Erik Bottcher 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 New York City Council District 3, which includes the neighborhoods of the West Village, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Times Square, Hudson Square, Flatiron, and the Garment District. He sees his mission as simple yet vital: making New York City a better place to live.
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 Liaison 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.
From 2015 to 2021, Erik served as Chief of Staff to his predecessor, Council Member Corey Johnson. In this role he gained an encyclopedic knowledge of every block of Council District 3 while providing constituent services to tens of thousands of residents and working alongside tenant associations, block associations, community boards, PTAs, parks groups and others to make our community a better place to live.
Erik has established a citywide reputation as one of the most active and effective members of the New York City Council, leading on critical issues such as the crises of mental health, housing, sanitation, sustainability, and more. He is working to reverse decades of failed policies and disinvestment in mental healthcare, authoring and passing landmark legislation that requires family homeless shelters to provide on-site mental health services, requiring the Department of Education to provide suicide prevention resources to students, fighting for adequate inpatient psychiatric treatment capacity, and more.
Recognizing the importance of clean and healthy neighborhoods, Erik has been at the forefront of sanitation improvement efforts in the city, leading the way on reforms such as the containerization of garbage, reduced usage of single-use plastics, increased corner basket service, and other initiatives to enhance the city’s cleanliness.
Few elected officials have been more vocal than Erik about the affordable housing crisis that poses an existential threat to New York City. With the lowest rental apartment vacancy rate since 1968 and the highest levels of homelessness since the Great Depression, Erik believes that an abundance of housing is needed to bring down housing costs. He has worked with his local community boards to create a pipeline of thousands of affordable housing units in Council District 3.
Environmental sustainability is also a key priority for Erik. He has funded the planting of hundreds of new street trees in Council District 3. His legislation creating the Urban Forest Master Plan aims to increase the tree canopy coverage to 30% by 2030. He has championed universal curbside composting, reduced renovated parks and playgrounds, [remove space here]waged war against single-use plastics, and promoted cycling as a form of transportation by creating new protected bike lanes on Tenth Avenue and Lower Sixth Avenue.
Erik is Co-Chair of the Council’s Manhattan Delegation and the LGBTQIA+ Caucus. He serves on the following City Council committees: Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addition; Public Housing; Small Business; Technology; Economic Development; Civil Service and Labor; Contracts; Higher Education; and Immigration.