Meet The NYC City Council District 1 Candidates: Sean Hayes
By: Morgan Pryor
Tags: City Council, Elections, NYC, City, Politics

Meet The NYC City Council District 1 Candidates: Sean Hayes

Hayes was among several District 1 candidates to share their platform at a forum hosted by NYU College Democrats ahead of the June 22 election. Morgan Pryor Follow Apr 5 · 6 min read

Graphic by author.

NYU College Democrats hosted a Zoom forum with City Council District 1 candidates in March, which included seven of those in the running for the district’s soon-to-be-open seat — Susan Lee, Sean Hayes, Gigi Li, Jenny Low, Christopher Marte, Denny Salas, and Tiffany Winbush.

This year’s primary election, which will take place on June 22, is especially noteworthy; 35 out of 51 Council seats are open due to members terming out or not running for reelection. As a result, over 300 candidates are vying for seats across the city.

There are ten candidates in the running for District 1, according to a map by THE CITY, which was last updated March 9. Not in attendance at the forum were Maud Maron — who RSVP’d but cited a family emergency as her reason for cancellation earlier that day, according to an email sent to NYU College Democrats — Jacqueline Gross, and Susan Damplo.

Top row, from left to right: NYU College Democrat Policy and Communications Director Mikey Lampel, Candidate Denny Salas, and Candidate Gigi Li. Middle row: Candidates Jenny Low, Christopher Marte, and Sean Hayes. Bottom row: Candidate Susan Lee, Candidate Tiffany Winbush, and NYU Dems member Aaron Stein.

One of the candidates in the running for District 1, which includes most of Lower Manhattan up to Washington Square Park, will take the place of current Democratic incumbent Margaret Chin, who has represented the district since 2010.

“The City Council controls many issues that have a profound impact on New Yorkers’ lives,” said moderator Mikey Lampel, NYU College Democrats’ Policy and Communications Director and a CAS senior studying Environmental Studies and Public Policy.

NYU Democrats members had several questions prepared; some could only be answered with a yes or no and others allowed for a minute-long response. Today’s installment of “Meet The NYC City Council District 1 Candidates” will focus on Sean Hayes and his stance on the city issues brought up during the forum.

Hayes, an international attorney and law professor, is an Irish-Italian first-generation American. Until recently, he has been overseas and was traveling between New York City and Korea. He was the head of a team of lawyers that was rated the top Dispute Resolution Law Firm for disputes in Asia, is one of the top international lawyers in the world, and has led multinational companies in the past two decades.

Pandemic recovery

Hayes began by saying that he thinks the issue is not just spending, but a problem of government accountability. “We spend money but we waste a heck of a lot of money,” he said.

He added that he thinks officials need to look at how difficult it has become to open a business in NYC, and consider why that is. “The focus cannot only be on small businesses,” he concluded.

Housing and the SoHo/NoHo proposal

Hayes said that there are problems and tweaks needed in regard to the SoHo/NoHo rezoning — which would which add about 3,200 apartments to the two wealthy neighborhoods — and thinks that the problem is more “fundamental.” He gave some examples of his experiences visiting people in housing complexes, where he saw issues like leaks and rats in the buildings, yet no steps were being taken to fix the problem. “Our housing projects in of themselves are the problems, and what can we do to get beyond that?” Hayes said. “The first thing is accountability [in government].”

Criminal justice reform and closing down Rikers Island

Hayes thinks Rikers needs to close, but slowly. “There’s some jails that are OK, and there’s some jails that are dumps,” he said during the forum. “So that’s the actual issue: can we fix up those jails that are dumps, and if we can’t, they should definitely close.”

Hayes wants to help young people that have gotten out of jail get paid to work through a city-wide Peace Corps program, which he began to describe before his minute time slot was up.

On his website, Hayes writes more on the topic, saying that though “the bad cops need to be punished, the police should be supported. We are losing good cops and respect in our law enforcement, because of the hate filled rhetoric of politicians that polarize us in order to gain political street cred and motivate voters to vote.”

He says that the police budget and accountability should increase if crime also increases. “We need to, however, consider transitioning some of the increased police budget to social workers and mental health specialists that can work under law enforcement to handle the issues caused by the mentally ill,” Hayes wrote. According to his website, he also wants to wipe criminal records of convicts after five years of no further criminal charges, but increase sentences for repeat offenders.

Bike routes, bus lanes, and open streets

During the forum, Hayes’ answer followed fellow candidate Denny Salas’, and he expressed his support for Salas’ transportation plan, which calls for the creation of superblocks, which originated in Barcelona in 2016. They transform “streets into walkable public spaces, where pedestrians, cyclists, and citizens mix safely,” according to Salas’ website.

“I think that the plan is what we need, and I think all of us here should also look at the other plans that other people have on their actual websites,” Hayes said. “I think we can all learn here; we’re all on the same path.”

He made note of Seoul, South Korea — where he lived for 18 years — and their use of satellite cities, which are smaller, partially self-sufficient towns in close proximity to a larger, parent city. Their bike and bus lanes are set with curbs; in New York, “while some of them have a curb, other ones don’t so people park in them.” Though Hayes didn’t mention his own plan for transportation and bike and bus lanes, he concluded by again encouraging listeners to consider Salas’s.

NYC schools and desegregation

Hayes said that NYC should keep the admissions test required to get into public schools, and “have a minimum score on that test that you need to get to get in and then use a holistic approach to choosing people that would go to that school.”

Hayes elaborates on his website, explaining that improvements are needed in NYC’s education system, though progress has been made in the past 20 years. “However, recently our politicians have pushed our school curriculums too far, while trying to breakdown what made our educational systems great,” he concedes.

Hayes advocates for “a return to value-based education along with work-study opportunities,” and increased opportunities for less fortunate youth to be integrated into the business world through internships.

Supports reducing the NYPD’s annual budget and shrinking the scope of its work? No.

Supports the City Council’s use of member deference for land use decisions? (With member deference, a Council member decides whether or not to vote yes or no on a proposal in their district and the rest of City Council follows.): No.

Supports staff unionization? Yes.

Supports the establishment of the 10 Wooster Street homeless shelter? Yes.