—Systemic change begins with personal change—
Erik Bottcher is my city councilman in Manhattan.
He is a dedicated public servant and activist who has devoted his life to progressive causes and to the betterment of the community he loves. In 2021, he was elected to represent City Council District 3, which includes the neighborhoods of Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Flatiron, Hudson Square, Times Square, the Theater District, the Garment District and Columbus Circle.
Growing up in a small town in the Adirondack Mountains as the only gay person he knew, Erik’s personal struggles with depression sparked in him a lifelong dedication to helping the most marginalized members of our society. His career in public service began in 2009 as the LGBTQ & HIV/AIDS Community Liaison in the City Council’s community outreach unit, where he organized grassroots campaigns on issues including hate crimes, transgender rights, housing for people with HIV/AIDS, and marriage equality.
Erik then served as the statewide LGBTQ Community Liaision in the governor’s office, where he helped organize the fight for marriage equality in New York State, working with activists from Buffalo to Montauk in an unprecedented grassroots campaign to garner support for the Marriage Equality Act. New York State made history as the largest state to legalize same sex marriage.
In 2015, Erik joined the team of New York City Council Member Corey Johnson as his Chief of Staff. Erik has worked tirelessly for the residents of Council District 3, fighting for more green space, better schools, affordable housing, senior services, and more.
When the COVID-19 crisis hit, Erik built an expansive volunteer network in his community that made weekly wellness calls to thousands of home-bound seniors, and delivered tens of thousands of meals to food insecure residents across the district. He created a vaccine volunteer program that helped nearly 400 seniors get vaccination appointments, and organized weekly community cleanups in the Village, Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen.
Erik believes that our government should be effective, innovative, inclusive, and that it must work for the people, not special interests. Erik knows that if we come together and rise to this moment, New York City’s best days are still ahead.
Erik Bottcher is my elected legislator. New York City's council presides over a budget bigger than most countries'. Yet I met him picking up litter. He organized weekly clean-ups when the city dropped its sanitation budget during the pandemic. He also sees the problem not as too little cleaning up but too much supply of packaging that becomes litter. Let's pause for a moment. How many politicians have you heard of who bend down and pick up litter, week after week? I think the world would benefit from all of them doing it. We talk about changes to the city we'd like to see. He shares about growing up gay not in Manhattan but the Adirondacks, then coming to the city and how that affects his governing.