Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Alexa Avilés
Op-ed | Amazon two-day shipping is speedy. Let’s make it safe in NYC
Posted on If you live in New York, you see Amazon workers in Amazon vests, delivering Amazon packages in Amazon vehicles, every single day. But did you know that none of these workers work for Amazon? For most New Yorkers, convenience is all we see when we shop online. Click, buy, delivered. But what feels so easy to us is hurting our neighborhoods and the workers in Amazon vests who make it happen.
Alexa Avilés: “I Am Deeply Committed to the Working Class”
Interview by Peter Lucas In 2021, Alexa Avilés was elected to represent New York City Council District 38, which includes several neighborhoods in South Brooklyn. Avilés, who is chair of the Committee on Immigration, is now seeking a third term, running on a record and platform of affordable housing, climate protections, and defending immigrants against far-right attacks. Her campaign is backed by Rep.
Opinion: Don’t forget about the city’s capital budget
June at the City Council brings a churn of public hearings and backroom meetings as council members and the mayor race to cut a deal that will shape spending, in part, for the year ahead. While significant debate covers expense budget programs like language access and workforce development services, another pot of money largely remains out of the headlines: the capital budget.
Fixing Red Hook & the Brooklyn Marine Terminal
For decades, the Brooklyn Marine Terminal has languished, and with it the promise of a robust, modern waterfront in Brooklyn. And for decades, the Red Hook community has had no say in the future of this critical asset, yet has been forced to bear the brunt of its failures, including lost jobs and increased pollution. We now have the best opportunity in a generation to solve both problems.
We Visited the Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University. Here’s What It’s Really Like.
We Visited the Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University. Here’s What It’s Really Like. Published April 24, 2024 If you only go by the recent statements from Mayor Eric Adams, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and President Joe Biden, you might conclude that a student protest against the mass killing in Gaza is worse than the killing itself.
Opinion: We visited the solidarity encampment at Columbia University. Here’s what it’s really like.
These official statements, and so many posts on social media, depict the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the Columbia University campus as a cesspit of antisemitic hatred and a threat to the safety of all Jewish students and faculty.
Puerto Rico, like New York, needs public power
It has been more than a month since Hurricane Fiona cut out all power on the island, doing an estimated $4 billion worth of damage to the electrical grid. Fiona made landfall five years after Hurricane Maria collapsed Puerto Rico’s neglected energy system, leaving thousands dead, many due to loss of electricity in poorer communities. Clearly, we need to address Puerto Rico’s energy system.
Meet the nonprofit candidates likely to join New York’s City Council
Alexa Avilés, Democratic nominee for City Council District 38. Here are the individuals on track to win the general election in November. With nearly every June primary now decided, it appears all but certain that New York’s next City Council will be the most diverse and progressive in history. This new wave of legislators is reflected in a group of candidates from the nonprofit sector who are expected to win their general election races in November.
Socialism Has a History - and a Future - in New York City
At least three socialists have declared victory in New York’s city council races: Alexa Avilés of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Tiffany Cabán of Astoria, Queens, and Kristin Richardson Jordan of Harlem, New York. Cabán and Avilés were both endorsed by New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA), while Jordan is a DSA member (though not endorsed by NYC-DSA, her campaign was endorsed by socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez).
How DSA Won - and Lost - in New York City Elections
This year, New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter faced its first real bout of adversity after an astounding post-2016 resurgence. The democratic socialists chose to endorse six candidates for the City Council and only two will end up winning, a setback that’s already causing a bit of schadenfreude among the career Democrats who root against their success. For socialists, the losses in the 2021 Democratic primaries sting because last year was such a success.
“The Billionaires Are Nervous. And They Should Be Nervous.”
Interview by Oren Schweitzer Alexa Avilés is a longtime community organizer in South Brooklyn. After a decade as president of the parent-teacher association at her daughters’ school, PS 172, she’s running for New York City Council. Endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen.
Why Public Education Advocates Must Stand With NYC's Grad Student Workers
‘At every level of our education system, and at every school in New York City, educators and school workers must be guaranteed a fair wage and decent working conditions.’ Adi Talwar Tisch School of the Arts, where learning went remote in March in response to coronavirus. There’s a strike wave in New York City. If you’ve visited my alma mater, Columbia University, where grad student workers were on strike continuously for three weeks starting March 15, you know this to be true.
It’s Good NYC Made Standardized Testing ‘Opt In’ This Year. Now, Let’s Cancel the Tests.
This year, I will not be giving my daughters the “test pep talk.” I will not be reminding them that they need sharpened #2 pencils, nor will I be giving them the candy that will get them through the day. They won’t be sharing nervous stares with their friends, and teachers won’t be giving them Smarties while anxiously drilling testing rules and quick strategies to use over the next several hours. My girls aren’t taking the state’s standardized exams this spring. And yours shouldn’t either.
The Free Market Will Never Provide Decent Housing for All
You also might enjoy reading “Red Tide Rising: How a Socialist Squad Could Transform City Council” by Jordan G. Teicher. Years ago, at PS172 in Brooklyn, NY, my daughters’ classmates’ started disappearing from their desks. It was clear what was happening: Even before the trauma of the Trump administration, immigrant families in Sunset Park were being terrorized by their landlords, who would threaten to call immigration authorities on them in an effort to push them out of their homes.
What Schools Need to Reopen Safely and Truly Serve New York’s Kids
Kids back to school (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office) On Thursday morning, February 25, thousands of New York's middle school students scrambled for misplaced backpacks and student MetroCards, trundled out the door, and made their way to long-abandoned classrooms, ready at last to resume in-person instruction after months of remote learning. Thousands of teachers were there to greet them—many no doubt wearing nervous but enthusiastic grins behind their doubled-up facemasks.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Alexa
Contact Alexa, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack