‘Abundance’ Groups Boost Pro-Development City Council Candidates
Growth advocates are spending in hopes of influencing voters to elect members committed to backing new housing — and to defeat a development foe.
The abundance agenda is on the ballot in New York City.
A Yes-in-My-Backyard mentality to build everything from apartments to bike lanes has popped up in multiple races in the upcoming Democratic primary — heralding a potential sea change in a political culture with a history of reining in development.
Mayoral contenders are vying to outdo each other on housing plans and candidates for comptroller are trading barbs over who supports housing development more.
But City Council races are emerging as the true test of abundance politics, thanks to the Council’s power over key land-use decisions.
“Abundance” — the title of a bestselling book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson — pops up both in the name of a nonprofit voter education organization called Abundance New York and in an unrelated independent expenditure group called Abundant New York.
“Sometimes the YIMBY or abundance movements can feel abstract, especially in national races,” said Annemarie Gray, executive director of Open New York. “Local races — especially City Council races — is really where the rubber meets the road.”
The organization’s advocacy arm is among the funders of the Abundant New York committee, which has spent more than $200,000 so far to influence five Council races in Manhattan, Brooklyn and The Bronx.
Another independent expenditure group in Council races is People for Public Space, associated with Open Plans, which promotes policies friendly to pedestrians and cyclists and is funded by entrepreneur Mark Gorton, a safe-streets advocate. People for Public Space has spent over $211,000 to support eight council candidates and oppose two.
Gray contends that candidates pledging to bring down the cost of housing — a chief concern of voters in public opinion polls — need to show how they will deliver.
“So many candidates talk about making the city more affordable and then turn around and do things to make the city more expensive,” Gray said.
While the Council has been more development-friendly under Speaker Adrienne Adams — issuing recent approvals to allow more apartments on Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue as well as on the site of the former Arrow Linen company in Windsor Terrace — its tradition of local deference still gives individual members sway to block projects.
The players getting involved in the primary look to elect more Council members who support not only more housing, but also climate-resiliency projects and streetscapes that are less car-centric.
“People are getting priced out of the city, they’re worried about getting around and just being able to live here, raise their families here, retire here,” said Catherine Vaughan, co-founder of Abundance New York, an advocacy nonprofit dedicated to increasing housing, transit, public space and clean energy. “People are looking for candidates that will solve those problems.”
Unlike Gray’s group, Abundance New York is not buying ads for specific races. Instead it’s producing a comprehensive voter guide with recommended picks.
Abundant New York and People for Public Space have poured money into promoting incumbent Councilmembers Pierina Sanchez (D-The Bronx) and Shahana Hanif (D-Brooklyn).
Backers say Sanchez, as chair of the Council housing committee, was instrumental in advancing a citywide rezoning scheme to allow for more housing. They also point to Hanif supporting the Arrow Linen development amid heated local opposition that vowed to try to unseat her, and say she has evolved her stance on housing development after previously voting to limit it.
Both groups are spending to oppose Hanif’s challenger Maya Kornberg, a researcher at the NYU Brennan Center for Justice.
The most obvious showdown for abundance politics is the Council race in Lower Manhattan’s District 1, where incumbent Christoper Marte is fighting to keep his seat against lawyer Jess Coleman, MTA official Eric Yu and Elizabeth Lewinsohn, a former NYPD counterterrorism policy chief.
“It’s an exemplary race in a lot of ways because it makes us ask, what does it mean to be progressive in New York City in 2025?” said Ryder Kessler, co-founder of Abundance New York, which, along with ResiliencePAC and StreetsPAC, has endorsed Coleman.
Independent expenditure group Abundant New York has purchased ads attacking Councilmember Christopher Marte in a lower Manhattan Council race. Credit: Screenngrab via New York City Campaign Finance Board
Backed by the Working Families Party and New York League of Conservation Voters, Marte has cast himself as a champion of the current residents of the historically low-income but increasingly gentrified Lower East Side and Chinatown. He has accused real estate developers of driving up rents by erecting luxury buildings.
“Big developers called my last election win a huge loss for them,” Marte boasts in one campaign ad.
Abundant New York and People for Public Space are both spending to defeat Marte, with the latter group also investing in mailers, in Chinese and English, promoting Coleman. (Open New York has also endorsed Coleman.)
A video ad from Abundant New York shows Marte skateboarding, with voiceover narration: “Marte’s got the shortest commute to City Hall, but the least to show for it. … He hasn’t passed one law.” (Marte hasn’t passed any bills as a lead sponsor, but has co-sponsored more than100 bills that became law.)
Jobs for New York, backed by the Real Estate Board of New York, is also spending against Marte — including on TV ads and a website. The ads don’t mention his housing record but blame him of “indifference to women,” referencing an aide who resigned after being accused of harassing a reporter.
Marte did not respond to multiple requests for comment, though his campaign manager emailed a statement touting his support for a new 100% affordable apartment building and criticizing what he called a “smear campaign.”
“The people of my district know this race has nothing to do with the false narrative of YIMBY vs NIMBY. It’s about big real estate trying to buy this Council seat, again,” Marte said in the statement. “It’s no surprise this powerful industry has candidates with no previous track record of working with the community now speaking out and parroting their deregulation talking points. District 1 has already experienced what it’s like to have developers get their way — that’s why we’re facing a displacement crisis and that’s why I’ve been elected to fight against it again and again.”
Marte has rallied against congestion pricing, a vehicle-tolling program that has reduced traffic and begun to raise money for the MTA. He has opposed new developments in the district, and has opposed building apartments for seniors on Elizabeth Street Garden, which sits on city property long slated for affordable housing.
And Marte has irked some YIMBYs by targeting outdoor dining. He voted against the Council’s extension of the pandemic-era outdoor dining program, citing complaints from locals about “bad actors” and saying that midnight closings keep up “the working-class people of my district while gentrifiers outside party.” Later, he exercised his power to ask the City Council to review a popular wine bar’s application for sidewalk seating. The Council rejected it.
“This is why we can’t have nice things,” said Sara Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans. “That’s just someone who is not promoting the vision of Manhattan and of New York City that we believe in.”
Marte’s anti-gentrification stances have earned him loyalty from neighborhood groups including Youth Against Displacement and Elizabeth Street Garden.
Perhaps his most egregious act, Marte’s critics say, was voting against Mayor Eric Adams’ citywide City of Yes for Housing Opportunity rezoning package, meant to spark more housing development and in line with efforts in other cities. Marte was the only Manhattan council member to give the City of Yes a thumbs down.
“The City of Yes is a yes to only the real estate developers,” Marte said in December before casting no. “It’s a plan to put our trust in developers, the same ones that evict us, destroy us and displace our communities.”
Coleman, who announced his candidacy shortly afterwards, called Marte’s vote “a fireable offense.”
“He has been accountable to a loud minority, a group of people who have just wanted to block progress and block development,” said Coleman. “What I’ve been trying to do is kind of bring new people into the process and build a movement that would make me as a leader accountable to a broader swath of the electorate and just lead with progress in mind, and not just try to preserve the status quo.”
An organization that represents owners of rent-stabilized properties is also spending against Marte. The independent expenditure group Housing for All, funded by the New York Apartment Association, spent thousands to oppose him out of the more than $500,000 it’s put into City Council races.
“The City Council sits at the crossroads, especially about supply,” said Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association. “It was important for us to support and endorse candidates that were pro-supply and pro-housing champions.”
Coleman is painting himself as such.
“We have people who want to live here,” he said. “If we’re not going to build more housing for them, they’re going to bid up the existing supply, they’re going to be displaced and we need to do something about it.”
