NYC Council Member Chris Marte likely to face 2025 YIMBY challenge

A new challenge might be brewing in Council Member Chris Marte’s backyard.

The council member who has represented Lower Manhattan since 2022 could be facing a competitive reelection next year, with at least one person exploring a run against the incumbent. And an activated pro-housing development community is turning its attention to the seat.

Community Board 1 member and lawyer Jess Coleman opened a campaign committee with the Campaign Finance Board in late July, and confirmed in a statement to City & State that he’s exploring a run for the council seat. “My neighbors all across Lower Manhattan are tired of waiting for results, and are looking for a champion to actually deliver for working families, seniors and young people alike,” Coleman wrote in an email. “New Yorkers deserve active representatives that will fight tirelessly for safe, affordable and vibrant neighborhoods that work for us all.” 

Coleman didn’t specifically address Marte’s housing record in his statement to City & State, but he has previously taken aim at Marte’s criticism of Mayor Eric Adams’ “City of Yes” zoning plan. The mayor’s plan aims to incentivize new housing production across the city, and Coleman said Marte’s opposition puts him in alignment with Republicans in the council who oppose it.

Marte, who was elected to the City Council in 2021, has said that Adams’ rezoning plan wouldn’t do enough to mandate affordability and would weaken council members’ and community boards’ negotiating power in new local developments. Marte has generally opposed new development proposals in his Lower Manhattan district – a position that has won him supporters in his district, including over closely watched proposals like Haven Green at Elizabeth Street Garden. It’s also garnered criticism from pro-housing advocates, however. At a public hearing on the City of Yes proposal last month at which Marte testified against the plan, City Planning Commission Chair Dan Garodnick said that there were zero new affordable units produced in Marte’s district in 2023 – a statistic Marte didn’t dispute at the hearing but attributed to the lack of an affordability mandate. Marte added that development can take several years, arguing that previous administrations are responsible for the makeup of developments coming up last year. Marte’s office later clarified that affordable units that are part of a mixed-use development on Suffolk Street opened last year and that they supported another development with affordable housing this year on Broome Street.

While Marte said that he’s unsure what Coleman or any other challengers would specifically target him on, he acknowledged that he’s taken “strong stances” on land use and real estate issues. “One of my biggest critiques, especially when it comes to the City of Yes, is making sure that the community has a voice and that we mandate affordable housing,” he said. “I think that’s the No. 1 issue in our city, and that’s the crisis we’re living in.” Marte also faced a competitive primary in 2023 but won comfortably. Marte succeeded former Council Member Margaret Chin – who he unsuccessfully challenged in 2017, and who was the first Asian American representative of the district, which includes Manhattan’s Chinatown. Roughly a third of the district’s residents are Asian American. 

While the 2025 campaign cycle is still a ways away from candidate forums, endorsement slates and outside spending, the pro-housing development set seems poised to get involved in a potential challenge to Marte. “We welcome a challenger to Chris Marte,” said Ryder Kessler, the co-founder of Abundance New York, a new pro-housing group that plans to release a slate of council endorsements next year. “As rents rise seven times faster than wages and New York suffers record homelessness and traffic fatalities, Marte fights for the status quo instead of the solutions Lower Manhattanites deserve.” Kessler stopped short of endorsing anyone in the 1st district, but offered complimentary comments on Coleman: “Jess is a son of the district who knows sky-high rents and unsafe streets are not tenable – we are impressed by his service to and vision for the community, and we will certainly consider backing him if he decides to get into the race,” he wrote in an email.

The pro-development group Open New York recently launched Abundant New York – a separate effort – as an independent expenditure committee for pro-housing and pro-tenant candidates in state and city elections, including 2025. Open New York is also not yet at the point of making endorsements or committing to districts where they’ll get involved. “Where there are anti-housing incumbents and potentially viable candidates, we are paying attention,” political director Logan Phares said.