadership—and her own first year in office.

In her first State of the State, the governor promised 100,000 units of nominally affordable housing across the state. As I said at the time, that number would not even come close to meeting the needs here in the five boroughs, much less statewide, and seemed to show a lack of understanding or urgency related to the housing crisis. Since then, she has increased that target to 800,000 new units, and as Mayor Eric Adams has agreed, the majority of those units will be in the city—though the affordability targets remain unclear. In this year’s blueprints, the governor and mayor must each support strategies that truly meet the scope and urgency of this housing crisis.

As I pushed for while running statewide, we need an increased goal of 1,000,000 affordable housing units built and preserved—that campaign is over, but the housing crisis and need for these units are not. Just as important as the target number of units, though, is making these homes income-targeted. If steps are going to be taken by the government to encourage responsible development, whether through subsidizing or streamlining, that support should only come in exchange for deeply affordable housing, not market-rate. Everything is “affordable” to someone, and too often we have seen that label applied to housing entirely unaffordable to the current residents of a community, which only spurs gentrification and displacement while neither meeting the housing crisis in a neighborhood nor providing the supply that could lower costs city and statewide.

Creating these units is vital—at the same time, it’s just as important that we ensure New Yorkers can stay in these homes, both through foreclosure prevention and eviction protections. A tide of evictions continues even as waves of the pandemic repeatedly rise, and tenants lack a critical safeguard cast aside by Governors Cuomo and Hochul alike—Good Cause Eviction protections.

Good Cause Eviction legislation—one piece of the 2019 package which did not pass—would give renters living in non-rent-stabilized units the right to a lease renewal, and prevent landlords from kicking tenants out without a valid reason. Additionally, it would help prevent the kind of massive rent increases we have seen in the city over the last year.

Landlords have long tried to kick out tenants in an effort to raise prices—but in recent months and years we have seen that if they are unable to gouge new tenants for new profits, they often prefer to leave units vacant, allowing the housing crisis to deepen and conditions in buildings to deteriorate. When my office released our Worst Landlord Watchlist last month, we toured buildings all-but abandoned by their owners, left to disrepair as tenants themselves worked to maintain their buildings.

We need to pass city legislation to hold these landlords accountable, including my Worst Landlord Accountability Act, but we also need to give tenants themselves the chance to take ownership of their homes. This is the year to enact the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act on a state level, granting tenants priority purchasing power if their buildings are put up for sale. The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, on the city level, can also aid in this area by helping nonprofits to acquire buildings and collaborate with tenants through community land trusts.

This question of ownership is crucial, and as landlords and corporations continue to place profits over people and even their own properties, it is time to move to create alternatives to this model. Housing owned by communities of tenants, rather than corporations, is the path forward. While investing to reverse decades of decline in New York’s public housing, the state and city should be making efforts to acquire, preserve, and develop properties that can be owned and managed through community land trusts, occupied by tenants across the income spectrum.

Enacting all of this means rejecting those in real estate who stand as power players and powerful donors—one area where the governor is at best following, if not going further in the wrong direction than, her predecessor. The answers to New York’s housing and homelessness crisis do not come in private fundraisers and are not fueled by big checks—they come from the tenants and would-be owners struggling to find and remain in their homes. In this year’s State of the State, I hope to see a governor ready to listen to those voices, not provide lip service in service of the status quo.

I’m happy to return to the governor’s door this year, and I know tenants across the city and state would join, in an effort to convene and collaborate on a housing agenda as bold in New York’s history as it is basic to New Yorkers’ needs. But having been here before, heard promises before, I’m left to wonder—would our voices be heard through the glass, would our proposals be let inside?

"In the wake of a second asylum seeker losing their life to suicide, and in anticipation of another increase in arrivals, we must examine the holes in our service infrastructure, especially in the area of mental health, to help prevent future pain. People who have come to our city seeking asylum have endured immense trauma, which must be met with increased empathy and treated with elevated mental health services. In a city with longstanding inadequacies in both mental health support and the shelter system broadly it is clearly not enough to do what we have done in the past – we must do more, and to provide more aid to asylum seekers, we must receive it from our governing partners.

"While I’m grateful that the federal spending bill will include money to help cities meet the needs of asylum seekers, I also fear putting New York in competition with other cities for funding will ultimately mean less aid for those who need it most. At the same time, New York City should not be alone in bearing the challenge of this crisis – the Governor should work with additional cities to house asylum seekers statewide. This is a national crisis that has become a New York crisis, and with the expectation of an increase in people arriving in the coming weeks, we cannot wait to put in place the plans and the resources necessary to meet the need."

