Brad Lander

Bradford S. Lander (born July 8, 1969) is an American politician, urban planner, and community organizer who currently serves as the New York City Comptroller.

A member of the Democratic Party, Lander is a progressive politician, and has been described as "one of the most left-leaning politicians in the city."

He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1991, where he received a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, and master's degrees in anthropology from University College London on a Marshall Scholarship and in urban planning from the Pratt Institute.

From 1993 to 2003, Lander was the executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC), a Park Slope not-for-profit organization that develops and manages affordable housing.

For his work he received the 2000 New York Magazine Civics Award, and FAC received the 2002 Leadership for a Changing World award (sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Sustainable Communities).

From 2003 to 2009, Lander was a director of the university-based Pratt Center for Community Development.

In that position, he was 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 Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning led to the first New York City inclusionary housing program to create affordable housing in new development outside Manhattan.

Lander served on a mayoral taskforce that recommended reforms to the 421-a tax exemption for luxury housing and required that new development in certain areas of the city set aside affordable housing units.

He co-led the completion of the One City One Future platform, a progressive vision for economic development in New York City.

Lander was first elected to the City Council in 2009, later serving as the Deputy Leader for Policy.

His district included portions of Brooklyn: Boerum Hill, Borough Park, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Flatbush, Gowanus, Green-Wood Cemetery, Kensington, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Red Hook, Prospect Park, South Slope, Sunset Park, and Windsor Terrace.

In 2021, Lander was elected as the 45th city's comptroller, and assumed office on January 1, 2022.

He was notably endorsed by "some of the nation's most prominent progressives, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts."

Lander is a Missouri native, and son of Carole Lander and David Lander, a bankruptcy attorney.

He grew up in the Creve Coeur suburb of St. Louis in a Reform Jewish family.

He stepped down as head of the organization in 2009 to seek a seat on the New York City Council.

Lander teaches as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School.

Politico described Lander as "one of the most left-leaning politicians in the city."

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, Lander shared the title of Co-Chair of the caucus with his Manhattan colleague Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

Lander was one of four Council members who brought participatory budgeting to New York City, which allows citizens to 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.

Lander was first elected to New York City Council office on the Democratic Party and Working Families Party lines on November 4, 2009, with 70% of the vote.

Lander had 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 in 2013 to serve for a second term.

In 2013, Lander played a key role in a campaign to pass paid sick leave over Mayor Bloomberg's veto, telling the Brooklyn Reporter the legislation would “make our city a fairer, more compassionate place to live and work.” Lander passed the Independent Expenditure Disclosure Act, giving NYC the most aggressive SuperPAC disclosure requirements in the country.

In 2015, Lander passed legislation to ban discriminatory employment credit checks, ending the practice of companies discriminating against people because of their credit history.

In March 2015, Lander was arrested for blocking traffic in Park Slope to show support for eight striking car washers, outside a car wash that was closed at the time; it was his fourth arrest.

The Wall Street Journal covered his arrest with an article entitled: "Please Don't Arrest Me—Until the Cameras Are Here".

In November 2016 he announced his intention to get arrested, saying it was: "part of a long tradition of civil disobedience, and it takes a little courage."

In May 2016, Lander upset Asian community groups by calling supporters of Chinese-American Yungman Lee (a challenger of Representative Nydia Velázquez) "scumbags."

Asian groups called his comment racist, and rallied at City Hall to denounce it.

Lee said Lander's comments were disrespectful, and his choice of words was especially distasteful, adding: "In my view it's over the top of what should be part of our political discourse... we shouldn't have language like that in our politics."

Lee demanded an apology, but Lander refused.

Lander opposed rezoning the site of Long Island College Hospital to include affordable housing.

In December 2017 he was arrested inside the Capitol Building in Washington DC as he was protesting a tax bill and refusing the request of police to move the protest from public spaces; he tweeted "Being arrested ... in the halls of Congress while ... fighting for a country where we provide health care for those who need it ... is something I'll remember for the rest of my life".

As of July 2017, he was the primary sponsor of 20 local laws enacted by the City Council and signed by the Mayor.

In June 2018 he was arrested for blocking traffic, disorderly conduct, and failing to disperse at a protest outside the office of State Senator Martin Golden.