Our nation currently faces unprecedented challenges. Americans are hungry for new leadership. Citizens are crying out for reform. We have the opportunity to implement far reaching programs that can dramatically sustain and transform our country.
There is no place in more critical need of change than Brooklyn’s 10th district: rampant crime and unemployment; exploding gang wars; substandard healthcare; escalating drug abuse and booming drug economies; woefully under-funded schools. Residents of the 10th district have yet to reap the benefits that 30 years of economic development has brought to other parts the country. An unshakeable sense of hopelessness runs through much of the district. Parts of the district look more like a third world country than a section of the nation’s wealthiest city. If a change was supposed to come, it hasn’t happened yet.
Kevin Powell has the vision and drive necessary to actually bring change to his district. With 20 years experience as a political activist, community organizer, and public speaker, he has demonstrated a commitment to social justice and anti-violence education. He is a respected and influential member of his community, and a trusted friend and mentor to countless Brooklyn residents.
Kevin is calling for a fresh blueprint – a New Deal for the 21st Century; programs and initiatives that will finally address the problems strangling the district's opportunities for growth and change. The progressive and reformist spirit of President Roosevelt’s New Deal animates Kevin Powell’s visionary outlook. His policies, outlined in this platform, are designed to bring relief, recovery, and reform to hard-working Brooklynites struggling to make ends meet.
The 10th Congressional District (CD) of Brooklyn New York encompasses East New York, Canarsie, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Cypress Hills, Clinton Hill, Mill Basin, Midwood, downtown Brooklyn, Boreum Hill, as well as Fort Greene and Williamsburg. It is a majority-minority district, or a federal district where ethnic minorities constitute the majority of the population. Black Americans in the 10th CD reside primarily in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Ocean-Hill Brownsville and East New York. These areas face an array of social and economic challenges:
- Life expectancy, infant mortality and the burden of disease all afflict African-American Brooklynites disproportionately when compared nationally or locally.
- Heart disease, cancer and AIDS cause the most deaths among Brooklyn residents. The death rates for all causes were higher in Brooklyn than in New York City. The rate of AIDS infections in heterosexual African-American women was particularly high.
- Majority of black neighborhoods are plagued by high and chronic unemployment, underemployment and low wages.
- 40%, or 28,000, of the incarcerated black men and women in New York State correctional facilities are from Brooklyn’s black communities, directly impacting the number of "marriageable males" and the number of women raising children alone.
- The median income for the district is 30,000; the rest of the city enjoys a $35,000 income
Kevin’s platform is also focused on implementing Poverty Reduction and Community Growth Strategies. Modeled on successful domestic and international community and micro-development models. These innovative and responsive programs can be deployed to revitalize the 10th district and drastically improve the lives of the district’s residents through the creation of sustainable businesses and local intuitions providing underrepresented goods and services.
Areas of Focus
- Economy
- Immediate relief for those hit by the current recession
- More targeted job creation in the private and publics sector
- Reduce unemployment & underemployment
- Development and ivestment in our communities.
- Education
- Repeal no child left behind
- Increase school funding for NYC schools and public schools in general
- Restore and expand after school programs
- Daycare
- More charter schools
- Life Orientation
- Youth Services
- More and innovative anti-gang initiatives
- Restore and expand after-school programs- i.e. Sports, music, tutoring
- Healthcare
- Create universal healthcare: single payer system
- Immediate relief for those with no or inadequate coverage
- Maintain and expanded HHS, (Medicaid Medicare, WIC, food stamps etc...)
- Prisons and the Criminal Justice System
- More Education and Less Incarceration
- Balance Federal/State spending on prison construction with education spending
- Abolish Capital Punishment
- Address Policing- Stop and Frisk and police violence
- Improve departmental responsibility and community relations
- Drug Policy (as related to Youth Services and Person and Criminal justice as well)
- More Treatment and Less Incarceration
- Repeal Rockefeller Drug Laws
- Equalize Crack vs. Cocaine Sentences
- Legalize Medial Marijuana and revisit the socioeconomic and criminal justice benefits of decriminalization
- End Loss of Civil Liberties and Educational Benefits due to drug prosecutions
- Supplement Law Enforcement expenditures
- Reduce High Incarceration Rates with sensible sentencing
- Anti-drug and alcohol education focused on maintaining mentally and physical healthy life styles, not simply criminal punishment
- Housing
- Maintain and Expand Rent Stabilization
- Protect Title 8 (access to affordable housing)
- Maintain Section 8 (funding/subsidy for affordable housing)
- Address gentrification with human locally oriented solutions
- No Support for Atlantic Rail Yards Project
- Cultivating the Next Generation-co-circular Educational Services
- Anti –Violence and conflict resolution education
- Reinvigorating Local arts and sports program
- Sensible Sex-Ed programs
- Environment
- Clean up Superfund Sites and Brown Fields in Brooklyn
- Ensure Safety at Nuclear Transfer Way Station (Williamsburg)
- Strengthen Clean Air Act
- Push for access to Green Spaces
- Energy Policy
- International Relations
- End America involvement in Iraq War
- Act as peacemaker not an instigator in
the Middle East.
- Sign on to ICC agreement
- Orient Foreign Policy toward diplomatic and multi-lateral solutions
- Propose American and multi-lateral action
to end genocide in the Sudan; the rest of Africa and the Diaspora
- Increased America and multi-lateral action aid to stem the AIDS pandemic in Africa and the Caribbean and require pharmaceutical companies to provide inexpensive drugs for treatment.
- Assert the African Diaspora’s firm place and role in the global economy;
- Advocate favorable trade agreements among the U.S. Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America
- Implement Fair Trade Policies with the world’s two largest markets, China and India
- Debt cancellation for third world nations
- Military and Defense Spending
- Re-program the multi-hundred billion dollar war budget for veterans assistance and domestic programs
- End funding for unneeded Cold War weapons systems
- Engage in multilateral nuclear non-proliferation efforts
- Fully fund and upgrade domestic port, air and infrastructure security measures
- Brooklyn to NJ Cross Harbor Rail Tunnel
- Wait till the feasibility study is completed
- Examine investment alternatives and New York City transportation infrastructure as a whole
- Malpractice Insurance
- Find Alternative Tort Reform measures
- Insure Consumer Protection
- Union Card Check
- Making unionization fairer
- Net Neutrality
- Maintain net neutrality by preventing Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down web content based on its source, ownership or destination.
- Iraq War
- End the War
- Bring the Troops Home
- Civil Liberties
- Mortgage Banking and Credit Crisis
- Repeal Graham-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act to bring back banking reforms of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933
- End Predatory Lending
- Help build credit in minority communities
- Poverty Reduction and Community Growth Strategies
- Micro-development
- Family and adult educational program
- Local business development and job training
- Child and adult Care alternatives for
working and student caregivers
- Micro loans for macro improvement
- Gender Equality/Ending Violence Against Women
- Roe v. Wade's guarantees of a woman's right to choose cannot be weakened.
- We must dedicate ourselves to supporting strong anti-violence/anti-domestic violence initiatives that prevent violence against women and that support victims of domestic violence.
- LGBT Policy
- Taxes
- Cut taxes for middle-class Americans
and shifting the tax burden to those making over $200,000 a year.
