Jocsan Rojas, sixteen, had traveled to Astoria from Staten Island with his mom, and the two were waiting excitedly to speak to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. A junior at New York’s Harbor School, located on Governors Island, Rojas had written an extensive research paper on the proposed closure of New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail and wanted to share his insights with Mamdani and his policy team. Rojas argued for remaking Rikers as a school, much like the school he attends, only a rehabilitative one for the incarcerated.
Indeed, he said, the island itself should be rehabilitated to be more like Governors Island, with bike lanes and pedestrian walkways. “Rikers Island is something you don’t want to think about,” he said. “Make it into a place people want to go, maybe a tourist attraction. Get rid of the stigma.”
Rojas told me what he had learned about the island in the course of his project — during the Civil War, it was a training facility for Union soldiers — and mused about punishment, noting that a prisoner had died there just last week. “They put [prisoners] in a dark room with no furniture for days,” he emphasized, explaining why it was important to end the isolation of the island and its inmates. “How do you expect these people to rehabilitate into society?”
Also waiting to speak with Mamdani was Tom Geiser, thirty-three — almost the same age as the mayor-elect, who turned thirty-four in October — who lives in Astoria, just a few blocks away. He wanted to talk about bike lanes and pedestrian safety in the area and reigniting faith in government by doing things more efficiently.
“Government can be so much, right?” he said. “It’s the thing we do together and that’s beautiful. But it’s hard to make the case when things take so long.”
Rojas and Geiser were there to participate in an all-day event called “The Mayor is Listening.” For twelve hours on Sunday — 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — mayor-elect Mamdani and his top…
Auteur: Liza Featherstone
