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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we continue our series, 51 council members in 52 weeks. We are inviting all the New York city council members one per week for the whole year, neighborhood by neighborhood. We're doing this because it's a new era in the New York city council. There are mostly new members this year because of term limits and women make up the majority of council members for the first time ever.

This is week seven, so today we head to District 7 to meet one of those new members, Shaun Abreu, the first Latino to represent this district on the upper Upper West Side from around, say west 100th street in Manhattan Valley up through Morningside Heights and Columbia University, West Harlem, Manhattanville, Hamilton Heights and into Washington Heights. Congratulations on your election and welcome, Council Member Abreu.

Shaun Abreu: Brian, thank you so so much for having me on your show. Very excited to be speaking with you today, and of course talk about the work that we're doing for District 7.

Brian Lehrer: Tell us about your district first. You called it the most racially and socioeconomically diverse district in Manhattan. Who's there in that mosaic of people?

Shaun Abreu: It's the melting pot of New York city in one district in many ways. You have a very diverse community. You have Latinos, African Americans, you have Caucasians, almost equally. My story and as a leader from Washington Heights, I'm fighting to make sure we're representing everybody. We had a story that spoke to everyone no matter where you live, being in the Upper West Side or in Washington Heights or everyone in between, we had a message that was unifying, and I think that was represented on election night.

Brian Lehrer: You grew up in the district and at one point as a kid, I've read your family faced what so many members are now trying to avoid for their constituents in the pandemic, eviction. Since you talk about this publicly, what happened? How did it influence your decision to go into public service and become a tenant's lawyer, before you ran for counsel?

Shaun Abreu: Thank you for the question. I was nine years old, I was in school one day and I arrived home to find my mom holding an eviction notice at a kitchen table. I will never forget the pain that we went through, leaving our childhood home behind and taking shelter with very kind neighbors. My mom was, we just fell behind on our rent, like so many families today. We lost our home, at the time. We didn't have the right to a free attorney like we have it today.

It fueled my run because I know the experiences that working families are having in districts like my own. Mark Levine sponsored the right to counsel legislation in 2017 to ensure that the tenants facing eviction have access to free legal service, that law is what permitted me to become a tenant lawyer. Now I want to expand that opportunity for tenants in my district to making sure that they have the resources they need to stay in their home, particularly where the presence of a landlord could help you stay in your home.

Also more broadly speaking, what also fueled my decision to run was my experience with education. I was held back in the 4th grade for failing the state reading exam. I graduated from schools like Columbia University because of investments in our education. I know what's possible when public policy and our government leaders make investments in programs that can be very transformative.

Brian Lehrer: I guess we should say you grew up in the district on the upper Upper West Side, and you went to college in-

Shaun Abreu: Washington Heights.

Brian Lehrer: -Washington Heights, the upper Upper, and I live above you. I live in Inwood, so I call it the upper Upper Upper West Side. You went to college in the district, right?

Shaun Abreu: I went to college in the district, I went to middle school in the district, and I went to elementary school in the district.

Brian Lehrer: Columbia, you're being modest. On Friday-

Shaun Abreu: Yes, I went to Columbia.

Brian Lehrer: On Friday show, we're going to be talking to Roosevelt Montás who runs the Freedom and Citizenship program for high school students program you attended. He's a big believer in using the classics, bringing them to bear on contemporary issues. I saw where you cited Plato and Aristotle as influencing your decision to enter public service. For people who think, "Oh, Plato and Aristotle, I don't know, that was a zillion years ago," what's the relevance today for you?

Shaun Abreu: When you're a high school student from Washington Heights and you're being exposed to works of the classics that many communities like Washington Heights have not had the exposure to, it's very transformative. Plato and Aristotle teaches you the police, what it means to get involved in city affairs and how you can make a difference. You questioned everything about the world. You think about the social impact and in many ways, you think about how we can tribute to society, to better our neighborhood and improve conditions.

That critical thinking at such an early age promoted for me, healthy skepticism, to think critically about the world around me and how government can work for people, but how government can work against people. It taught me at a very early on that the institution of government could be a means to an end for very good things, but as I said for also bad things.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we can take a few phone calls for the newly elected New York city council member from the upper Upper West Side, Manhattan Valley up through Washington Heights, Shaun Abreu. 212-433 WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet a question @BrianLehrer. As you know, we are inviting each of the council members in this series to bring something from your district. We're calling it a Show-and-Tell Item, to tell the rest of the listeners all over the region about. What did you bring from your district for Show-and-Tell?

