Brad Lander

Life and career

A graduate of the University of Chicago where he received the Harry S. Truman Scholarship and he attended University College London on a Marshall Scholarship, and Pratt Institute.

Lander came into to public notice as an affordable housing advocate that has negotiated important affordable housing concessions from the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg in major development projects. He directed the Pratt Center for Community Development (formerly PICCED) and the Fifth Avenue Committee.

He served for a decade as executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, a not-for-profit community-based organization that develops and manages affordable housing. As a director, Lander won local and national recognition for his work at FAC including the 2000 New York Magazine Civics Award, and the 2002 Leadership for a Changing World award, sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Sustainable Communities.

In 1999 Rolling Stone Magazine awarded Lander the "Do Something Brick Award" for his community work in affordable housing. Other awards from the Ford Foundation, the Fannie Mae Foundation and the University of Chicago were granted throughout his tenure as a director.

Lander is the former Director of the Pratt Center for Community Development. He stepped down after six years as head of the organization to seek a seat on the New York City Council. He still teaches community planning, housing, and urban policy at Brooklyn Law School.

As the director of the Pratt Center, Lander has been a critic of the Bloomberg administration's development policies. he has also been a critic of the Atlantic Yards project. Lander's work in 2003–2005 on the Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning led to the first New York City inclusionary housing program to create affordable housing in new development outside Manhattan Lander was a key leader in forming a coalition that repealed the 421-a tax break for luxury housing and required that new development. He co-led the completion of the One City One Future platform, a progressive vision for economic development in New York City.

A Brooklyn resident of nearly two decades, he lives in Park Slope with his wife, Meg Barnette, the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Planned Parenthood NYC, and their children. He also served as the Housing Chair of Brooklyn Community Board 6, serves on the board of directors of the Jewish Funds for Justice, and is a little league coach in the 78th Precinct Youth Council.

New York City Council

Lander was first elected to office on the Democratic Party and Working Families Party lines on November 4, 2009, with 70% of the vote. Lander won a hotly contested Democratic Primary on September 15, 2009 with 41% of the vote in a field of five. Lander was reelected on the Democratic and Working Families Parties' lines on November 5, 2013 to serve for a second term. His current term runs from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2017. He holds the title of Deputy Leader for Policy in the Democratic Conference and chairs the Committee on Rules, Privileges and Elections.

Lander is a co-founder of the Progressive Caucus in the New York City Council, a group that was described by the New York Times as "the City Council’s most liberal members." For his first term, Brad shared the title of Co-Chair of this caucus with his Manhattan colleague Melissa Mark-Viverito, who was unanimously elected Speaker of the City Council in early 2014.

Lander was one of four original Council Members to bring participatory budgeting to New York City, a project that allows citizens to directly propose, develop, and vote on items in the municipal budget. Over half of the 51 New York City Council Districts now engage in Participatory Budgeting.

As of July 2017, he was the primary sponsor of 20 Local Laws enacted by the City Council and signed by the Mayor. In addition to these efforts, Lander played a prominent role in helping shepherd the Community Safety Act to passage, in partnership with Council Member Jumaane Williams.