By Key Jones-Ford
On March 29, the climate-crisis-based student activist group,TREEage, hosted a student mayoral town hall. Held in the NY Society for Ethical Culture, the event was for NYC students and alumni to meet and listen to a few of the candidates running for mayor.
According to their website, TREEage is a “grassroots student-led climate advocacy organization dedicated to winning tangible, transformative climate action in New York.” They host several events relating to student social justice and activism, including a recent trip to Albany for a “youth day of action.”
This town hall was organized with the goal of getting students more involved in local elections and politics.
“Students should care about this election cycle because there’s so many things happening in our city that are affecting us,” said Idrees Ilahi, the CUNY director of TREEage.
State Senator Jessica Ramos, State Senator Zellnor Myrie, State Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, DNC Vice Chair Michael Blake, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, and Whitney Tilson were all in attendance for this town hall. Each candidate was given roughly two minutes to state their name and give an introduction to their platform. After their introductory speeches, the structure of the event was introduced to both the candidates and the audience as a “school day,” where each “class” would present the candidates with different forms of questioning.
English was a “socratic seminar” in which candidates answered questions submitted by students prior to the event. Government was a scenario response, in which each candidate would give a realistic answer as to how they would respond to different crises. Gym class was rapid fire rounds of questions with yes-or-no or one-sentence answers. Finally, the town hall ended in a statistics class with a Family Feud-style game, in which the candidates were divided into teams of two and had to guess the six most-given answers to survey questions given to students.
Among other talking points the candidates posed were climate change and NYC’s survival, affordability and the housing crisis, reproductive rights and healthcare, and the growing unrest with the presence of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,(ICE). Also discussed was expanding pre-K, school funding, and city infrastructure like the MTA. Candidates were questioned on their past beliefs and current beliefs, what actions they have taken within the last four years, and what they’ve done to build up their platforms.
During Lander’s turn to speak in the government class portion, a small group of protestors got on stage,holding up a cloth with the words “Black Rock Brad.” The protestors called on Lander to divest from BlackRock, a leading management firm and big investor of oil and gas. They chanted “Black Rock Brad” and “off fossil fuels” as they were escorted off the stage and out of the auditorium.
“You guys told me this wasn’t going to happen or I wasn’t going to come again,” said Lander in response to the interruption, before exiting the stage. Lander would eventually be convinced to rejoin the stage.
The rest of the town hall continued without further interruption, however, the incident stuck out to some of those in attendance. “This town hall told me who not to support, especially after the incident that happened on stage with the protestors,” said Zain Latif, a current senior at BC. “I definitely feel like I wouldn’t want to vote for someone like that, or like [Tilson], especially with how the audience reacted to his answers.”
Joan Joseph, another CUNY student, said the town hall made it easier for him to consider which candidates aligned with his views. “This town hall gave me a better idea about who the candidates are and what their priorities are, and how ready they are, because some of them were not good at giving answers or explaining their motives. So I definitely have a shorter list now of who I would support.”
Raja Abdullah, a CUNY alumni, offered a different perspective on attending. Having already graduated, Abdullah went in with the question of how his experience in CUNY could have been better.
“Going in, I thought I had an idea of who I was going to vote for, but coming out, I’m expanding my options a bit.” Abdullah mentioned also coming out of the meeting with more questions about the candidates, and wanting to do more research on their policies and views.
Based on a short survey given to the audience at the end of the town hall, out of 41 participants, 23 of them left having a better idea of who they wanted to support.
TREEage stated both on the flyer for their event and to the Vanguard that they will endorse candidates, but have not disclosed who they would support.
For ways students can get involved, Ilahi suggested attending more town halls. “There’s so many town halls that are happening–definitely attending those and seeing how candidates answer the same question can tell you a lot about them.” Students are also encouraged to go to campaign websites and read the news relating to the election. “Look at their track records, and see if they’ve historically fought for the working class and everyday New Yorkers.”
The NYC primary election takes place on June 24, with the mayoral election itself on Nov 4. To find resources on voting in NYC, visit the NYC Board of Elections website.