CHARACTERS OF THE VILLAGE

Harvey Epstein, Political Activist Lawyer

By Joy and Brian Pape

Harvey Epstein has been an active member of our community for many years. Because he is running as the Democratic nominee for City Council District 2 and because of his record in the state legislature, we thought our readers would like to get to know him better.

Harvey earned a J.D. from CUNY Law School in 1994 and worked for Queens Legal Services and the Legal Aid Society. He also served as community development and deputy director for the Urban Justice Center.

How did you become so active in our community?
I moved here 30 years ago because I loved the energy, vitality, activism, and the rich history of the community. In the early 1990s, my wife Anita and I were living in Brooklyn, and I had just graduated from law school.

Some of our friends had already moved to the East Village when we were looking for a home. We were in the Village a lot for different activities and work, so we searched and found a building that we loved, and we bought into our co-op building. We have lived here ever since. We sent our children to a public school right around the corner. This has been the center of our life.

I grew up in suburban Long Island, in Wantagh, right next to Levittown, in a Levitt house where my mother still lives. She was from New Jersey. My dad had grown up in Brooklyn and was teaching in Harlem and he wanted a suburban life for his family.

I was active in the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive, not-for-profit, legal organization. I worked in and ran civil legal services offices before I got elected to the state assembly. Economic and racial justice issues were my focus, combating social inequalities. I often found that the law was actually standing in the way of equality, so if you change the law, you can make many people’s lives better. When I was elected to the Rent Guidelines Board, we passed the first rent freeze in New York history and built on that work when I joined the state legislature and changed some rent laws to improve tenants’ rights.

Over the past seven years, we passed laws regarding climate, a bill on reproduction rights, and to protect immigrants, to provide drivers licenses for undocumented people, and protected people’s rights in school. One bill I passed prevented schools from denying people their college transcripts. After six years, this summer, we changed the state policy to allow incarcerated people to have free access to make phone calls to their family members. I feel like all these legal changes have helped tens of millions of low income New Yorkers.

Working with the Youth Council, we eliminated the half fare MetroCard and changed the policy to allow students to have OMNY cards year round with four swipes per day. That change helps over one million school children every year.

It’s not a matter of getting credit for the bills that get passed that help people, but it is good to see how it improves our community That is my motivation. As I say on my website:

While serving our community in the New York State Assembly, my legislative work has always been guided by the principles of justice and equity. I am running for the City Council because the urgent priorities of our community require trusted leadership and a robust vision for our future. I am eager to bring my experience and activist roots to the City Council, where I can effect change from the ground up.

What is your personal life like?
I get around the city by walking an average of seven to eight miles every day, going to various events. My office is near my home. My work in Albany is January through June, Monday through Wednesday. I’m passionate about affordable housing and creating more access to affordable housing.

Personally, I am passionate about food and food issues. As a vegan, health and wellness of mind and body, and yoga are important to me. Red Bamboo is my favorite vegan restaurant; it’s on West 4th Street. I like partaking in city life, going to the parks and hanging out with friends.

My best memory is the day that each of my kids were born. My kids are my greatest accomplishment in life; Leila (26) and Joshua (20).

How did the pandemic affect you?
Friends and loved ones that we knew got sick and we needed to take care of them. My life became centered around getting people food and reaching out to the community. My office handed out food and PPE every day. My wife has not gone back to her office and now works from home like so many others.

What is the least favorite thing about your work?
What keeps me up at night is that there is so much to do and so little time each day to get everything done. So I think about all that is yet to be accomplished. Sometimes you want to take big swings at big things to get a lot done at work, but you realize that to get it done you must make incremental changes, small steps at a time.

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Harvey’s City Council campaign website is at PeopleForHarvey.com

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Epstein is a familiar name, perhaps too familiar. According to Wikipedia, Harvey, who is a regular Saturday Night Live viewer, was surprised when a November 2, 2024 SNL ran a spoof campaign advertisement in which Harvey Epstein, played by John Mulaney, repeatedly has to affirm and insist that he is not the convicted sex offenders like Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein or some amalgamation thereof. Harvey told The New York Times that he found it “ridiculously funny.”