BY ARTHUR Z. SCHWARTZ | In this time of turmoil we need activist leadership!
I have served this community since 1995 as either a Democratic district leader or your State Democratic Committee representative.
You all know me as someone who fights for our community and who fights for progressive change.
I don’t kowtow to party line, or party leaders, or even elected officials.
I have tried, for 25 years, to do what is right.
We are living in tumultuous times.
The anger of our Black neighbors, and young people who have awoken to the horrors of racial injustice, have visited havoc on our neighborhoods — Tribeca, Soho and Greenwich Village.
While the need for new leadership cries out in Washington, it cries out in our community as well.
On top of that, the state Democratic Party is a moribund institution that is badly in need of change.
My longtime friend Penny Mintz has been a community leader for decades.
When she served on Community Board 2 she was a dynamic leader who built unity around the area’s first, and maybe only, well-designed bike lane. She was an environmentalist. She campaigned tirelessly for Jumaane Williams, Cynthia Nixon and Bernie Sanders.
And over the last three years she has led the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel Hospital — a valiant effort which, to date, has slowed the closure of Downtown’s only full-service hospital.
She petitions, holds meetings, tables on street corners. She goes to the press, like when she successfully demanded that Beth Israel Hospital open up its closed beds to COVID-19 patients. And when necessary, she joins lawsuits, like the recent case to restore the New York State presidential primary.
As a State Committee member, you will hear her name — as a community leader and as a force for change in the Democratic Party.
All I can say about her opponent — who has held office for around 23 years — is that you probably don’t even know her name.
Not a great credential.
On June 23 — or, preferably, utilizing an absentee ballot that you send by June 22 — I urge you to vote for Penny Mintz for State Democratic Committee.
Schwartz is the male Democratic district leader for the 66th Assembly District, Part A, which includes Greenwich Village.
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