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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we continue our series 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks, as we touch every neighborhood of New York City in this year when City Council is mostly new members, and majority female for the first time ever. This is week 13 of this year of 2022. We are up to District 13 in the East Bronx, including the areas on the Bronx side of the Whitestone and Throggs Neck bridges, and then up through neighborhoods including Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, City Island, Van Nest, and others, and up to the Westchester line around where I-95 starts to head toward New England.

The new council member Marjorie Velázquez grew up in the area. Her parents came from Puerto Rico in the '70s. She earned a finance and accounting degree at NYU, became the municipal services committee chair of Community Board 10 in the area, and much more. There was also a car crash and a workplace accident that the council member says changed her life.

Today's City Council segment comes as Mayor Adams is ramping up his crackdown on both crime and street homelessness. An encampment in Brooklyn under the BQE was cleared away the other day. As for what happens to people who are uprooted in those sweeps, the mayor is opening new shelters that he calls safe haven sites. The first one just opened on Morris Avenue in the Bronx. Yesterday the mayor said this.

Eric Adams: We're walking past people that are living on cardboard boxes in these makeshift inhumane houses. This is just not right, and I know it's not right. I promised it and I'm going to live up to it.

Brian Lehrer: Where will they go? With all that as prelude, we welcome Council Member Marjorie Velázquez. Council Member, congratulations belatedly on your election and welcome to WNYC.

Marjorie Velázquez: Good morning. Thank you so much. That really means a lot.

Brian Lehrer: Let's talk about some of this Mayor Adams news first and then we'll pull back and talk about you and the district. By way of context, were you an Adams supporter in the mayoral primary last year?

Marjorie Velázquez: I definitely supported the mayor, especially even during the general. The party had endorsed him during the primary.

Brian Lehrer: Right. During the primary, you endorsed someone else or you stayed neutral?

Marjorie Velázquez: I stayed out of it. I stayed out of it. I ended up actually doing something with the mayoral candidates, which was inviting them to the district, showcasing the different areas of the district, and what help needed, and certainly, certain mayoral candidates had some ideas that they wanted to fulfill. I would go around the district and say, "Well, this is what you're advocating for, and this is how it affects my district."

It's bringing it front and center to not only the candidates but also to the rest of the city because usually the Bronx has historically been out of borough, out of mind. As an outer borough, we suffer significantly with under finance and funded projects. This is a good time to have a mayor from an outer borough that understands that and really has made a point to fund income and show our communities that he is a mayor for all five boroughs.

Brian Lehrer: Got it. I get it about just wanting to host all the mayoral hopefuls in your district during that primary season. I think that safe haven site as the mayor calls it for people experiencing homelessness, is west of your district closer to Manhattan in the Bronx. Do I have that right?

Marjorie Velázquez: Yes. I think that may be Council Member Ayala's District, if I'm not mistaken.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. It's in the Lincoln Hospital area. Can I ask though what you think of the whole idea of these sweeps and the direction the mayor is headed on that?

Marjorie Velázquez: Certainly, we need to take a perspective and a good look as to why there are folks that feel more comfortable living out in the streets rather than a shelter. It's us as government officials to look into the system, the agency, and more importantly, looking into humane housing, making sure that when we're talking about those affected the vulnerable communities, that we're looking at why are they here in the first place? What can we do, and not just give a temporary band aid, but really holistically look at how can we make this better and how can we actually address the real issues at hand?

If it's a health issue, then making sure that the housing that we're creating reflects that. That we're providing supportive services as well, and that we're making sure that the non-profit providers that are in charge of that are actually delivering to the communities. It's overall, all-encompassing, and that's on us on the council members, as well as the mayor's office. We're going to work together, we're going to work to get it right because no one should feel safer outside than inside a facility, and that's not wrong. I agree with the mayor, we need to make sure that we're taking care of one another.

Brian Lehrer: What do you think is the right thing to do about people who live on the streets individually, or live in what the mayor would call homeless encampments for the sake of those people, as well as for the sake of others in the community? If you think that the so-called Safe Haven Shelter is trying to improve the shelter system in terms of safety from crime in the shelters, also, in terms of offering more support services the mayor says that that will be part of the Safe Haven Shelters, can he reinvent the shelter system as a major tool here or if not, what do you advocate?