Just following the release of the 2022 Worst Landlord Watchlist, Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams will advance the second piece of legislation in his Worst Landlord Accountability Act to combat the practices of some of the worst landlords in New York City and support tenants in need of relief and repairs. During today’s City Council Stated Meeting, he will re-introduce Intro 862, which would require the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to more quickly respond to and perform inspections of hazardous violations. This year’s Worst Landlord Watchlist had the most violations in the history of the list, including thousands of immediately hazardous violations in hundreds of buildings around the city.

“Yesterday, we named, shamed, and spotlighted the worst landlords in our city – and the most violations in the history of the list,” sad Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams. “Today, I’m eager to take another step forward in holding bad actors accountable legislatively. The Worst Landlord Accountability Act is about preventing landlords from evading consequences and protecting their tenants from conditions which are physically unsafe or otherwise insecure. Moving these bills forward must come with additional resources for city agencies to meet the requirements of the legislation and the responsibility to improve conditions and prevent the worst landlords from continuing these patterns of negligence as the cost of doing business.”

Today, tenants can wait for excessive periods of time while struggling with immediately hazardous violations like lack of heat and hot water. Under this new legislation, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development would be required to communicate with a complainant reporting Class C violations within 12 hours, and perform an inspection, if warranted, within 24 hours. HPD would also have to communicate regarding Class B violations within 24 hours, and perform an inspection within 48 hours. No violation can be closed until it has been certified to be corrected to the satisfaction of HPD. This new and clear timeline would both protect tenants and pressure landlords, deterring the egregious negligence happening in hundreds of buildings across the city and displayed yesterday in Washington Heights.

The 2022 Worst Landlord Watchlist included a record-breaking number of violations; across the entire list, there were a staggering 69,018 violations, nearly a 30% increase from the previous year. The worst landlord in New York City this year, Jonathan Santana, had an average of 2980 HPD open violations – 106% more average violations on average than last year. The landlords on this year’s list had a combined 18,305 Class C violations, and 36,960 Class B violations, whereas last year’s one hundred worst landlords had 13,103 Class C violations and 30,549 Class B violations.

The Public Advocate has also advanced Intro 583, the second component of the Worst Landlord Accountability Act, with the City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings holding a hearing last week on the legislation. Intro 583 would require HPD to maintain a certification of correction list and prohibit any listed landlord from certifying correction of violations in multiple dwellings without an inspection. This would prevent landlords already identified as bad actors from falsely claiming repairs have been made. At last week’s hearing, Public Advocate Williams spoke out in support of Intro 583, saying, “​​As we soon move into the new year, it is critical that we take swift action to hold the worst landlords accountable. We need to invest the resources to stop them from handling these violations and fines as negligible, or the cost of doing business, and combat the notion that making profit is much more vital than their own tenants.”

The bill would also increase penalties for failure to correctly certify. A landlord who fails to file a statement of registration or an amendment of a statement of registration will have to pay a fine of anywhere between $500 and $1,000. Anyone willfully making a false certification of correction of a violation will have to pay between $500 and $2,500 for each violation falsely certified, as well as any other penalties required. Additionally, penalties would increase for hazardous violation of housing standards based on severity.

Each year, the Public Advocate's office releases the Worst Landlord Watchlist, which spotlights the top 100 most egregiously negligent landlords in New York City as determined by widespread and repeated violations in buildings on the list. The 2022 list was released yesterday – read it, and review the newly designed and expanded Watchlist website, here.

Read the text of Intro 862 here and more about Intro 583 here.

After New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams unveiled the 2022 Worst Landlord Watchlist this morning at a Washington Heights rally and tour of one of the worst landlord’s properties, local elected leaders and housing organizations expressed outrage at the conduct of the landlords and called for reforms. The annual Worst Landlord Watchlist spotlights the 100 most egregiously negligent landlords in the city as determined by conditions at their buildings. This year’s worst landlord, Johnathan Santana, had the most average violations of anyone in the history of the list.

