Meet the Candidate: Sandy Nurse for District 37

By Hillary McDonald

Even before considering a life in office, Sandy Nurse’s name had become synonymous in her district with community organizing and activism. Born in Panama, Nurse is an Afro-Latina woman raised by a single mother who served in the military. Due to the travel that accompanies a military life, Nurse gained a deep sense of empathy for the struggles of individuals in other countries. Her empathy and experience, coupled with her bookishness and intelligence, landed Nurse a career in the United Nations with the World Food Program. Even though she was on a path to being a diplomat, Nurse had a change of heart while in Haiti writing reports after the January 12th earthquake, which devastated the entire island. Energized by the desire to make a direct impact on people’s lives, Nurse shifted her energy to hands-on activism.

Nurse went straight into intensive training with the NY District Council of Carpenters and the Mason Tenders Training Fund, and learned the skills she needed to fulfil her desire to work with her hands. Since then, she’s been highly active in organizing in her district, CD37, which spans Bushwick, East New York, Cypress Hills, Ocean Hill, and Brownsville. Nurse founded BK ROT, NYC’s first fossil fuel-free, closed-loop food waste hauling and composting service, and co-founded Mayday, a social organizing hub in Brooklyn. When she’s not involved in direct actions, advocating for social justice reform, or launching community gardens, Nurse is teaching carpentry to youth, women, and the LGBTQ+ community.

In 2020, Nurse was encouraged to run for office after being approached by members of her community. However, Nurse got pushed off the democratic ballot after the party backed her opponent, Darma Diaz, whose challenges to Nurse’s candidacy successfully knocked her, and other opponents, off the ballot. Now she is back, organizing all of her progressive, grassroots energy instead of playing politics.

During a time when community organizers have been the backbone of her district’s survival, Nurse sees her lifelong background in community activism as an advantage. Leading with a progressivist vision of bringing her community directly into the decision-making process. Nurse is also running with the understanding that the most meaningful change comes from creating hyper-local policies that quickly and directly benefit her constituents.

Although Nurse can speak at length on the importance of multiple issues, she names COVID relief as her number one priority as a member of council. Even with vaccines rolling out, she is fully aware the economy will not heal overnight, and wants to restimulate the economy by incubating sustainable new businesses, specifically in the East NY Industrial Business Zone (IBZ). With the correct support from city council, the IBZ will be used for sustainable manufacturing, but will also continue to be a thriving home for urban agriculture.

In addition to supporting urban agriculture, food, food waste, and waste transportation are also a top priority. Nurse hopes to expand curbside recycling and composting, as well as work with organizations like the Central Brooklyn Food Hub to address food insecurity. She is also eager to address waste-hauling trucks, which wear down roads with weight while acting as some of the city’s heaviest polluters.

Nurse understands that every environmental fight is also a social justice fight. The most vulnerable populations are often the most affected by climate change, which leads to adverse health effects and a lower quality of life. Along with CD 37 being one of the most food and housing insecure districts in all of NYC, up to 66% of households in the district do not have access to a car. For this reason, Nurse plans to advocate to create more green infrastructure that allows for increased transportation with a net negative zero which includes protected and connected bike lanes, as well as add more bus stops in the district. Furthermore, she plans to support the Green New Deal for Public Housing, which calls for retrofitting all NYCHA buildings with sustainable upgrades while providing good, green jobs for building residents. Her policy also addresses larger climate policies such as Renewable Rikers, the Climate Works for All Post-COVID recovery plan, and fighting against the North Brooklyn Pipeline and other new fossil fuel infrastructure entering NYC.

Sandy Nurse promises to be an advocate for the community’s most vulnerable residents while actively fighting for climate reform. To learn more about her campaign or get involved, visit her website at https://sandyforcouncil.com/en/