Shaun Abreu: Today, for Show-and-Tell, I'm bringing the Morningside Heights branch of the New York Public Library on 113th street in Broadway. The library has been an institution in our community for over a century. Growing up, I was a senior page there, where I would stack books using the Dewey decimal system and teaching older adults computer literacy classes, and also helping older adults send PDF files and Microsoft word files, teaching them how to use a lot of the software.

For me in many ways, this was the foundation of my public service as a high school student, and cemented my belief in the importance of reading and education. Really that was the beginning of many things to come. This also coincided with my time in Roosevelt Montás' Freedman and Citizenship program. It was a combination that definitely involved in my public service.

Brian Lehrer: Now you've identified a couple of issues that top your list, as you start your work in the city council, starting with mental health services. Later in the show today, we're going to talk a about the intersection of mental illness with homelessness and some high profile violent crime, certainly including the pushing of the woman named Michelle Go onto the subway tracks at Times Square a few weeks ago, and apparently including the horrific Chinatown murder of Christina Lee by a man who followed her into her building on Sunday.

Where is your focus specifically on mental health?

Shaun Abreu: Mental health as we know is also an aspect of public safety. We need to make sure that we saw what would happen with Thrive NYC while the aim of the policy was right, the execution was wrong. These expensive diversion centers that practically empty, we have seen a tragic number of New Yorkers, especially young New Yorkers, battling depression and substance abuse which has resulted in many of the tragic violence we're seeing.

One of the things I want to focus on as council member for District 7, and also being a member of the committee on mental health and substance use addictions and disabilities is making sure we're investing more in our health and hospitals to making sure that folks in need and under-resourced communities have access to basic services. We need to focus on expanding psychiatric beds for folk who need help. We also need to think about what we can do in our schools.

We need more funding for mental health experts in our schools. We need to invest in the community school model, which gives kids resources in their schools access to health counselors, mental health professionals, access to recreational activity, all in addition to the academics. The community school model has proven to be very successful, and it's something I will definitely support moving forward.

For us mental health is going to be a huge part of our agenda. As someone who has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety and HDHD, I know the impact mental health has had on me. I want to carry that narrative forward in the city council to make people realize the possibilities, but also learn and how we can grow as a community, keeping each other safe and encouraging each other to be open with what we're all going through.

Brian Lehrer: Do you have an opinion on what many Chinatown residents are saying about homeless shelters in their district? This is one of the loudest pieces of the response since Sunday's murder of Christina Lee that there are too many homeless shelters being concentrated in Chinatown and that they increase the risk for crime. I know we've heard similar complaints from at very least the Harlem part of your district. What do you say to the cry coming from Chinatown?

Shaun Abreu: I empathize because my district has one-third of the shelters of Manhattan. That's a significant amount. A third of all of Manhattan shelters are in my district. If I ran a campaign on making sure that we censor inclusivity, and by that I mean that every neighborhood bears an obligation, be it for affordable housing, or homeless shelters, or the treatment centers, or what have you, every neighborhood bears an obligation.

Concentrating them in one part of the neighborhood is never good. It's, in many ways, just another example of concentrated poverty. We know the impacts of that. I think every neighborhood needs to step up, but at the same time, we need homeless shelters, folks need housing. It's a crisis our city is facing, but it's time the other neighborhoods really bear their fair share.

Brian Lehrer: Let's talk a phone call. You mentioned your affection for libraries. You brought the Morningside Heights branch of the New York Public Library as your virtual Show-and-Tell item. I know we couldn't bring the whole library onto the radio physically.

Shaun Abreu: Unfortunately.

Brian Lehrer: I think Don in Manhattan is calling to bring up something that the libraries could use more of. Don, you're on WNYC with City Council Member Shaun Abreu. Hi.

Don: Good morning, Council Member Abreu. Thank you, Brian, for putting me on. I've launched a group called Harlem Council to Elders, and we have been writing to city council people since 2015 talking about the fact that in the public schools in your district in Central Harlem, Washington Heights, we don't have any librarians or media specialists.

We've just pushed for remote education. When the next pandemic hits us, we need our kids to learn how to use the internet and computer more efficiently. That's what a media specialist can do. What's your stand on getting more librarians into schools?

Shaun Abreu: I think it's definitely important that we invest in more libraries and also investing in the equipment as well to making sure that remote learning but also remote programming is facilitated. Look, that would also help our older adults who can't get exposed to folks in person. Making sure that we're also helping them as well through remote support, it would be very critical, especially with the impacts of social isolation, we need our technologies and we need our programs to bring our younger folks but also our older adults into these spaces where they can really satisfy their social connection, which is the foundation of human life.

