More Political Mish-Mosh, More Choices on the Ballot
Bottcher Stepping Down from City Council; New City Council Election Coming
By Arthur Schwartz
Eric Bottcher with Chief of Staff Carl Wilson, who wants to replace him. Photo courtesy of Chelsea Community News.
There have been some pretty shocking developments since our political recap.
First, Erik Bottcher, who has been City Council member for the Village west of Sixth Avenue since 2021 has decided to run for what seems to be the uncontested state Senate seat which Brad Hoylman-Sigal will leave when he becomes Manhattan borough president on January 1. If the schedule holds, the Democratic County Committee members in that district will nominate a candidate on January 11, and there will be a special election in early February. The seat goes from Bank Street to West 103rd Street, and is west of Seventh Avenue until 26th Street, where it zigs over to Eighth Avenue. There is still a chance that Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal may throw her hat in, but right around Christmas, Hoylman-Sigal and Congressman Jerry Nadler, who represents the district north of 14th Street, endorsed Bottcher.
Bottcher’s move opens up his City Council seat, effectively for an 11 year term. (I ran against Bottcher for this seat in 2021, and came in second, but I am not running.) The candidates, thus far, are four. There will be more.
Leslie Boghosian Murphy is a long-time Hell’s Kitchen resident living in Midtown for over 17 years with her husband, Paul, daughter, Cecelia, and rescue pup, Bailey. Boghosian Murphy began a career in journalism as a SAG-AFTRA union member. Her investigative stories and hard-hitting interviews for CNN, ESPN, the YES Network and HDNet won her accolades and awards, including an Emmy Award for societal concerns programming. Leslie serves on Community Board 4, where she sits on its Budget Task Force, and Hudson River Park’s Piers 40 and 76 Task Force. She has worked as an in-class assistant for Children’s Aid Society, an on-site aide for Homes for the Homeless in Hell’s Kitchen and on special projects for NY Cares.
Layla Law-Gisiko was born in Paris to a French father and a Tunisian mother, and earned master’s degrees in French literature and journalism from La Sorbonne. At age 25, she came to New York to build a life of opportunity. She traveled across the United States producing and directing documentaries on police brutality, labor abuse, and other hard truths, listening to people from every background talk about their struggles, hopes, and fights. Establishing a home in Chelsea, she spent nearly two decades as a community board leader (including Chair of CB 5) and now serves as an elected district leader for Chelsea. She has played a major role at various groups, slowing down, and probably stopping Governor Hochul’s plan to tear down a ten square block area as a part of her design of a new Penn Station. She hosts the public-affairs podcast Carte Blanche, where she bring neighbors, experts, and policymakers together for frank, solutions-driven conversations.
Carl Wilson is originally from Maryland, outside of Washington D.C. He moved to New York in 2009 to go to college (NYU). He was a drama major studying to be an actor. Once he graduated, he pursued acting for a while and had a little bit of success. After Trump’s election in 2016 he was a founding member of the Hell’s Kitchen Democrats, a political club. He then got a job as community liaison (to CB4) in City Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s office. He then took some time away from the council and went to work for a Business Improvement District for Fifth Avenue, which was a whole other side of how government works and functions. In 2021, after Erik Bottcher became a City Council member, he asked Wilson to be chief of staff, where he also serves as Community Board 4 liaison. I had been to basically every single meeting the community board had for almost four years. At CB4 he has worked on the Transportation Planning and the Waterfront, Parks & Environment committees.
Lindsey Boylan spent almost a decade in urban planning and management, including the oversight of Bryant Park, Herald and Greeley squares, and pedestrianizing major segments of Broadway Boulevard and several other public spaces in Manhattan. Boylan also previously served as Governor Andrew Cuomo’s deputy secretary for Economic Development and Housing for the state of New York, where she oversaw the state’s chief economic development agency. During her time in government, Boylan secured millions of dollars for underfunded public housing, led the state’s efforts to provide assisstance for the people of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and pushed to enact a $15 minimum wage and paid family leave policy for New Yorkers. Boylan previously served on Community Boards 5 and 7 in Manhattan. She received her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College and her MBA from Columbia University. Boylan is married to her husband LeRoy and together, they are raising their daughter Vivienne. Boylan was the first woman to publicly accuse Governor Cuomo of sexual harassment, and she plans to take the governor and his close advisors to court over accusations of retaliation, which were backed by Attorney General Tish James. She ran for Congress in 2020, and borough president in 2021.
