Isis McIntosh Green Brings Wealth of Experience to District 41 Council Race

By Mary Alice Miller
Isis McIntosh Green decided to run for City Council after the redistricting process when she was receiving calls from community members about the lack of constituent services from the current council member. “There was a lady whose son was shot,” said Green. “She was in need of an emergency transfer.” The lady told Green that no one was at Mealy’s office to help with the concern or complaint. The lack of constituent services is an issue in a district with 173,000 residents.
Green spoke of the challenges obtaining child care for her son who will be one year old next week. “Right now the cost of child care is through the roof and for folk that have a voucher there are hardly any seats available,” said Green. “It’s almost like you should put yourself on the waiting list before your child is born.”
Despite being a wife and new mom, Green commits to physically attending Council Stated Meetings and committee meetings as a representative of District 41 constituents, a veiled reference to the incumbent. A published report in City & State found that “Mealy was absent for 46 of her 145 meetings so far this term – an absentee rate of 32%.” The report went on to state Mealy missed the budget vote last year, making her the only one of the 51 members not to show.

With a majority of women in the NYC Council, the legislative body has the most new babies, as well. “Even if it means bring my child to Stated, if necessary, I will do it. Council members definitely bring their young children to meetings in general, whether hearings or Stated. We’ve had women who had to leave stated meeting to go pump,” said Green. “I am going to be advocating on City Hall steps to finally get a day care there. They have one in Congress, why don’t we have one in City Council?”
While serving as Assemblywoman Latrice Walker’s Chief-of-Staff, Green worked to increase the Affordable Housing Corp. grant from $45,000 to $75,000. “The conversation needs to be how do we stabilize folk on the economic standpoint, which includes home ownership,” said Green.
Concerned about $70 Million in cuts to senior programming, Green spoke about the need for supporting senior centers. “Senior programming helps seniors socialize. Senior centers provide a hot, cooked meal but a cooked meal that sometimes is the only meal our seniors are getting for the day,” said Green. While working in the Assembly, Green helped the Tilden Senior Center get a $550,000 gut renovation of the kitchen. “That kitchen is now providing food to hundreds of seniors daily and to the youth programming that happens in the evening. Tilden Center was so important because during the pandemic they were utilizing the kitchen to deliver meals to people when the actual center was closed,” she said.

Born in Bed Stuy and raised in Brownsville, Green has organized in the East Flatbush community with the Progressive Democrats Political Association. She has seen where services are lacking. “Not every portion of our district has the ability to tap into programs. There are borders of the community that have been neglected, especially in the East 90s and East 50s streets where there is not one senior center or community center. These are the borders of not just the council, these are the borders of the assembly district, borders of the senate, and borders for the congressional lines,” said Green. “I want to be able to prioritize getting resources for everyone that lives in the district, not just the core.”
Green has collaborated with elected officials and community leaders around Atlantic Towers when the landlord attempted to bring facial recognition software into the property as a way to gain access to the building. Green worked with Congresswoman Yvette Clarke’s office to fight against that facial recognition software by coordinating a letter to HUD and HCR and helping with a number of their tenant meetings.
She worked with the governor’s office to ensure that during the pandemic sanitizer pump stations were placed within NYCHA developments and helped provide necessary masks, sanitizer and other PPE during March and April 2020 when people were not leaving their homes.

Green was able to help get Ella McQueen Juvenile Detention Center closed and hopes to re-purpose that location to become a community hub and house children aging out of foster care. She helped work with community leaders and parents to raise awareness and push back against a threatened closure of Collegiate High School.
“There are things that I want to get done on Day 1 and there are things I have already been working on,” said Green.
She wants to provide more resources to community policing by stationing police cars throughout the community to improve response times as well as recruit police officers from our community to strengthen law enforcement.
Green wants to partner with the Dept. of Sanitation to do community cleanups, place enclosed sanitation bins throughout the community, including composting bins, and make sure there is efficient collection of trash and recycling.
Regarding broadband, “We have been having issues, its just that with the pandemic people started to notice. In NYCHA people have had issues with needing routers and boosters within their own apartment. There was a time when Verizon and LinkNYC weren’t even in our communities,” Green said. “Broadband is an extremely important tool. When we are talking about affordable housing and you are requiring people to complete a lottery system that is online, yet we suffer with a poor and low access internet we are essentially leaving behind a generation of people. I want to upskill our workforce to ensure that District 41 is able to reap the benefits of this economic boom with the infrastructure money coming out of Washington, DC.”

Green received endorsements from the NYC New Majority, the Working Families Party, DC37, DC9 (the painters union), the NYC and vicinity Council of Carpenters, the NYS Nurses Association, CWA, NYSNA, the NYC Kids PAC, Hotel Trade Council, and the department store union RWDSU, NYCC and VOCAL, and Doctors Council.
“We’re thrilled to endorse Isis McIntosh Green for NYC Council District 41, said the Working Families Party in a statement. “Isis has been a tireless advocate for her Central Brooklyn community, and we know she will be a powerful voice for affordable housing, public education, and worker’s rights.”