Alec Hartman

Alec Hartman

Democratic Party

Education

Bachelor's

Emory University

Personal

Profession

Tech executive

Contact

Personal website

Alec Hartman was a Democratic candidate for District 4 representative on the New York City Council in New York. He was defeated in the primary election on September 12, 2017.

Biography

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Hartman earned a B.A. in political science from Emory University.

At the time of his 2017 run for city council, Hartman was the founder of the startup event TechDay and the cofounder of the web hosting provider DigitalOcean. His experience also includes work as the CEO of NYC Dev Shop and service as a member of the Estonian governor's e-Residency Advisory Group.

Elections

2017

See also: Mayoral election in New York, New York (2017) and Municipal elections in New York, New York (2017)

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for the District 4 seat on the New York City Council.

New York City Council, District 4 Democratic Primary Election, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Keith Powers	40.83%	4,456
Marti Speranza	22.84%	2,493
Rachel Honig	8.69%	948
Bessie Schachter	8.41%	918
Vanessa Aronson	6.84%	746
Maria Castro	4.61%	503
Jeffrey Mailman	4.42%	482
Barry Shapiro	2.13%	232
Alec Hartman	1.00%	109
Write-in votes	0.24%	26
Total Votes		10,913
Source: New York City Board of Elections, "2017 Primary: Certified Results," accessed September 28, 2017

Campaign themes

2017

Hartman's campaign website highlighted the following issues. Click "show" on the boxes below for more information about his positions.

EDUCATION: ACCESS & REFORM

"I support vocational training and expanding STEM curriculum in public schools to better prepare students for the over 10k STEM job openings in NYC that are currently unfilled year after year. I will push for a financial literacy program to educate students how to balance a checking account, plan for long term investments and teach them about things like student loans. It is vital that we increase funding for school construction in the district and I am calling for better planning by the Department of Education to relieve overcrowding, and to eliminate kindergarten waitlists. Further, I will work to expand the number of available universal pre-k seats in District 4. I also believe we need better accountability and oversight for the NYC Department of Education to ensure the budget process is truly transparent to the city, including mandatory budget reporting to NYC Open Data."

TECHNOLOGY, TRANSPORTATION, AND INFRASTRUCTURE

"The city is facing a crisis; this summer, because of Amtrak repairs at Penn station and now the LIRR refusal to pay what it has dedicated, expected delays and service changes will negatively affect commuter capacity from NJ and Long Island by nearly 20%. Couple this with the overall aging of the MTA and NYC is in for a season of enormous challenges. As one example, the 4-5-6 Green line is the heaviest trafficked train line in the US, yet it is plagued with safety issues, delays and overcrowding. Updating the signal switches that the MTA system is relying on, which currently date from the 1930’s, would go a long way to increasing reliability, and safety. Noting that replacing the signal switches can be a long, costly and arduous project, there are simpler things we can do in the mean time that will help mitigate the problem. In particular, the installation of proximity beacons, at a low cost compared to the overall capital budget, this would allow the MTA to track exact locations of all trains in the system in real time with a greater degree of accuracy than currently exists. Helping the MTA to better plan as well as react to break downs and track switches. While the completion of the first phase of the 2nd Ave Subway has been a boon to the northern part of District 4, there is still an entire second phase of the project yet to be started or even funded properly. To connect the southern portion of District 4 to the 2nd Ave subway would go a long way to helping alleviate the problems of transit accessibility in places like Waterside Plaza, and there is little reason why it ought to take another 25 years to complete the project. It is for these simple, yet straightforward reasons that I support Move NY's fair tolling plan to revitalize NY’s transit. I applaud the work of Council-member Garodnick in the planned rezoning for Grand Central Station, particularly his emphasis on public safety, I believe this is a great example of the type of innovation we need. In the years ahead, we as a city must find the will to properly plan for the massive disruption that will be caused by automation in transportation. Across the country, cities are plowing ahead with new regulatory approaches to automated vehicles and NYC should be on the forefront. We need a plan to deal with driverless vehicles within the next 4 years, so I am calling for a commissioned study, inclusive of all relevant agencies and parties, to formally propose the best possible way forward for our future."

HOMELESSNESS & AFFORDABLE HOUSING

"Instead of investing in the homeless hotel housing program that is a drain on city resources, to the tune of $236 million per year, I propose we re-direct those funds to services that will help treat the underlying causes of homelessness such as counseling, job training, mental health treatment and the reintroduction of housing subsidies, especially for struggling middle-class families. I will fight to protect the gains won over the years in regard to rent-stabilization and rent control and I propose to expand these protections throughout District 4. I support the repeal of the 1971 Urstadt Law that took the power for rent regulation out of the hands of the city. Further, I will work for NYCHA Policy reform of the 'tough on crime' era regulations that often lead to families losing access to public housing due to minor, non-violent infractions such as cannabis possession."

