MAYORAL CANDIDATE
Andrew Yang
Democrat
Known for his 2020 presidential run, Yang is an entrepreneur and non-profit founder. After a brief stint working in law and healthcare, Yang became CEO of Manhattan Prep, a GMAT, GRE and LSAT test prep company. Following Manhattan Prep, in 2011 he founded Venture for America, a non-profit meant to help uplift small businesses and young people in cities that were hit hard by economic deterioration by incentivizing entrepreneurship for economic growth. In 2020, Yang started another non-profit named Humanity Foward promoting ideas such as data privacy and Universal Basic Income (UBI). He left Humanity Forward after announcing his run for mayor.
WHAT STANDS OUT
Yang's background with non-profits appears to have given him experience with rebuilding cities via job creation, as he fears the role technology will play in automating away jobs for the average American. His work to create jobs across the U.S. with Venture for America was honored by the Obama administration, despite criticism that the program would not come close to hitting its target of generating 100,000 jobs by 2025. A pillar of Yang's campaign is his desire to institute a form of Universal Basic Income (UBI) for New Yorkers struggling to get by. Yang appears to have had minor success testing this idea out with Humanity Forward expecting to pay out over 1 million dollars to 500+ households in the Bronx in the form of $1000 cash payments. Yang believes one of the ways to fund UBI for struggling New Yorkers is to target tax-exempt landlords like James Dolan, owner of Madison Square Garden, who gets 40 million in tax breaks alone.
SHORT ANSWERS
On COVID: "I will be the anti-poverty mayor. That means a basic income program that uplifts 500,000 of our most vulnerable out of poverty, a People’s Bank, the nation’s first city-backed financial institution, and making NYC the leading COVID comeback city."
On Healthcare: "NYC Care is an important resource to extend healthcare to uninsured New Yorkers. I will extend NYC Care to cover people seeking care at providers other than only H+H."
On Criminal Justice: "As mayor, I will appoint a civilian NYPD Commissioner whose background is not one primarily in law enforcement, remove final disciplinary power from the Commissioner, and decriminalize certain crimes to prevent over-criminalization of certain communities."
On Housing: "Housing, land use and development, and zoning decisions need to be driven by community needs, not solely by what developers think our city needs. We must realign priorities to give adequate consideration to affordability levels, not just number of units."