Alex Bores Hosts Town Hall With Public Officials, Including Q/A With UES Locals

State Assembly Member Alex Bores hosted an exclusive town hall for his Upper East Side constituents on September 12, which included guest speakers ranging from New York Attorney General Letitia James to City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running for mayor. A Q/A session with Bores followed. The gathering is something of an annual tradition, as the Assembly Member hosted a similar event last year.

The event, which was held at Hunter College’s Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute on E. 65th St., was jammed into an overflow room. The stately building was bequeathed to FDR as a wedding gift from his mother, and was sold to Hunter in 1943. Parts of the New Deal, Roosevelt’s signature set of government reforms and projects, were famously hammered out there.

“It’s really exciting to see how many people have shown up...I thank all of you for taking the time. This is an experiment. I think it’s more common outside of New York City than in it,” Bores said, during his opening remarks. “I guarantee somebody will ask a question that makes you upset at some point, but that’s fine–let me handle it.”

Nancy Cantor, Hunter’s president, spoke briefly after Bores. She riffed on the college’s motto–“The Care of The Future is Mine”–by telling the event’s attendees that “the care of the future is ours.” She also playfully pointed out that Bores is an alum of Hunter College High School, Class of 2009.

Then it was time for the big-name speakers, who broadly summarized what their jobs entailed and what they’ve been prioritizing recently. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, New York’s chief financial officer, described how he was responsible for everything from pensions to making sure legislators such as Bores get paid: “In the worse case scenarios, we find people stealing money! Then we hold them accountable.”

U.S. Representative Jerry Nadler, who has represented New York as a staunch Democrat for decades, inveighed against his Republican opponents in Washington. He also noted that he’s been taking more time to explore the Upper East Side, which has been his current district since 2022, after congressional redistricting split Manhattan into an uptown district and a downtown district. Previously, there was an East Side district that was represented by Carolyn Maloney for years, and a West Side seat that Nadler held. He defeated Maloney for the redrawn seat in an August 2023 Democratic primary.

Nadler went on to praise the area’s “beautiful parks” and “exquisite educational and cultural institutions,” and said that he has been enjoying meeting the UES’s “diverse communities of all ages and backgrounds.”

James, the Attorney General, kicked things off by mentioning that NY Governor Kathy Hochul had just informed her about receiving a cancer diagnosis. James said that there was reason to be optimistic about the governor’s prognosis, and that the offending cancerous patch would be quickly removed from her nose by the next day.

The crowd became particularly engaged when James got into her opposition to the effect of social media algorithms on children, which has led to a since-delayed smartphone ban in NYC schools.

“It’s unfortunate, that as the Attorney General, more and more parents are reaching out to me to get pediatric beds for their children,” she said. “Why? Because they’re suffering from more depression, more anxiety, and believe it or not, more and more children are suffering from self-mutilation. There’s a correlation between the introduction of these algorithms on social media, and the increase in children going to get psychiatric help.”

Brad Lander, the NYC Comptroller, joked that “we try to keep everything under ‘comptrol’.” Lander alluded to his mayoral bid by railing against the charter reforms that now-Mayor Eric Adams is pursuing, which would minimize the advise-and-consent powers of the New York City Council if they pass on November’s ballot. He also got some loud applause when he signaled his support for a law that strengthens moped and e-bike registration.

Then it was time for a few constituent questions. A woman named Nancy Sharon asked Bores about the state of the tolling program known as congestion pricing, which was paused indefinitely by Governor Hochul this summer. The $15 base tolls, which would have been levied on drivers entering Manhattan below 60th St.–with some exceptions and variations–was supposed to generate $1 billion a year in tolls, enabling the MTA to borrow $15 billion for badly needed major capital improvements.

“I imagine, like everyone, I like free stuff,” Bores responded. “Yet infrastructure isn’t free. Infrastructure is actually really expensive. We need to have conservations about how we pay for it.” He added that he believes that there are issues with MTA spending, such as focusing too much on consultants over engineers, but suggested that something like congestion pricing is essential to “keep the system where it is.”

Bores agreed, however, with locals who want an exemption if they live in the zone–an idea that would be borrowed from the extant London model of the program. He is adamantly opposed to giving credits to New Jersey drivers.

Hochul has suggested she may revive the program after this fall’s election season, and is looking to negotiate with the members of the state legislature–such as Bores–about its parameters.

Marlene, another local, asked about Bores’s take on Soloviev Group’s bid to build a casino near the United Nations. “I’m extremely skeptical,” he said, which earned him plenty of applause. “There will be lots of jobs that come from a casino,” he noted, but claimed that “there are communities that will want those casinos–and Manhattan is not one one them.”