Since the Members of the City Council overwhelmingly chose her as Speaker in January 2006, Speaker Quinn has made reform a top priority. From limiting lobbyists' influence in City Hall to putting forth landmark campaign finance reform legislation to increasing transparency in government, she has made significant strides in improving the way the City does business.

More about the Speaker and the role of the Council.

In her three years as Speaker, she has had numerous accomplishments including achieving laws and policies in such areas as public safety, environmental protection, early childhood education, hunger and nutrition and affordable housing.

To email Speaker Quinn , please click on the tab to the left "Contact Speaker Quinn".

For assistance in the District , please email or contact the District office, at left.

For assistance with legislative items, or in response to citywide issues, please email or contact her Legislative Office, at left.

Members of the press may contact the press office at 212-788-7116 or visit the Press Room to see the latest releases and statements.

Current Term Expires: 12/31/2009

Neighborhoods in District: West Village, SoHo, NoHo, Flatiron, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton, Murray Hill (portions)

Committees: Rules, Privileges and Elections

State of the City February 12, 2009
Themes: Job Growth, Small Businesses, Innovative Revenue Sources, Tax Reform, Reducing Unnecessary City Spending, Public Safety, Tenants and Housing

2006 Budget Response April 6, 2006
Themes: Budget process reform, Education / Universal pre-kindergarten classes, Hunger and nutrition, Public safety / District Attorneys, Economic development and small business tax relief

Crain's New York Keynote Address April 18, 2006
Themes: Good government, Budget process reform, Lobby reform, CouncilStat / Constituent problem tracking

Chamber of Commerce Keynote Address July 20, 2006

Food Bank Keynote Address September 5, 2006
Themes: Hunger and nutrition, School lunch program, Food stamps, Greenmarkets, Food assistance programs and Senior nutrition

Empire State Pride Agenda Keynote Address October 5, 2006
Themes: Marraige equality, LGBT rights

Human Rights Campaign Keynote Address October 7, 2006
Themes: Marraige equality, LGBT rights

State of the City Address February 5, 2007
Themes: Housing and education reforms, health care, more livable city for the middle class

Empire State Pride Agenda, Rochester, NY May 19, 2007
Themes: Civil Rights, LGBT rights, marraige equality

For more information on the Speaker's speeches and major addresses, please contact the City Council Press Office at 212-788-7116.

Christine Callaghan Quinn is the first woman, openly gay, and Irish Speaker of the New York City Council. In 2008, the Irish Echo  named Speaker Quinn the Irish American of the Year. As Speaker and Council Member representing Manhattan's West Side, she has brought a new perspective to the diverse challenges facing each of New York City's distinct communities. Speaker Quinn has set a proactive agenda for the Council as an initiator of legislative and policy initiatives that improve people's lives. In short, she is working to make government more accessible to New Yorkers in all five boroughs.

In her three years as Speaker, she has had numerous accomplishments including passing laws and initiating policies in a wide range of areas such as public safety, environmental protection, early childhood education, hunger and nutrition and affordable housing.

Her accomplishments and ongoing efforts include:

• Protecting the lives of New York City's police officers by successfully campaigning for nearly 18,000 new State-of-the-Art bulletproof vests for all our men and women in blue.

• Restoring 6 days a week library service allowing seniors, students and working families to access literacy programs, tutoring and job training, and enabling the City to return to the service levels that were in place before the economic downturn caused by September 11.

• Creating new affordable housing units through updated 421-A legislation, which grants tax relief to developers who include at least 20% affordable housing units in or around their residential developments.

• Taking a stand to ease traffic congestion, improve environmental quality, and fund mass transit through passage of a traffic congestion pricing plan in the City Council. More than half of the votes cast in support of the plan came from Council members representing neighborhoods outside of Manhattan.

• Leading Council efforts to strengthen nightclub safety by creating a package of laws that requires more rigorous identification checks for nightclub entry, security cameras at club entrances, and nightclub staff training. Problem clubs are also required to hire independent monitors at their own expense.

• Embracing New York City's under-utilized and viable waterways with a bold and visionary plan for a five-borough ferry network. With plans for new ferry landings at sites in all five boroughs, service from Far Rockaway began in May 2008, followed shortly by service from South Williamsburg and Long Island City. Ferry service will help take pressure off of already-overcrowded subway lines and offer a sustainable, efficient commute to New Yorkers in all five boroughs.

• Passing landmark legislation requiring large city businesses to offer receptacles for the recycling of plastic bags.

• Making our homes safer through pushing for an overhaul of the City's building code and proposing and passing the Safer Housing Act, a law that forces landlords of the City's worst buildings to make needed structural repairs.

• Working with Council Members and the Bloomberg Administration on the Solid Waste Management Plan, a first-ever garbage solution for New York City, which will ensure that low income communities don't bear the brunt of the City's garbage transportation and disposal slots in her first year in office.

