Helen Rosenthal

Click here for the original article By Daphne Chen A year and a half before elections, the race for a vacant Upper West Side City Council seat is already heating up. Former Community Board 7 chairs Mel Wymore and Helen Rosenthal and Democratic District Leader Marc Landis have all declared they will seek the seat currently held by Gale Brewer. All t... hree have been members of CB7, the most local form of city politics and community advocacy that advises on Upper West Side issues. Wymore, 49, a systems engineer, chaired the board from 2009-2011. Rosenthal, 51, was the CB7 chair for the two years before Wymore and managed the healthcare budgets of New York's hospitals for the Office of Management and Budget under former mayors Ed Koch, David Dinkins, and Rudy Giuliani.As district leader, Landis, 49, serves as a liaison between Democratic officials and residents and helps with elections. Landis, an attorney at the law firm Phillips Nizer, is the most recent candidate to enter the race. Although he has not yet formally announced his candidacy, he registered his committee on Jan. 20 and created public Facebook and Twitter campaign pages. ISSUES AND TRACK RECORDS The step up to City Council would mean playing a larger role in city-wide policy debates for these Upper West Side advocates. A CB7 member since 1996, Wymore said affordable housing, strong public education, and environmental sustainability are some of the top policy issues he would pursue, emphasizing that he wants his constituents' opinions to be heard throughout. "This is one of the most amazing neighborhoods," Wymore said. "It's so diverse, interesting, engaging. If we decide that's what we want, we can keep sustaining that kind of urban life, that character, color, vibrancy, that mix." In his time as CB7 chair, Wymore championed an expansion of the West Side YMCA, encouraged the construction of protected bike lanes on Columbus Avenue, and brokered a deal with Extell Development Company to redesign the Upper West Side Riverside Center, a mixed-use ...Read More