Marjorie Velázquez: First of all, I'd like to not call those people. It's not those people. It's our people, it's our community. We need to make sure that we're owning New York City and that we're making sure that we're going back and saying these are our neighbors, this is our community, and that we have a responsibility to take care of one another. That's how I grew up. I'm a child of five. One out of five, I'm a middle child. I've got two older brothers, I got a younger brother and a younger sister, and I'm responsible for them as they are responsible for me. That's how I grew up, and certainly, that's the lens that I look at our community.

We're taking a good stance at this. No one, once again, should feel safe sleeping out in the street. We need to take a good look at these safe haven sites because what these sites are, it's a different model. It is actually providing a more direct approach to the homeless crisis. If it is a health issue that is out there, then we're addressing those head-on, and that we're providing the support that these individuals need, my residents, my community, needs, and that we're having an honest conversation, that we are working together and we are considering this as our community, the next goal of taking care of one another.

Brian Lehrer: All right, my guest is Council Member Marjorie Velázquez. [crosstalk] You're in AOC's District aren't you, your district?

Marjorie Velázquez: Currently, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, however, the district is going three ways now. It will be represented by Congressman Torres in certain pieces, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez in other pieces, and now we get the New York three and whomever wins that one.

Brian Lehrer: Are you an AOC-type Democrat? Do you consider yourself a Democratic socialist? Where would you put yourself on that spectrum?

Marjorie Velázquez: I'm a Democrat. I am not DSA-right. I am a Democrat.

Brian Lehrer: What does that mean for you in terms of core values or core mission?

Marjorie Velázquez: My core mission, like I said before, it is making sure that my community is first and foremost, and that the values of my community stand firm. When we're talking about fully funding our schools, when we're talking about giving my small businesses a chance, when we're talking about the infrastructure that my community desperately needs, it's fighting for those pieces. When we're talking about representation, and when we're talking about elevating folks, we're making sure that everyone's at the table.

Brian Lehrer: Let's talk about your background a little more and District 13 in the East Bronx a little more. I see on your bio page, your parents moved from Puerto Rico to the Bronx in the '70s. Where'd you grow up in the Bronx and what was it like there when you were a kid?

Marjorie Velázquez: My parents moved a little bit around, but they settled on Parkchester in this little home and I grew up there. I went to the local schools 106, 127. Then for high school, like I like to say my parents didn't trust me around boys, so then they sent me to an all-girl Catholic High School St. Catherine's Academy, which is in my district. [laughs] My brother, my older brother was older by two years went to Cardinal Hayes. It's safe to say that I would visit his school often, especially for all those dances that they used to have in mixers. From there, I went to NYU Stern. Then I moved to Throggs Neck. That's where I met my husband shortly after I moved to Throggs Neck and haven't left.

Brian Lehrer: You put on your official bio page, as I mentioned in the intro, a car crash and a workplace accident, both of which altered your life to the extent that you want to talk about them. You don't have to. How did they change your life and relevant to the listeners do they inform your approach to public service in any ways?

Marjorie Velázquez: 1,000%. One thing is that both of those incidents happened within three months of each other. In a personal way it showed me that I'm smarter, stronger, tougher than I ever imagined because at the end of the day the biggest hurdle or the biggest challenge or the biggest enemy, however you want to phrase it, was myself. I got in my own way. I needed to learn how to take things a little slower, how to give myself grace, how to give myself room to grow.

Living in a fast-paced life, I thought that I needed to recover as super fast as possible. I needed to give myself that piece. The other world though, what I saw firsthand, me, bilingual, college-educated, access to the internet, so I could Google everything, I can Google to find the best doctors and the best lawyers, I got stuck in a system. A system that did not want me to heal. That really is what led me to fight. Fight for folks while I was in the waiting room. Sharing information, making sure that folks in the waiting room knew what their rights were as patients, what they can stand up for.

Brian Lehrer: What did you mean when you just said a system that did not want you to heal?

Marjorie Velázquez: There were so many challenges. For me, it was making the appointments, making sure that the documents that I was signing were correct, making sure that I had the insurance companies. The things that get in the way is being declined by insurances, the different insurance provider, that this test and this treatment was not required. Meanwhile, it was a big challenge for me. I'll tell you one of my biggest hurdles was getting my hand operated. Because one accident happened after the other, one insurance provider was saying, "No, this is part of the prior accident. I'm not going to cover this," when it completely wasn't. You had both insurance providers literally fighting.

