Jim Gennaro on the Issues
COVID
- Candidate best positioned to oversee a complicated COVID vaccine rollout
- Will prioritize the voices of parents of public school students over that of the Department of Education with regard to school governance and to navigate the challenge of COVID era education
- Will listen to our small businesses to get them the support they need to operate
Quality of Life
- Will keep our community clean and will fund non for profit service providers to empty overflowing litter baskets and remove graffiti in our neighborhoods
- Rewrote the City noise code, a landmark accomplishment that has dramatically decreased noise from nightlife establishments, construction, car stereos, car alarms, commercial air conditioning units and a host of other noise nuisances
- Mandated community service for graffiti vandals, banned the possession of graffiti instruments by minors, banned the sale of graffiti instruments to minors by merchants and mandated the removal of graffiti by property owners and the City of New York
Protecting the Environment
- Will create legislation to protect Queens against another storm surge like Hurricane Sandy
- As Chairman of the City Council's Committee on Environmental Protection Authored and passed the strongest in the nation Greenhouse Gas(GHG) reduction law which mandates a 30% reduction in GHGs in the city by 2030
- Protected and restored Jamaica Bay and other sensitive ecological areas in New York City
- Required the City to install “clean” power generation in as many government facilities as possible
- Required that vehicles like, school buses, sanitation and other heavy-duty trucks, government-use passenger cars, private sight-seeing buses, construction vehicles and ferry boats use clean “biofuels” to reduce harmful emissions
Public Safety
- Will never vote to ”defund the NYPD”, and will give our Police Officers the resources they need to promote public safety and reduce violent crime
- Increased protections for victims of domestic violence, stalking and sex offenses
- Required the installation of security cameras at schools
- Prohibited people who have been convicted of domestic violence from possessing or purchasing guns
Education
- Will prioritize the voices of parents of public school students over the dictates of the Department of Education with regard to school governance and to navigate the challenge of COVID era education
- Required that all public and private schools have school nurses
- Prohibited and penalized acts of bullying and harassment in schools
- Provided for better school bus transportation for children with disabilities
Seniors
- Will invest in our Seniors and will never vote for any budget cuts to Senior programs
- Delivered over $57 million in funding for Senior citizen programs and led the fight in the City Council to save senior centers in Queens
- When the critical “Meals-On-Wheels” program for homebound Seniors was threatened, found the money to not only save the program, but to expand it
- Sponsored laws to expand access to SCRIE, the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption, and to increase property tax exemptions for low-income Seniors
- Sponsored the law to create a prescription drug discount card program for seniors in New York City
“Tobacco 21”
- Created legislation to stop vape products from being used in the presence of people who do not wish to be exposed to toxic and addictive vapors
- James raised the age to purchase tobacco products and e-cigarettes/vaping products in NYC to 21, the first law of its kind in the U.S
- It is estimated that 250,000 lives would be saved in the U.S if the age restriction is raised in all 50 states by The Department of Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration’s 2016 report to congress
