Ours is an era that spotlights strongmen and flamboyant performers — qualities Brad Lander simply doesn’t project. Wedged between Andrew Cuomo’s brooding force and Zohran Mamdani’s magnetic persona, New York City’s comptroller often fades from view — at least until ICE agents took him into custody on Tuesday.
Yet Lander’s résumé warrants far more notice. He helped shepherd New York City’s landmark paid-sick-leave and Fair Workweek statutes, spearheaded the nation’s first minimum-wage standard for delivery workers, and championed school-integration efforts in District 15. After Signature Bank’s collapse, he mobilized the city’s pension funds to save 35,000 rent-stabilized apartments. He also pressed for the Capital Projects dashboard that now tracks the cost and timetables of the city’s infrastructure spending. When Times Opinion surveyed 15 experts about the city’s next mayor, Lander emerged as the clear favorite.
I spent a drizzle-filled Sunday tracing one of his successes with him. Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood, long synonymous with its notoriously polluted canal, has been dotted with factories and refineries for generations. The E.P.A. declared it a Superfund site in 2010, launching the cleanup that’s now underway.
Once the fetid stench rising from the canal began to recede, it was obvious Gowanus would blossom. Zoning still favored industry, but change was inevitable—and the shape of that change mattered.
As the City Council member representing the district, Lander rallied residents around a redevelopment blueprint that required at least 25 percent of new apartments to be affordable, funded public-housing upgrades, storm-water infrastructure, and artist studios.
Unlike many “share-the-wealth” development schemes that collapse into delay and infighting, this one succeeded. Today high-rises sprout in every direction. When complete, the rezoning is expected to add about 8,500 homes — more than anywhere else in New York.
Seeing that much construction at once is rare—the last time I witnessed anything comparable was in China—and rarer still to watch the left cheer it on. Yet The Nation hailed Gowanus as “a possible model for how New York City neighborhoods should manage growth and much-needed housing.”
Replicating Gowanus won’t be easy. Still, Lander floats bolder ideas — like erecting towers atop city-owned golf courses. “New York needs robust growth,” he told me. “But growth on autopilot only deepens inequality. We have to shape it.”
As city comptroller, Lander arguably understands the machinery of New York government better than anyone in the race. His civil-service reform plan begins by describing the labyrinthine hiring pipeline, which often stretches over a year before agencies can even start interviews.
Lander’s trove of detailed proposals rivals a presidential platform, but he lacks a few signature policies that instantly convey his brand. Cuomo’s comeback shows little self-reflection; Mamdani’s flair raises doubts about his managerial capacity. Lander offers depth, not slogans.
Lander sits between them—armed with deep City Hall experience and a proven record of turning progressive ideals into practical results.
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