Then you had the "independent medical examiner," IME, saying that what happened with my hand, it was just a bruise when literally my thumb was not attached to my wrist for about two and a half years, which led to a cyst growing into the wrist, it led to carpal tunnel and it was my dominant right hand. When we're talking about that experience, it was my driving force to get involved. After that I decided to join the community board. I ran for a district leader and I also was Ritchie Torres' treasurer back in 2013. It was interesting because he saw something in me that I did not. That was my lowest of lows at that time. I was physically just broken down.

You don't know your worth. Having that opportunity for someone so young, but so smart and brilliant, looking at you and say, "I believe in you," just as much as I believed in him, we worked through it and worked through it together and he won. Those are the opportunities that someone can see you as that and see you whole when you're broken down means a lot. This is what I'm fighting for. This is why I'm on the Health Committee. This is why we're talking about supporting currently the bill where we're talking about hospital transparency and medical billing transparency.

That's one of our goals to make sure that when we're looking at private institutions, what's the billing like. Things like that where our communities are affected. We don't need our families to get into debt just to make themselves whole, just to make them heal. They should not be dealing with that on top of the fact that they're just trying to get better. You don't have to bury them in debt at the same time as they are trying to make it out of just the worst experiences in their lives ever.

Brian Lehrer: With the experiences you're describing, it could leave you as a supporter of DSA style Medicare for All health insurance. Does it?

Marjorie Velázquez: When we're talking about health care coverage, everyone should have health care. Everyone should have the opportunity to have preventive health care. It's educating folks on what they should have, yes. The nuance, the details on that, it's a little greater than myself at this point, but what we're talking about is making sure that the measures are there, that we're removing the red tape right now, what we can do. What can we do? We can remove the red tape. We could take a stance and we can actually guide public and private institution to fully fund our public institutions. We could make sure that we're actually providing resources and educating our communities as to what they are entitled to.

Brian Lehrer: This is WNYC FM, HD and AM New York, WNJT FM 88.1 Trenton, WNJP 88.5 Sussex, WNJY 89.3 Netcong and WNJO 90.3 Toms River. We are New York and New Jersey Public Radio and live streaming at wnyc.org. Few more minutes with Marjorie Velázquez, the new city council member from District 13 in the East Bronx. It's week 13 in our year-long series 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks as we are interviewing every member of the New York City Council this year, in this year in which a majority of city council is new because of term limits. It's majority female for the first time. 212-433-WNYC. If anyone wants to get in, 212-433-9692. Council Member, tell us about the people in the district, in the East Bronx. How would you describe your constituents demographically or any other way?

Marjorie Velázquez: I'd love to describe them as the strongest, toughest group of folks ever during the pandemic, seeing how my community takes care of one another. It was just a beautiful thing to see different communities team up in City Island. One of the groups call themselves City Island Strong. They went making sure that families had PPE. We would give out food together. It was just different organizations all teaming up to say we're stronger together. That exemplifies my community, that exemplifies the district.

Brian Lehrer: What's the number one reason that constituents have contacted your office since you started in January?

Marjorie Velázquez: Two things. One has been housing and the other, especially with the shooting in Jacobi, has been public safety.

Brian Lehrer: What's your relationship to Mayor Adams' approach to public safety? We know it's been controversial in various ways.

Marjorie Velázquez: My approach is public safety is everything that involves the community. It comes into making sure that our streets are well lit, that our storefronts are filled and that community is made whole again. Oftentimes, once again, out of borough, out of mind. The proper funding of our communities is essential and making sure that when we're talking about our district, that we're making sure that our community knows that they're safe because everyone's in it together. We work with our police precincts. We work with our fire department. We work with our local hospitals. It's a teamwork, it's team effort. We, as a collective we, are all in this together. It's making sure that all of us, all my different departments, all my precincts, are properly funded.

Brian Lehrer: Neighborhood safety teams, so called, are any of them in your district and do you support that deployment which has been controversial?

Marjorie Velázquez: I have NCOs. My precincts in my district are the 45th and the 49th precincts. What we have is NCO, which is the neighborhood cop model. I support having additional officers. I often feel that the NCOs that we have are too little, so I've been advocating to have more NCOs in both precincts.

Brian Lehrer: What else would you say is a number one issue for you that we haven't touched on?

