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Ling Ye for NYC Council – District 38

Explore Ling Ye’s priorities for building a safer, stronger, and more vibrant community in District 38.

Public Safety

Our city is grappling with rising crime. Violent crimes, are at the highest rates in years. We deserve to feel safe at home, on the streets and on the subway. I support a sensible, community-focused approach to public safety that addresses the real challenges facing our city. That means:

  • Strengthening relationships between local police precincts and the neighborhoods they serve, with more cultural competency and language access, and for local precincts to incorporate community feedback into their work. We must prioritize hiring and promoting police officers that come from the communities they serve.
  • Expanding mental health response teams to handle non-violent emergencies – but not at the expense of cutting resources for our police officers. As shown in numerous real life examples, mental health workers rely on the NYPD to help their work, as the NYPD relies on mental health professionals. We must invest in both.
  • Restoring the NYPD academy classes that were cut in 2020. The cut was neither sensible nor fiscally smart. Understaffing has led to an increase in overtime, which is more costly for taxpayers than hiring new officers.
  • Investing in youth programs and community centers to give young people opportunities and safe places to convene in order to break cycles of violence.
  • Improving street lighting, sanitation, and public infrastructure in places like NYCHA grounds, public parks, and streets with low traffic— because clean, well-lit spaces are safer spaces.

Education

Our kids deserve nothing but the best schools. We must fund our schools, ensure all students have access to quality education, and that parents’ voices are heard. To improve our schools, we must:

  • Focus on efficient and data-driven funding to improve the quality of our schools. This means funding programs that are supported by the local community and are shown to be effective at improving learning outcomes.
  • Ensure all students are served in public schools. Students who are advanced and students who require special support services such as IEP should have the opportunity to thrive in New York’s public schools.
  • Elevate the voices of parents. In all situations, parents must be heard, no matter what language they speak or what education level they have achieved.
  • Utilize our precious resources, including school buildings. We should not be afraid to ask why some schools are underutilized and to strive to create the type of learning environment in those schools that will bring families into the public schools.
  • Address overcrowding. While the city passed a law to make classes smaller, in our community there are still many overcrowded schools that have no room to reduce class size. We need to build new schools in the right locations, as well as seek creative solutions to boost enrollment in under enrolled schools to help alleviate overcrowding in over enrolled schools.

Affordable Housing

District 38 is home to working families, seniors, immigrants, and essential workers — all of whom deserve a safe, affordable place to live. I’ll fight to keep families housed and preserve the character of our neighborhoods by:

  • Accelerating affordable housing development on city-owned land, especially near transit hubs.
  • Divesting from the for-profit shelter-hotel model to invest in affordable housing and housing vouchers. The City’s shelter contract cost has ballooned from under $1 billion to $4 billion per year in less than 10 years – and is still increasing. If we invest in faster and more efficient case work management, we could reduce the duration of stay in the shelter system, therefore diminishing the need to build new shelters.
  • Advocating for the reconfiguration of a more fair property tax system that accurately reflects taxes compared to property value. NYC’s property tax calculation system is archaic and not equitable, with the outer borough working class small home owners paying taxes disproportionately large relative to their home value. Small home owners are tax burdened, and the burden is also trickling down to tenants of these small residential buildings.
  • Stand up to illegal evictions and push for stronger enforcement of tenant protections.
  • Reinvest in NYCHA buildings like the Red Hook Houses, with a focus on long-term repairs and climate resilience.
  • Support permanently affordable housing models like community land trusts.

Environment

Our waterfront communities are on the frontlines of climate change — and we need bold, local actions to protect our environment. I will lead on making District 38 cleaner, greener, and more resilient by:

  • Advancing flood protection and green infrastructure projects in Red Hook and along the Sunset Park waterfront.
  • Supporting the Sunset Park Greenway and safer walking and biking routes across the district.
  • Growing green job opportunities, from retrofitting buildings to clean energy training, especially for youth and immigrants.
  • Expanding composting, recycling, and community gardens.
  • Holding industrial polluters accountable while supporting sustainable businesses.

Economic Development

Our district is full of hardworking small business owners, entrepreneurs, and workers who want a fair shot. I’ll focus on building a local economy that works for everyone by:

  • Supporting small businesses with grants, technical assistance, and fair lease policies.
  • Advocating for fair property tax evaluation for small business owner-occupied commercial buildings.
  • Driving responsible job growth at Industry City and the Brooklyn Army Terminal — with local hiring, job training, and union jobs.
  • Investing in workforce development and apprenticeships in tech, healthcare, construction, and clean energy.
  • Championing MWBEs (Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises) in city contracts and capital projects.
  • Improving transit and infrastructure to better connect our residents to opportunity.