“Across the city, housing costs are up and housing quality is down. Rents are becoming unaffordable and conditions are becoming unlivable,” said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams in releasing the list. “The only explanation for this is that landlords are putting profits over people, and prioritizing circumventing or repealing housing laws rather than following them. To combat both the specific conditions that threaten the well-being of tenants in these buildings and the overall trends that deepen this citywide crisis, we need to meet this crisis with strong regulations and real consequences. That means the city needs to dismiss disingenuous arguments from bad actors, and invest more resources for enforcement, not cut what we have.”

This year’s list found housing violations are at the highest levels in the history of the list, with conditions continuing to decline even as the median rent in the city has massively increased in recent years. Across the 2022 list, there were a staggering 69,018 violations, nearly a 30% increase from the previous year. At the same time, median rent for one bedroom apartments has skyrocketed by about the same percentage. New York City has risen to become the most expensive city in the world.

Senator Robert Jackson said, "Too often tenants living in rent-stabilized, rent-controlled, and public housing apartments — are left with little to no recourse while living with broken stoves, no heat, massive holes in the ceiling, and rodents. Landlords often ignore requests to resolve these issues quickly and transparently. As elected officials, we must continue to find ways to prevent landlords from evading accountability and protect tenants from physically unsafe or otherwise insecure conditions. Thanks to the Office of the Public Advocate, the city has a tool in the Worst Landlord Watchlist that enables tenants, public officials, advocates, and other concerned individuals to identify residential property owners who consistently break City laws. Today, I stand with our Public Advocate in our fight to protect tenant’s rights to dignified and safe housing because families in New York City deserve better, and housing is a human right!"

Senator Cordell Cleare said, "I commend Public Advocate Jumaane Williams for his steadfast and proactive work to ensure that every single New Yorker has safe, decent, permanent and affordable housing as a basic human right. As this list is released today we are reminded that the old ways of building and sustaining quality housing for all continue to fail in this essential mission. Having just hosted a major housing forum entitled "The Intersection Of Housing & Race | A Look At The History Of Segregation And Its Impact On Black Communities Then And Now" I look forward to developing a series of new initiatives, in partnership with the Public Advocate, that will provide housing as a right, and make lists like this obsolete."

Assembly Member Al Taylor said, "Too many New Yorkers have suffered at the hands of negligent landlords who continue to profit while their buildings fall into disrepair. Thanks to the Office of the Public Advocate's Worst Landlord Watchlist, our city has more tools to identify law-breaking property owners and protect vulnerable New Yorkers. All tenants deserve safe, dignified housing free from fear, abuse, and hazardous living conditions. We need meaningful reforms to ensure tenants are protected and bad landlords can no longer evade responsibility for their deeds. Today and every day I stand with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams in the fight to defend the rights of tenants and hold bad landlords accountable. Housing is a human right!"

Assembly Member Manny De Los Santos said “The message is clear. Landlords have the responsibility to maintain their properties for their renters in both the private and public sector. But, far too often, landlords in my district and throughout New York City do not treat tenants with the dignity and respect that everyone is entitled to. And, we are sick of it. I applaud Public Advocate Jumaane Williams for putting together the NYC Worst Landlord List which continues to shed light on this matter and empower tenants and public officials to hold unscrupulous property owners accountable.”

Council Member Carmen De La Rosa said “With a housing crisis that has only been exasperated in the last few years, the unethical practices of unscrupulous landlords has put our city’s tenants in unsafe living conditions with little recourse. This is a business of people. New Yorkers deserve dignified housing, and we will continue to enforce protections and call out those who are not in the business for the right reasons.”

Council Member Shaun Abreu said “Predatory landlords need to be named and shamed. While New York’s worst landlords profit from the lucrative real-estate market, their properties average hundreds and sometimes thousands of violations a year. Frequently, their tenants don’t have the heat they need, clean water to drink, or an unlivable amount of mold and dirt in their building. As a tenants rights attorney, I know what it’s like to fight a landlord who refuses to change. Today, we’re standing in our roles as elected officials to call out landlords who refuse to do the decent, legally required work to keep their buildings habitable for their tenants.”

Frank Lang, Deputy Executive Director for Housing at St. Nicks Alliance, said "St Nicks Alliance thanks the office of NYC Public Advocate for releasing the list of the 100 worst landlords. St Nicks Alliance stands with tenants that suffer from harassment, lack of repairs and are at risk of eviction. Our message to tenants is: You are not alone, we are here to help.”

