Layla Law-Gisiko Vows to Campaign on Against NYCHA Demolition
The community activist placed third in a City Council special election on April 28, and believes that an upcoming June rerun of the race will be a “referendum” on the proposed demolition of the Fulton & Elliott-Chelsea Houses.
| 08 May 2026 | 07:08
Layla Law-Gisiko held a May 6 rally touting her support from local public housing residents in an April 28 City Council special election, which she placed third in. (
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Law-Gisiko has garnered continued support from congressional candidate Jack Schlossberg on the issue; he made an appearance at the May 6 rally. (
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Lindsey Boylan (above) pictured after the mayor’s race last November. She finished second behind Carl Wilson in the recent special election for City Council on April 28, but says she will not run again in the upcoming Democratic primary. (
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Community activist Layla Law-Gisiko starred in a spirited rally organized around saving the Fulton & Elliott-Chelsea Houses from demolition Wednesday, May 6, a little over a week after she placed third in a City Council special election.
Law-Gisiko made opposing the demolition of public housing a central plank of her platform in the race, which filled a seat vacated by Erik Bottcher after his election to State Senate.
Lindsey Boylan, who finished second in the race behind Carl Wilson, has since announced that she is not running in an upcoming Democratic primary re-run of the race on June 23.
“Here is the lesson of this election,” Law-Gisiko said, indicating that she appears ready to give things another shot in the primary.
“When tenants are not patronized, ignored, managed, or processed through the official machinery of predetermined consent, they organize,” she continued. “The result we delivered here is replicable, and we intend to replicate it.”
Law-Gisiko pointed to data indicating that 83 percent of Elliot-Chelsea Houses voters cast ballots for her in the special election, as did 66 percent of Fulton Houses voters.
She later called the ongoing Council race “referendum” on whether a project opposed by many NYCHA tenants—and favored by NYCHA officials and City Hall—will move forward.
Law-Gisiko pointed out that there are only a few situations in which a candidate could be removed from the June 23 ballot (all candidates in the special election, in which candidates ran without party affiliation, have already filed to run in the primary).
Two of these scenarios, Law-Gisiko noted, were death or indictment. She said she didn’t plan on either occurring to her.
NYCHA is partnering with the private developers Related Co. and Essence to pursue the replacement of 19 public housing towers with a new mixed-use complex, which would necessarily entail the displacement of current residents; they’ve reportedly been promised a one-to-one apartment unit in any new development, after it is finished being built.
More than a few residents, however, have pointedly said that they want to remain in their homes. A lawsuit filed in support of these tenant organizers has since paused any demolition process until at least May, with former State Senator Tom Duane serving as a plaintiff.
During his time at the mic, Duane called Law-Gisiko “a friend of the people who live in public housing,” adding that “she is not giving up the battle.”
Boylan, an urban planning specialist and Democratic Socialists of America member who was endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, ran behind Carl Wilson and ahead of Law-Gisiko.
After second choice tallies were added, she ended up with 40 percent of the vote in the April 28 City Council race while Wilson garnered 60 percent. A fourth candidate, Community Board 4 Chair Lindsay Boghosian-Murphy, garnered roughly 10 percent of the vote.
On Friday, May 8, Boylan issued a statement clarifying that she was dropping out: “The race was well fought by all candidates and I am proud to say our race stayed focused on issues that I know as a decades long Chelsea resident matter most to this district.”
“I have been speaking truth to power and fighting against those that prioritize special interests over the people my entire life,” she added. A urban planning expert and former staffer of then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, Boylan became the first woman to allege that Cuomo had sexually harassed her, leading to his eventual resignation.
It appeared that rally-goers such as former New York State Senator Tom Duane—who called himself a fan of Bernie Sanders-style socialism (which Mamdani and Boylan also profess adherence to)— were mystified by Mamdani’s support for the NYCHA overhaul, rather than throwing weight behind Law-Gisiko’s position.
“NYCHA is actually one of the great socialist experiments that we have,” he said, to whoops of support from the audience. “It is just beyond me why Mayor Mamdani would support this [plan to demolish and rebuild] It’s also a giveaway to Related.”
Jack Schlossberg, who is running to replace retiring U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler in Congress, made a quick appearance at the end of the rally to express his support for Law-Gisiko and the rallying NYCHA residents.
Schlossberg told Law-Gisiko that she “ran an amazing campaign,” before noting that he had heard from “people around this city” who are siding with NYCHA residents opposed to the demolition plans.
“It’s not just some foregone conclusion where everyone disagrees with the position that we take, anti-demolition,” Schlossberg said.