Name | Hector Robertson |
District | 35 |
info@hectorrobertson.com | |
What is your plan for getting the city back to work, particularly in its hardest hit sectors? What kind of workforce development programs do you envision that would provide access to communities of color and people with disabilities? | Urban economies have been devastated by the shutdown, travel restrictions and fear over the additional virus outbreak. As the City Council for the 35 District, I would: 1.Encourage entrepreneurship and new business growth. 2. Ensure that city agencies are running efficiently and cut all red tape policies that may get in the way of productivity 3. Ensure the city exercises fiscal discipline and spending prioritization to help the p cities recover faster. |
What is your plan for creating healthy stable communities? How do you envision enlivening vacant commercial and city owned spaces? | I believe we need to work towards environmental justice that should involve all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income. There should be equal access to the decision-making process in the community to have a healthy environment in which to live, and work. |
What do you foresee is the role of creative economies in supporting economic recovery in New York City particularly for communities most affected by environmental, housing, and health instability due to COVID including our aging, immigrant, and working class communities of color? | Creativity produces fresh ideas, which could be the basis for progress in a fractured economy. Just as Creative Industries Create new Jobs. Jobs were always created in response to growing demand for innovations from new and fast-growing industries. These creative ideas could help resolve environmental, housing and health instability that affects the working class in the city. |
What is your plan for the city’s school system and what is your vision of the role that arts in education plays? | There is too much politics in our city’s schools. My plan would be to start the removal of as much politics from our schools and focus on education. I would have parents and teacher be the stewards in our schools. Have parents have complete involvement and the loudest voice in their children education. As it relates to the arts, there is no surprise that schools in New York's poorest neighborhoods offer the least amount of art education. 31% of all City schools, nearly half of all schools without any arts programming are found in those neighborhoods. The benefits of arts education are many. Higher GPA and test scores come to mind. NYC has a mandate education standard that says in part: that "all students" should receive arts instruction through at least the eighth grade. This should be followed and applied to all students, regardless of race or economic status. |
What is your plan to address the health care needs of the city's many communities? | I would do a community health needs assessment and I would systematically involve the community to identify and analyze community health needs and assets in order to prioritize these needs, and to plan and act upon significant unmet community health needs. |
What are your plans for supporting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated New Yorkers? | In 2020, The Prison Policy Initiative estimated that 2.3 million Americans were in some sort of criminal justice confinement. Also, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, there will be more than 600,000 people released from prison each year. What these numbers suggests is that, we need to establish a funded (State and City) consistent support network to assist formerly incarcerated in the areas of housing, jobs (recruiting more companies and organizations that will be willing to hire ex-convicts), education (such as a trade) and mental health, to mention a few. |
Share a link to your website and/or campaign platform |