LGBTQ & HUMAN RIGHTS

"NY is one of a few ‘Blue’ states that currently has weak protections in the workplace for the Trans* community. I support workplace non-discrimination protections for the entire LGBTQ community. No one should be in fear of loss of life or livelihood simply for their orientation or gender identity. I support the passage of and will work to expand the programs of HASA for All; the protections given to those living with HIV/AIDS. I believe that, in New York, we ought to be doing everything we can to prevent the spread of HIV, Hepatitis C and that includes expanded support for syringe exchange programs."

ENVIRONMENT & GREEN SPACE

"I fully support composting in District 4 and expanding the NYC Organics program. I believe it is important that we, in Manhattan, take responsibility for the trash that we generate. I want to work on behalf of the community to find the best possible solutions to waste issues but I also want to make sure that we are not just continuing to dump our trash at the feet of low-income communities of color in the south Bronx or East NY. As a principal advisor to the Estonian E-Residency program I worked with national governments to go entirely paperless before and I will work to ensure NYC government goes paperless as well. We can do so much better as a city to reduce our carbon footprint and move into the 21st century. I fully support larger subsidies for the adoption of solar technology in existing and new construction. Climate Change is real and we need to make sure NYC is on the cutting edge of the green economy. I also support protections for the East River from environmental degradation. I support the expansion of open-to-the-public green space through incentives and public-private partnerships as well as ensuring that any green space that benefits from public money is truly open to the public. And I support a public-private partnership program to help tackle food waste in NYC and increase the availability of food for low-income and homeless residents."

VETERAN'S RIGHTS & BENEFITS

"I will always be an advocate for the uniformed veterans of NYC. Brave women and men that volunteered to serve the public ought to be treated with the utmost respect. Shamefully, more often than not, they are forgotten, ignored or outright disrespected by elected officials that pay only lip service. For these reasons, I praise the recent adoption of an alternative (school taxes) exemption for veterans, the adding of veteran status to the Human Rights Law definition in NYC, and support expanding the budget for NYC Department of Veterans’ Services. No person that has served the public of New York City should ever be left holding the bag."

IMMIGRATION & CIVIL RIGHTS

"NYC is a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants and always will be. I applaud the recent city investment in legal aid support for those facing deportation. I also strongly condemn the recent actions of ICE harassing children at NYC public schools. We are a nation, and city, built by immigration and no child should ever be made to feel unsafe at school. I fully support Comptroller Stringer’s recently proposed public-private partnership investment to cover the cost of naturalization applications, which will have the effect of vastly increasing the number of naturalized citizens while expanding economic activity in the city by hundreds of millions of dollars year over year. It will also increase the population of immigrants protected from the actions of the current administration and ICE in particular. I fully support the closing of Riker’s Island. It represents not only a drain of city resources that could be used more efficiently, but also a moral stain on NYC. 79% of inmates have not been convicted but are only still incarcerated because of the lack of funds for bail. More than 60% spend over 6 months. 89% of inmates are black or latino. 80% of women in Rikers are mothers. In 2015 approximately 375 undocumented guard-on-prisoner violent incidents occurred. One year of incarceration at Riker’s of one inmate costs the city $209K. Over 600 women are incarcerated at Rikers. According to DOJ data Riker’s is one of the 12 worst jails in the entire US regarding staff sexual misconduct/assault. 41% of inmates have diagnosed mental health issues which is actually more people than all NYS psychiatric hospitals combined. For these reasons, Rikers must close and be replaced with a more equitable, safe and efficient jail system."

SHOPPING WITH MOM & POP

"I understand what it takes to run a small business and how stressful it can truly be. The Commercial Rent Tax applies only to Manhattan south of 96th st and amounts to a surcharge on rent for businesses that pay rent over 250k per year. The neighborhood diner, barbershop, jeweler, and coffee shop are all too often priced out of the district and it is a contributing factor to retail turnover. To preserve the character of our mom and pop stores, as well as to encourage long term growth for small businesses, I applaud Councilman Garodnick's proposal to raise the threshold of who is subject to the CRT from 250k to 500k. The city's revenue would barely be affected while the relief it will provide to small business in District 4 could not be overstated."

WOMEN'S RIGHTS & HEALTHCARE

"I support universal health care as passed by the NYS Assembly and currently supported by State Sen Liz Krueger: the New York Health Act. And, I denounce the attacks on reproductive health care from the current federal administration. We as a state and city should be pushing to update the state law in regard to abortion rights, so I fully support the passage of the Reproductive Health Act and the Comprehensive Contraceptive Coverage Act. I also fully support paid maternity leave for all new and expecting mothers so that there does not have to be a forced choice between career and family. As a soon to be father, this issue is particularly poignant for me and I will work to expand of New York’s Temporary Disability Insurance program to include paid family leave."

Recent news

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Alec Hartman - Google News

See also

New York, New York	New York	Municipal government	Other local coverage

External links

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