• Making sure low income New Yorkers have better access to food stamps and have access to healthier options through Food Today, Healthy Tomorrow, a nutrition and anti-hunger campaign.

• Protecting summer jobs by securing annually recurring funding. This enables employment programs to plan for summer hiring and young people to plan for summer jobs. Also securing annual funding for parks, family day care, trash pick up, libraries and the Citizens Complaint Review Board, preventing them from routinely being targeted for cuts in each year's budget.

• Passing laws to control the spread of illegal firearms. These laws include the Gun Offender Registration Act for individuals convicted of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, a one handgun every-three-month purchase limit, an Inventory law, which requires city gun dealers to physically examine their inventories twice a year; and a ban on gun coloration kits used to disguise real guns in toy-like colors.

Since 1999, Speaker Quinn has served as the representative for the 3rd Council District of Manhattan. She has been a long time pioneer for equal rights, comprehensive health care, improved schools, tenants' rights and affordable housing. Prior to becoming Speaker, she was Chair of the Council's Health Committee and worked vigilantly to pass the ban on smoking in all workplaces, expand access to emergency contraception for rape survivors and other women in need, increase the availability of mammograms citywide, preserve school nurses, and secure millions of dollars for HIV prevention services.

Before being elected to the City Council, Speaker Quinn served for five years as Chief of Staff to Council Member Thomas K. Duane. She then worked as Executive Director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. During her time with the Anti-Violence Project, Mayor Giuliani appointed her to be a member of the New York City Police/Community Relations Task Force.

The Irish Echo named Speaker Quinn the 2008 Irish American of the Year, underscoring her “consistent ability to deal with issues, many of them complex and not given to easy resolution, while at the same time maintaining a pace of work that would leave many breathless.” The oldest and largest Irish-American newspaper called Quinn a “a strong advocate for a truth commission in Northern Ireland and has been a consistent supporter of the MacBride Principles on fair employment, guidelines that require U.S. companies doing business in Northern Ireland to promote equal religious and community representation. Since her election as New York City Council speaker, Quinn has worked to increase the involvement of the New York Irish community in the Northern Ireland peace process.”

The New York Post has twice rated her one of the fifty most powerful women  in New York City, and New York Magazine has named her one of the most influential New Yorkers.

She and her partner, Kim Catullo, live in Chelsea.

Speaker Quinn has worked very closely with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to help create and maintain many different programs that help create affordable housing. Check out the links below for more information. If you can not find what you are looking for on this site, visit the HPD web site.

Affordable Rental and Home Ownership Units  

Affordable Homeownership Developments

Mitchell-Lama’s

Apartments Now Renting

Affordable Home Ownership

Future Developments

Public Housing

Senior Housing

Supportive Housing

Safety:

New York City Protective Services for Adults (PSA)
212.630.1853

Elderly Crime Victims Resource Center
212.442.3103

Safe Horizon
800.621.4673

Finances & Savings:

MTA Reduced Fare Line
718.243.4999

Senior Employment Services
212.442.1353

Legal Assistance Programs:

Legal Services of NY
212.431.7200

Legal Aid Society
212.577.3300

Enhanced School Tax Relief Program (STAR)
718.935.9500

Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
800-772-1213

Food Stamp Program
877.472.8411

Verizon Life Line
800.799.6874

Senior Citizens Homeowner Exemption (SCHE)
212.504.4080

Health:

Alzheimer’s and Long Term Care
212.442.3086

Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC)
800.332.3742

Home Life:

Meals on Wheels
212.442.1000

Management and Home Care Services
212.442.1000

Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE)
212.442.9366

Red Cross Temporary Housing
877.733.2767

Weatherization Referral and Packaging Program (WRAP)
212.442.3055

Captioned Media Program
(materials for the hearing impaired)
800.237.6213

Lighthouse International
(materials for the vision impaired)
800.334.5497

District 3 Schools

With over 30 schools throughout the district, there are plenty of programs local students can choose from as they go through their academic career. To find out more about the schools in District 3, you can download a list of schools (excel spreadsheet) or visit the Department of Education online.

Speaker Quinn's District Office handles all issues for constituents living in New York's 3rd Council District.

District Office Chief Of Staff
Kate Seely-Kirk

Community Liaison
Melvyn Mahon

Legislative Assistant, CB2
Noah Isaacs

Legislative Assistant, CB4
Melanie La Rocca

Legislative Assistant, CB5
Jose Conde

Community Board 2
3 Washington Sq Vlg Ste 1A
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212.979.2272
Fax: 212.254.5102
info@cb2manhattan.org

Community Board 4
330 West 42nd Street
26th Floor
New York, NY 10036
Phone: 212-736-4536
Fax: 212.947.9512
info@manhattancb4.org

Community Board 5
450 Seventh Avenue
Suite 2109
New York, NY 10123
Phone: 212.465.0907
Fax: 212.465.1628
office@cb5.org