Election 2021: Jacqui Painter, by Nathan Weiser

Jacqui Painter is a Red Hook native who is running for city council.
She has advocated for people for many years, which makes her think she is the right candidate.

Some of her goals include:
“I will enact a budget and bring funding for food justice because I was on the ground and I know the issue,”

“I will work on our resilient waterfront because if we do not make drastic moves now we will all be under water again soon. I will fight for housing, affordable housing, it is so desperately needed after the pandemic.”

Another goal of hers is to fight for a comprehensive climate change plan.
She grew up with her parents on Conover Street, which ends on the pier, and she spent a lot of time enjoying the waterfront. Her love of the waterfront was influenced by her father, who helped found the Red Hook Boaters.“

“There is no better view or place to be in my opinion than on Red Hook’s waterfront looking at the Statue of Liberty. There is nothing like it.”

Another passion of hers when she was growing up in Red Hook was volunteering at Added Value Farm. She was one of the first non-adult volunteers that the farm had.
Because her father got a job at the United Nations, she went to the private United Nations International School.

“It really is no wonder that climate change was such an influence on me,” Painter said. “Being able to go to Manhattan everyday showed the vast disparity of our city. You go into Manhattan and over there by the FDR Drive is a totally different world.”

In high school, she met like-minded people and she became one a founder of the Green School Alliance.

“It is now an international organization of schools around the globe that teach climate change and how that relates to racial and climate justice,” Painter said.
She studied environmental design at the University of Colorado. She was student government president.“

I ran around school and organized a bunch of protests. After Green School Alliance, I really kept learning how to fight and organize for the people.”
After graduation, she landed a job at a design firm centered around luxury products called Skaggs Creative.

In the lead-up to the 2016 general election, Painter joined Hillary Clinton’s campaign. She went to Iowa and organized in Black Hawk county. She helped flip the county blue. When she came back to NYC after that campaign she continued her activism.
“Because Trump was president for the next four years, I knew I couldn’t stop,” Painter said. “I was organizing in the street every week for immigrant rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights and racial justice.”

She took a job with a political consulting firm. Through this firm, she worked with the Red Hook Senior Center and that led her to start Red Hook Relief.
She is the vice president of Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, she is a member of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, a NYC Parks Department Super Steward and a member of New Kings Democrats.

“The government failed its duty to care for the most vulnerable. This is why we need a strong fighter in city hall that has worked to meet the needs when it counted during the pandemic.”
“This is something that is the job of the city,” Painter said. “The mutual aid work around the city is great, and I would not change it for anything, but this is the job of government, to step in and make sure that we are caring for our most vulnerable. NYCHA is committing human rights violations.”

“In Red Hook, buses are pretty much your only option. We need to prioritize this and make sure the city isn’t spending superfluous money on things like machines that tell you the time the bus is coming. We need to make sure they run on time and that there are more of them.”
She also thinks more should be done to decriminalize fare evasion.“ It was very good that they made the bus free for a while but I think we should have kept that up,” Painter said. “The tickets that happen for people that jump the turnstile disproportionally affect the working class and people of color.”

To further protect and improve the waterfront, in Sunset Park, an off shore wind power plant was recently approved near the Brooklyn Army Terminal, and she thinks more should be implemented throughout the area.

“This new green infrastructure can be great green jobs for our residents of the district,” Painter said. They can be union jobs and for local workers to help bring us out of our economic crisis. The wind turbines allow the city to get renewable energy that helps move away from fossil fuel. This is so obvious that and should have been done a while ago.”

Nathan Weiser