It's definitely something I would love to support and making sure our librarians are not neglected and excluded. I know there are a lot of librarians out there now who, in many years, there's an attempt to replace them through the use of technology. I know that having an in-person librarian as well is also very important.

Brian Lehrer: Kate, in Manhattan, you're on WNYC with Council Member Shaun Abreu. Hi, Kate.

Kate: Hi. Hi, Shaun Abreu. Thank you for taking my call. I would like to bring up the issue of rats in our neighborhood. I live on 109th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam, and if you would come some day at 10:30 at night with me to walk around the block with my dog, [chuckles] you would see it is like Willard.

There are eight buildings on our block that are owned by one landlord. They've stored all their garbage in the front in these metal bins, but it's too small for their building so they put the garbage, they store it, and I have photographs. I've been talking photographs of it for years. I get tired of it. They store their garbage in the bags on the street right next to the bins, and when I called 311 to complain, they said that that's legal as long as it's in line of the stoop. The rats are running in and out of these bags. They're not even afraid of humans. It's incredible.

One time, I literally put my foot down, the rat was running across and it ran under my foot and screeched. When my foot went down on its head, I screeched. It's horrendous. I'm just wondering why we have this policy of allowing to store our garbage in plastic bags on the street.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Councilman?

Shaun Abreu: Rats are running wild everywhere in [inaudible 00:15:38] It's something that we must address. Something I support is making sure that we close our trash receptacles, make sure that they remain closed, especially now with the open restaurants program expanding as well, we need to make sure that we have a rat infestation strategy to prevent that. Definitely, the behavior you described, it's something that we need to challenge and it's something that I will very happy to take up into city council.

In fact, the first week of April, we're going to be hosting a rat academy, which we are doing together with the Department of Health. That's the first thing that came up on my agenda was to make sure we're tackling our rat infestation from the aspect of quality of life issues. Fun fact, on 109th between Broadway and Amsterdam was actually where I attended middle school at [unintelligible 00:16:36] 65. I know that neighborhood very well. Also, Barrack Obama didn't live too far away from there.

Brian Lehrer: Right, when he went to Columbia. Kate, thank you. One more thing on the rats. Since city council is apparently going to pass this bill to, as you say, expand outdoor dining or make parts of it permanent but not the enclosed shades, open structures, tell us if you think that that is going to control the rats.

Shaun Abreu: We have a lot of questions still on the aspect on how rats will be addressed, so we're waiting for directives and guidance from the mayor's office to see how that will be addressed. Currently, we're waiting to have more information on that. The mayor should be putting out guidance very soon from different agencies including that of the Department of Health to deal with rats but also sanitation.

I'm going to be on the lookout to see what that looks like, but right now, we know that with open restaurants and businesses exposed everywhere, there is going to be an increased presence of rats. That's undeniable. I am yet convinced that we're there yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing the guidance we're going to get from the mayor's office. I'm confident will be put together.

Brian Lehrer: You're not committing to a yes vote on that open restaurants bill yet, it sounds like?

Shaun Abreu: I'm leaning towards it. I'm leaning towards supporting it. Open restaurants is something that has expanded capacity for our small businesses, allow them to thrive, and keep them afloat. We're seeing the impact of this placement especially in the Upper West Side of small businesses. Programs like these keep them around.

However, I still have a lot of concerns about guidance on sanitation issues addressing the aspect of public safety as well, folks are now more exposed outside, what this could possibly mean for my residents. My biggest concern is the sanitation issue, but also making sure that the open restaurants are done in parts of our neighborhood that make sense and in a way that is also in alignment with community interests and needs.

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're on New York and New Jersey public radio. A few more minutes with the brand new city council member from the upper Upper West Side as he calls it, from Manhattan Valley up through Washington Heights, that is Shaun Abreu as so many of the members, a majority of the members of city council because of term limits are new this year.

A couple of things before you go. Number one, would you say crime is the top issue in your district right now, or is the media blowing it out of proportion?

Shaun Abreu: Crime is a very, very, very big issue now. We had an officer off duty shot on 126th Street and Broadway, we saw the Columbia students who were fatally stabbed near Morningside Park a few months ago. There's definitely cause for concern but in tandem with that is making sure we're addressing mental health, not only my district and city-wide, and I think it's going to have a huge impact in bringing down crimes overall.

