What The Hell America!

Alexa Avilés

There’s an old saying: “Dime con quién andas, y te diré quién eres,” “Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.” Had I been a status-quo candidate who says yes to special interests, they wouldn’t be pouring so much money into trying to get rid of me.

Our campaign poses a significant threat to their controlling interests in this city. This challenge is being mounted by the two particular groups you mentioned — the Israel lobby and the real estate industry — which are both threatened by my deep commitment to the working class, my belief in dignity and justice for all people, including Palestinians, and housing as a human right.

Since taking office, I’ve stood against Eric Adams’s egregious rent hikes and demanded a rent freeze — something my opponent refuses to do in a district where the majority of residents are tenants, and more than half of those are rent-burdened. The real estate industry wants a rubber stamp in City Hall for luxury development, and they know they won’t find that in me. Instead, we talk about alternative models like social housing, with the public investing its own capital into building the projects that we need as a city.

That’s why they have spent so much money on a local race. That’s the current system we’re in. They will continue to be aggressive in their opposition because they want elected officials to do their bidding. Sadly, we’ve had too many officials willing to comply.

This is a direct attack on socialists and progressives, the working class, and on free speech. This is a direct attack on the collective, because that’s what poses the threat. If it was just me, they wouldn’t be so concerned. But it is our coalition that really concerns them.