The People’s Republic of Astoria

What does it mean to lose an election by 55 votes? Does it mean you tried and failed? That all your efforts were wasted? Or is it a testament to the work that you put in — a monument to your commitment? Tiffany Cabán was a 31-year-old public defender when she got five short text messages that would change her life. Her friend Alana had just heard that the 86-year-old Queens District Attorney wouldn't be seeking reelection. She thought her friend Tiffany would be perfect for the job. A week la...

Bay Ridge in 2018 looked like Astoria had twenty years earlier. Same working-class enclaves. Same immigrant families living entire lives within ten blocks. Same subway ride to Manhattan getting shorter as the rent got higher. But separated by twelve miles, two months, and other distances that were harder to measure. In November 2018, Jimmy Van Bramer gets a phone call that will define his career. Amazon has just chosen Long Island City for their new headquarters. A backroom deal with the mayo...

One door knock at a time, one phone call at a time, one volunteer shift at a time, Tim’s neighbors were building something. A grassroots movement. Mutual aid networks. A community. In just seven years, they'd reshape their neighborhood. They'd form nonprofits to give away free food, and create outdoor spaces that everyone can enjoy. They'd elect democratic socialists to nearly every local office, and then help build a movement large enough to put a 33-year-old organizer and State Assemb...

In 2018, ten strangers gathered in a park in Astoria, Queens. They’d set out to do the impossible: elect a young activist to the United States congress. They faced the longest of long odds: no experience, no money, and a ten-term incumbent still in office. But they got to work anyway — climbing hundreds of staircases, knocking thousands of doors. Somehow, they’d win that race, and prove that a new model of organizing was possible. Just seven years later, that same grassroots network, now 100,...