The West Side tells the story of New York. In these city blocks, you'll find rent-stabilized tenants, NYCHA residents fighting for repairs, union retirees who built the middle-class co-ops that still anchor this community, and looming above it all, luxury towers built for billionaires. It is a microcosm of New York’s inequality—but it can also be where we draw the line.

I’m Danny Valdes, a father raising my son along with my partner in Penn South, a union-built co-op that has long been a beacon of affordability in Manhattan’s Garment District. Having access to safe, stable, and affordable housing gave my family the chance to put down roots, build community, and thrive here. Penn South is one of the last survivors of a proud social housing tradition that once created more than 100,000 affordable homes for working-class New Yorkers. Decades of sell-offs and privatization have cut that number nearly in half. Today, affordable housing requires luck or years on a waitlist. It doesn’t have to be this way.

As an organizer and proud member of DSA, I’ve worked alongside Zohran Mamdani and our other DSA socialists in office to win real victories for working people. Those fights showed me that when tenants, workers, families, and neighbors come together, we can take on big money, developers, and the forces driving displacement—and win. Now I’m running for City Council District 3 to bring that same energy, organizing, and commitment to the City Council, and to fight for an affordability agenda that ensures working-class New Yorkers can stay, raise families, and grow old in the neighborhoods they helped build.

This campaign is about defending and expanding social housing, strengthening public services, and building power with tenants, workers, and families so that government serves communities—not billionaires. It’s about uplifting the queer community, protecting immigrants, and ensuring public safety through investments in care, social services, and proven solutions that address root causes. District 3 deserves an organizer in office who will be more than just a ‘yes’ vote, and I’m ready to be that councilmember.