Whitney Hu, Director of Civic Engagement & Research for Churches United for Fair Housing, said “Another year, another reminder that New Yorkers are being subjected to atrocious living conditions because of blatant neglect from their landlords. CUFFH is proud to stand with Public Advocate Williams and his office for their continual work to shine a light on these landlords through their Worst Landlords Watchlist and portal. Every New Yorker deserves safe, affordable housing and we’ll continue to work alongside the Public Advocate to make this vision come true.”

At the launch, the Public Advocate also directed New Yorkers to LandlordWatchlist.com, as well his office’s Text Line, 833-933-1692, to learn about whether their landlords are featured on the list, how to report violations, and access resources for tenants to organize and seek relief

Private landlords on the Worst Landlord Watchlist are ranked objectively according to data obtained by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). Landlords are ranked based on the average number of housing code violations open per month on their buildings on the watchlist, using data from December 2020 to November 2021.

View the full Worst Landlord Watchlist, and check to see if your address is owned by a 2021 worst landlord, by visiting LandlordWatchlist.com.

As crime and public safety continue to be top issues on the minds of New Yorkers and people across the country, The Nation has published an op-ed by Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams entitled When It Comes to Crime, the Left Has a Messaging Problem, which examines the challenges progressives have in combatting false conservative framings of crime, and in presenting public safety policies in a way that resonates with constituents, avoids demonization, and helps deliver real change.

In the piece, the Public Advocate points to the success of conservative messaging in New York during the 2022 midterms and argues that "It’s not enough for progressives to reject these narratives or refute these falsehoods. Under the overblown rhetoric is a real increase in crime. Under the disingenuous fearmongering is real fear. Under the statements and statistics are real individuals and families facing pain and loss as a result of violence in their neighborhoods. Too often, progressives are characterized as not caring about that pain, because, too often, progressives are quick to minimize the realities of crime and violence because of the compassion inherent in progressive ideology and policy. Statistics mean nothing to victims of a crime."

He lay out the directive that "We can and must do a better job not only speaking to that pain and those fears but presenting an affirmative case for our workable, effective policies on public safety. On mental health, on gun violence, on law enforcement, on housing, and on economic issues, all of which play a role in public safety, our policies are better, but our messaging is worse.

On a personal note, he relays that "Most of my individual conversations on public safety end in agreement, but on a mass scale, our message is being distorted or drowned out in favor of louder, more emotional voices. An overreliance on our long-term ideals is not landing with people who also demand short-term solutions. This is not a call to step back from our solutions or beliefs on public safety—on the contrary, we have to lean forward."

The Public Advocate prescribes that "Speaking to fears, rather than shouting over them, will always be more effective for winning elections and creating change that the community stands behind and participates in. We can’t cede the framework of this conversation to conservatives, but we also can’t ignore its presence, prominence, or long-term effect on people’s perceptions. Instead, we find success in meeting people where they are, acknowledging their lived experiences, and presenting an affirmative alternative, not merely a defense that is eroded with each new headline sensationalizing the pain of communities."

He closes with a mission for the progressive movement, saying that "We can lead with solutions, not ideology alone, and we can do so fiercely, with equal parts conviction and compassion. The big picture matters. But so does the small picture of a loved one, surrounded by candles at a makeshift sidewalk memorial. We can look at the vast systems of injustice and oppression that need to be corrected without overlooking the pain of a family or neighborhood reeling from real threats to their safety and security."

Read the Public Advocate’s full piece below, and find it online here.

When It Comes to Crime, the Left Has a Messaging Problem

By New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams

We in progressive politics have a public safety problem.

So do those in conservative politics, to be clear—a much darker, more insidious problem. But the progressive problem on public safety is one we can solve, one we on the left must solve to meet both the country’s health and safety needs and our movement’s electoral needs.

While Democrats outperformed 2022 midterm election expectations in most of the country, the blue defenses against a red wave fell in New York. Conservatives improved their vote share in every congressional district relative to 2020, and Democrats lost four seats in the national House that would have saved the party from relinquishing control.

There are several reasons for those losses, including complacency at the top of the ticket and ineptitude by the state party. Many races in the New York City area, though, were defined by public safety and perceptions of it, with conservative outlets molding those perceptions by pushing hysterical narratives on crime. Elected officials of both parties were all too eager to accept and advance those narratives.