Marjorie Velazquez: Having a women's health birthing center in the Bronx. Right now other girls have two women health centers. Right now the Bronx has zero. Where we're talking about inequity and making sure that we have the right resources for our communities, that's number one, especially with the high rates of maternal morbidity and the different resources we need.

Brian Lehrer: Do you think that having a majority female city council for the first time ever will result in policy differences than what might have come in the past with majority men?

Marjorie Velazquez: Not only that, but it's also the lens that we come from. We come from different worlds. It's the most diverse City Council that has come in. We come in from different lived experiences and different professions. You're going to see a lot of changes not only in policy, but what our funding looks like.

Brian Lehrer: We are inviting every city council member, as some of our listeners know in this series, to bring something for show and tell from your district. Go back to your days in elementary school in Parkchester. I don't know if you did show and tell those days, but obviously, you can't bring the physical thing to the radio, but what did you bring us for virtual show and tell from the 13th city council district?

Marjorie Velazquez: We're talking about the best of the best, the largest park in all of New York City. It's Pelham Bay park. Most Bronxites know that's the place for most families. You connect to Orchard Beach, you connect to different experiences where you can literally go hiking to a trail and make it up to Westchester County. You can, go to the beach, you can ride horses. The opportunities are there, and it's a beautiful experience for most Bronxites. Ironically enough, I've been doing a tour from Bartow-Pell Mansion. It gives us the opportunity to continue to advocate for the 1% funding for parks, because for me it's essential to make sure that Pelham Bay Park is enjoyed by all of New York City as well.

Brian Lehrer: That is really cool. I have done it myself. I have taken the bus, the BX 12 to the beach. You could take the bus to the beach in your district, at Orchard Beach, right?

Marjorie Velazquez: Yes. I'm trying to have it more than just seasonal. That's part of the outlook. We want to make sure that when we're looking at our green spaces, understand that there's so much more potential than what we're giving it. That's why having a chair like Shekar Krishnan for our parks is important because he gets it. He gets the green space is for all.

Brian Lehrer: All right, you ready? You ready to end with a little lightning round? Here we go.

Marjorie Velazquez: All right, I'm ready if you are.

Brian Lehrer: What's your favorite thing about living in New York City?

Marjorie Velazquez: Favorite thing? It's the ability to see so many people from so many different backgrounds, hear the different languages, and definitely eat all the amazing different foods.

Brian Lehrer: What's your least favorite thing about living in New York?

Marjorie Velazquez: How sometimes we're so fast that we forget to stop and take a moment for ourselves to enjoy what's happening.

Brian Lehrer: Do you own a pet?

Marjorie Velazquez: I have three rescue kit cats.

Brian Lehrer: What'd you name those rescue kitty cats?

Marjorie Velazquez: Okay, sure. Meal, Marcusio, and Savannah Grace. Yes, she has two names because in my mind she's a southern belle and I love her so much.

Brian Lehrer: What's one food from your family tradition or anything else that other people might like to try that they could find in your district?

Marjorie Velazquez: There's so much. One of the things that I'd to say is flan from Havana Café on East Fremont.

Brian Lehrer: Do you have a favorite musical artist these days?

Marjorie Velazquez: Heck, yes, Bad Bunny.

Brian Lehrer: What's one recent book or movie you'd recommend to the listeners to read or see? Last question.

Marjorie Velazquez: Oh man, I haven't watched movies in a while. I'm binge-watching a whole bunch of shows. Handmaid's Tale, I just finished watching the fourth season. That was excellent.

Brian Lehrer: There we leave it in our 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks series for today with brand new council member from District 13 in the East Bronx, Marjorie Velazquez from the neighborhoods of, tell me if I miss anything, Allerton, City Island, Country Club, Edgewater Park, Ferry Point, Locust Point, Morris Park, Pelham Bay, Pelham Gardens, Pelham Parkway, Schuylerville, Silver beach, Spencer Estates, Throggs Neck, Van Nest, Waterbury LaSalle, Westchester Square and Zerega.

Marjorie Velazquez: You got them all.

Brian Lehrer: It's amazing how many little neighborhoods our city is chopped up into, right?

Marjorie Velazquez: We're the largest district in the boroughs. It's definitely amazing.

Brian Lehrer: Council Member, a pleasure. We hope to have you on many times during your term.

Marjorie Velazquez: I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

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