Brian Lehrer: Growing up in the district, was the reduction in crime, something you've experienced, certainly, you could look at the numbers over those years and that was a talk of the town and the new cycles of many of those years. Did life feel safer over time as you were growing up or did the citywide statistics, not tell your child neighborhood of Washington Heights story?

Shaun Abreu: Well, I'll tell you, I have felt safer over time of my life but the last two years, I felt a lot much more unsafe. It reminds my parents about the '80s and '90s, in some ways. They're saying is not what it used to be then but they're definitely talking about it. Moving in that direction of course, we want to reverse that but I've personally felt safe in my district but in the last two years, I share the anxiety that many of my constituents face.

Brian Lehrer: Your district will apparently get some of those new anti-gun units the mayor is talking about in what he calls modified uniforms. Not quite plain clothes. Are you for them?

Shaun Abreu: I do not support the plainclothes unit as they used to be before. I am still waiting to see what the actual new rollout will be. I'm skeptical. Personally, I want to foster community relations. I think it's very important that we feel that the police is there to serve us and obviously that's not something we felt in the past. I'm personally in favor of a stronger police presence in District 7 but I'm not yet convinced that a plainclothes unit of some sort would be the best way forward.

Brian Lehrer: All right, as we run out of time, you're ready for a short lightning round short questions, short answers, as listeners get to know you as a rookie in city council. Number one, what's the most common reason so far in your term that constituents have contacted your office?

Shaun Abreu: Housing, it's nearly 50% of constituent calls.

Brian Lehrer: Wow. What's one area of policy where you've seen actual progress during your lifetime in the city?

Shaun Abreu: I would say universal pre K, that was pretty significant. 60,000 students enrolled pre pandemic are fully meeting the demand but now we want to add universal after school to support students with pandemic learning loss. It's an aspect of free childcare and as you've mentioned earlier on your program, Roosevelt Montás' program, Freedom of Citizenship had a huge impact on me and I want to replicate these opportunities for everyone.

Brian Lehrer: I know you're very much for universal after school, and maybe we'll come back to that with you as a separate segment on another day. What's one area where you've expected more progress, but it's been maddeningly slow.

Shaun Abreu: Improving mental health, as I mentioned early in the program. The aim of Thrive NYC was right, but the execution was wrong but I'm hopeful under this administration under Mayor Adams and speaker Adams, that we'll make a lot of progress here. I think there's going to be an intentional effort here to make sure we get it right this time.

Brian Lehrer: Did you have any political heroes growing up?

Shaun Abreu: Barack Obama, for sure. He was the first person I could vote for in 2008. That was a year [inaudible 00:24:00] I was 18 so that was exciting. I liked his youth and optimism and he spoke to the younger folks and I was so excited that I even raised money to attend this inauguration, which was an amazing experience.

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

Shaun Abreu: It's home. It's home, Brian. It's home and I appreciate how familiar my neighborhood is. I know the schools, I know the parks. I've lived in these homes and I also like that I can go anywhere in the city to find something completely different. Second to that, I am a proud son of a mother who works at Zabar's.

Brian Lehrer: You've sampled the Zabar's wares, employee discount over the years.

Shaun Abreu: At times the lox and bagels [unintelligible 00:24:51].

Brian Lehrer: Do you own a pet?

Shaun Abreu: I used to have a parrot name was Julio. My grandmother sent me to bury him at a park with my cousin. It was a traumatic experience as a child. Now I have two cats, which I got while studying for the bar exam a few years ago.

Brian Lehrer: Do you have a favorite sport as a fan or follow sports at all?

Shaun Abreu: As a son of a Dominican father, my favorite sport is baseball and we bleed blue. I'm a big time Yankee fan. Unfortunately, I wasn't too good at baseball so my mom gave me an out and allowed me to pursue my studies.

Brian Lehrer: Well, may there be a season at all this year with the lockout.

Shaun Abreu: That's true.

Brian Lehrer: Last thing, what's one food from your family tradition or anything else that other people might like to try and you can't say the lox and bagels from Zabar's.

Shaun Abreu: I won't say that. My mom makes an amazing Dominican poundcake and is truly a household treasure. I'll have to arrange a delivery at some point for you.

Brian Lehrer: That would be great. Except we'll have to arrange it for our listeners, not just for me. We will leave it there with New York City Council Member Shaun Abreu, representing District 7 on the upper Upper West Side of Manhattan, the latest guest in our series 51 council members in 52 weeks. Congratulations again on your election. We look forward to having you on many times.

Shaun Abreu: Thank you, Brian.

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