To be clear: While crime has increased in New York since the start of the pandemic, that is part of a national rise in violence over that period. New York City is still statistically much safer now than it was even 10 years ago, and progressive justice reforms have been shown again and again to not be a cause of this increase in crime, regardless of what tabloids and elected officials have counterfactually insisted. Hyperbolic coverage of crime have spurred voters to align with the party that has long been—erroneously—perceived as better on these issues.

At the same time, it’s not enough for progressives to reject these narratives or refute these falsehoods. Under the overblown rhetoric is a real increase in crime. Under the disingenuous fearmongering is real fear. Under the statements and statistics are real individuals and families facing pain and loss as a result of violence in their neighborhoods.

Too often, progressives are characterized as not caring about that pain, because, too often, progressives are quick to minimize the realities of crime and violence because of the compassion inherent in progressive ideology and policy. Statistics mean nothing to victims of a crime, and unfortunately mean little to people hearing the visceral, emotional stories of those victims.

But I know from experience that there are ways to talk about these issues that convince people of the benefits of progressive public safety policies, ways that recognize and respond to fears rather than dismiss or aggravate them. I’ve seen strategies find success that I believe the movement must adopt.

We can and must do a better job not only speaking to that pain and those fears but presenting an affirmative case for our workable, effective policies on public safety. On mental health, on gun violence, on law enforcement, on housing, and on economic issues, all of which play a role in public safety, our policies are better, but our messaging is worse. Most of my individual conversations on public safety end in agreement, but on a mass scale, our message is being distorted or drowned out in favor of louder, more emotional voices. An overreliance on our long-term ideals is not landing with people who also demand short-term solutions.

This is not a call to step back from our solutions or beliefs on public safety—on the contrary, we have to lean forward. Progressives have a messaging problem; conservatives have a moral and factual problem; but so-called moderates may have the worst electoral problem of all.

Getting voters to support the strategies that we know work—the public safety policies that helped make my city the safest it had been in half a century prior to the pandemic—is a challenge even when crime is down. When crime is rising, it’s even more important to stand by those values, but harder to do so—and so many people prefer to run away from their convictions and toward conservatism.

Scared to stand behind real progressive policies, even ones they purport to believe in, moderate politicians have too often presented as Republican-lite, accepting the narrative framing of conservatives and presenting their own positions as saner and more sensible versions of conservative talking points. But in a fight between real conservatives and moderates feinting toward their arguments, the real Republican wins. They certainly did in New York.

But progressive public safety messages and policies can be an electoral benefit if there is an established level of trust between the movement and the community. In 2021 in New York City, while the prevailing narrative was about the moderate policies at the top of the ticket, progressives won all down the ballot and across the five boroughs. Two of three citywide roles and record seats in the city council were won by candidates on the left. Those candidates, including myself, combined a strong vision for reimagining public safety with the confidence of their constituents that they truly understood both the struggle with crime and the solutions to address it. Speaking to fears, rather than shouting over them, will always be more effective for winning elections and creating change that the community stands behind and participates in.

We can’t cede the framework of this conversation to conservatives, but we also can’t ignore its presence, prominence, or long-term effect on people’s perceptions. Instead, we find success in meeting people where they are, acknowledging their lived experiences, and presenting an affirmative alternative, not merely a defense that is eroded with each new headline sensationalizing the pain of communities.

That kind of narrative is difficult to deconstruct, but I have found success by addressing the issue, responding to and reframing the debate rather than rejecting the validity of the concern.

The strongest strategy, then, is to message from a position of compassion and strength, demonstrating that progressive public safety policies are exactly what is needed for our constituents to both be safe and feel safe. We know what works, and it’s incumbent on us to make sure that the people we serve know that as well, no matter what detractors will say.

Instead of running from the conversation on crime or, worse, fueling the disingenuous narratives Republicans created, Democrats can run on models of public safety proven to build safer communities. We can lead with solutions, not ideology alone, and we can do so fiercely, with equal parts conviction and compassion.

The big picture matters. But so does the small picture of a loved one, surrounded by candles at a makeshift sidewalk memorial. We can look at the vast systems of injustice and oppression that need to be corrected without overlooking the pain of a family or neighborhood reeling from real threats to their safety and security. We can create systems that are safer and more just at the same time. We can call out the lies and manipulations of those on the right, while recognizing and responding to the real fears of those in the middle. We can be right, without conceding the narrative to the right. And we can win on progressive public safety—at the ballot box, and on the safer streets of the communities we serve.