(courtesy of the campaign)
“As I’ve been reflecting about how I can bring my experiences and the things that I’ve learned and the things that I’ve done and have been effective at to scale on a different level and to have an impact and support larger communities in a different way,” Morales said of her decision. “The idea for running for office increasingly became an option. Some of the changes that we need to make in order to have a long-term impact on communities have to be done on the structural and systemic level.”1
Dianne Morales is a nonprofit executive and political candidate for mayor of New York City 2021.
Early life:
Dianne Morales is an Afro-Latina who was born on June 21, 1967, to Puerto Rican parents. She grew up on DeKalb Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, New York City. Her family lived in NYCHA, and she was frequently the translator for her Abuela Rosa, who shared a room and a bed with Dianne.
Dianne then went on to study at Stony Brook University. She holds a Master of Social Administration from Harvard Graduate School of Education as well as a Master of Education Administration from Columbia University.
Career:
Dianne Morales was the Chief of Operations for the Office of Youth Development and School-Community Services at the New York City Department of Education under Chancellor Joel Klein from 2002 to 2004. Morales was the director of The Teaching Commission, a national task force focused on improving teaching quality in American schools, from 2004 to 2005.
She is the former Executive Director of The Door, where she started a street outreach program for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, which grew into a drop-in program for homeless youth and supportive housing development.
Dianne’s most recent position as Executive Director and CEO of Phipps Neighborhoods for nearly a decade resulted in the creation of a career training program for young adults in the healthcare field due to her management of multimillion-dollar budgets. The program is a social services organization that fights poverty. It outperformed national promotion and retention rates.
Dianne has always been involved in co-creating spaces dedicated to transformation, inclusion, and equity with, for, and by the community.
Mayoral Race:
Dianne Morales announced her candidacy for mayor of New York City 2021 in 2019. Dianne is the only former New York City public school teacher running in the race. She has firsthand experience with how segregated schools divide young people based on race, income, and ZIP code. She is also a single mother of two children with learning differences. She filed a lawsuit against the City’s public school system to obtain the resources her daughter required to learn effectively. Dianne has dedicated her entire career to meeting the needs of our neighbors for this very reason.
Mayoral Goals:
Dianne’s goals for when in office include:
- Guaranteed housing for all
- Green justice, green food, green jobs
- Defund the police, fund the people
- Small business & cooperative economy
- Protect our immigrant neighborhoods
- Integrate our schools, build equity
In an interview with the New York Times3, Morales was asked “What is the most important police reform you would pursue as mayor?” Morales made clear during an interview with the New York Times, that, “policing does not equal public safety, that communities that are most heavily policed are, in fact, the most at risk and the most harmed. So I don’t believe that we can reform the police department. I think we need to transform it. And I think that means divesting from the department in the way that it is, investing in the services that we need and then fundamentally transforming the way the department operates in our communities.” She then went on to say, “So the first thing I’ve called for is the creation of a community first responders department because we know that so many of the calls that N.Y.P.D. responds to are not crimes in progress, they’re social issues relating to housing, related to mental health, related to substance abuse. A community first responders program would be staffed with people who are trained and skilled at intervention and de-escalation, and then would be able to connect these people to a larger ecosystem of social services and human services so that we can break the cycle of the conditions that result in them being in need in the first place.”
When asked, “What is the first thing you would do to help New York City recover from the pandemic?”, Morales stated that, “the first thing I think that we need to do in order to help New York City recover is to prioritize saving people’s lives. I think that means that we still need to make sure that we are investing in security so that those people that are still at risk can stay home safely. Until we do that, we can’t begin to recover.” She continued with, “The next thing I think we need to do is to make sure that those- that the rest of us rely on to keep the city operating have the protection that they need, whether that be through P.P.E. or access to the vaccine. And then we can talk about and move towards economic recovery, which I think really needs to focus on and prioritize our local, small and mid-sized businesses first. This is an opportunity for us to transform how we operate and move away from an overreliance on large corporations that come into our communities, exploit our labor and extract our wealth, and rebuild by focusing on those who own businesses locally.”
When asked, “What is your main priority for the city when it comes to climate change?”, Morales responded with, “I think we need to adopt a Green New Deal for New York City, that includes the creation of a public infrastructure program that would actually employ tens of thousands of New Yorkers in doing the work that we need to do. So that we are actually ready for the storms in the future. So that we are a green city, so that we are reducing emissions and actually moving towards clean energy.” She continued with, “We need to invest in the future, and we need to do that now. This is a time for us to rebuild our economy and get ready for the future that is coming no matter what.
In an interview on “The Brian Lehrer Show”4, Morales was asked, “I see the priorities page of your website has a list of things that begins with, “Guaranteed housing for all.” How would you guarantee housing for all?” She responded with, “I think we need to recognize housing is a human right and prioritize the provision of housing for everyone. That means really scouring our city for all the existing vacant spaces, particularly post-pandemic or mid-pandemic, including vacant hotel rooms, commercial spaces, office spaces, and really prioritizing making those spaces, converting those spaces into housing that can be provided for both the homeless people in the city and those that might be housing insecure. We can’t separate public health or public safety from access to housing and we’ve got to recognize that and prioritize providing that for everyone.”
“Dianne Morales’ policy platform is built on the belief that politics should work for all the people and that we are stronger and better positioned to grow when every New Yorker is prioritized, oppressive systems are eliminated and barriers are removed.”2
Morales is an inspiration because she was the leader of many organizations and programs that support disadvantaged teens and young adults of NYC. She organized demonstrations against police brutality and aid efforts in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Today Dianne still lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant with her two children and her parents.
References:
1Kirkler, Katie. “’Go Big or Go Home’: Dianne Morales Goes for the Top Job in New York City” Gotham Gazette, 25 February 2020 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/9153-go-big-or-go-home-dianne-morales-runs-mayor-new-york-city
2Dianne Morales for NYC Mayor https://www.dianne.nyc/
3“Meet The Candidates” The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/nyregion/dianne-morales-video-interview.html
4 Lehrer, Brian. “Ask the Mayor ‘Tryouts’: Dianne Morales” Interview by Brian Lehrer. The Brian Lehrer Show. 28 April 2021 https://www.wnyc.org/story/ask-mayor-tryouts-dianne-morales/
